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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-01-10

Around the Horn

The Denver dailies were loaded up with stories about the new legislative session opening up this week, so here's a quick run-down of two themes.

--PEOPLE BAD

Both the Rocky on Saturday and the Post on Sunday contain stories about how the initiative process has taken the power away from the legislators. And how that's a bad thing.

Colorado has become one of the most activist states in the country in using citizen-sponsored initiatives to create laws, complicating the work of lawmakers who convene in Denver this week.

While state legislators across the country wield great power over the lives of the citizens they represent, Colorado's leaders must sometimes yield to the citizens' ability to write laws and constitutional amendments.

"In the next decade - if it continues down this path - they (state legislators) are going to be totally insignificant," (from the Post).

Sure, we live in a representative democracy, and the control over legislation is supposed to be through our elected representatives; there's just something a little troubling about the implication that the people are bad.

--TERM LIMITS BAD

Saturday's Rocky also had this story blaming the current partisan bickering on term limits, as passed by the voters. I especially appreciate this observation by former Dem Representative Jerry Kopel:

Former lawmaker Jerry Kopel remembers the last time Democrats were in charge, in the 1961 and 1962 sessions.

"Everything was moderate," Kopel said. "There wasn't any extremism like you had when the Klan controlled the House in the late 1920s or like today."

I'm not sure, but. . .I think the current Colo Legislature just drew a parallel to the Klan. And, I'm pretty sure I know which side he thinks is responsible. . .
Posted by: Michael / 1/10/2005 01:02:00 AM

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