Last week, a right-wing Oklahoma lawmaker quietly filed a piece of legislation that could put a state question on the ballot asking Oklahoma voters to limit their own powers.
Dubbed Senate Joint Resolution 4, if voted into law it would “increase the vote required” to pass state questions/ballot initiatives “from a simple majority to a 60% vote.”
Basically, it would make it even more difficult for Oklahoma voters to overcome their own lawmaker’s incompetence, and achieve things like legalizing medical marijuana, releasing low-level drug offenders from prison, and accepting federal money to fund Medicaid.
The bill was filed by State Sen. John Haste – a resident of the anti-masker oasis of Broken Arrow. You can view the entire resolution below:
That’s good stuff. Maybe I’ve watched too many episodes of Sweet Home Oklahoma, but I always thought attempts by the right-wing to consolidate power into it’s tiny gerrymandered hands would be more clandestine. You know, backroom, midnight deals that go through unnoticed until it’s too late. Instead, they’re just straight-up asking us to vote to take away our powers! That seems pretty brazen, but based on the Oklahoma tradition of voting against your own self-interest, it’s probably not a bad plan.
Anyway, if all this sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
Last year, the Oklahoma House also tried to limit the ability of voters to circumvent their incompetent lawmakers. As opposed to increasing the number of votes a state question would require to pass, they instead focused on making it harder to get a State Question on the actual ballot. The legislation passed easily through the Oklahoma House, but stalled in the Senate. I’m just going to assume this new bill is the Senate’s well-crafted, well-polled response, and will probably coast through both chambers.
How about.. fuck you you American Taliban piece of shit…
+1
We need more participatory democracy in Oklahoma, not less. We had the lowest voter participation in the 50 states (plus DC) in the recent election. It shows in the quality of our state government.
I have no doubt that it offends and insults our legislators when uppity voters go over their heads to enact things like criminal justice reform, medical cannabis, and (especially) Medicaid expansion that still carries Obama’s cooties.
Are legislators there to represent the people… or to rule them? Pretty clear what the ones who support a proposal like this will think.
One Legislature, two chambers, and a blithering Governor to rule them all!!! Cuz we Oklahoma Legislature creatures don’t want “the People of Oklahoma and the Five Nations” to take away our “Precious Power”!!!!
Imagine that !
At least they aren’t trying to illegalize hoodies anymore.
Well hell, the dang Lege (with respect to Molly Ivins) has been dysfunctional for years. It took the people to legalize pot and expand Medicaid despite the efforts of Scott Pruitt and Mike Hunter. The governor is too stupid to wear a facemask. They’re all incapable of doing their jobs in the first place.
Now just make it harder for the people to do the job that our elected are incapable of doing.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It’s time to contact our legislators and tell them we will not take this anymore.
Hear, hear!!!!
Everything that conservatives do is about conserving their own power. That’s all they “conserve.”
This needs to get voted down like they vote down a raise for schoolteachers.
On a positive note, this Bill only proposes a State Question where the voters will decide if it passes or fails. Other positive is when citizens propose State Questions they have a higher passage rates, namely Medicinal Marijuana and extending Medicaid. When the Legislators propose State Questions the often fail probably because the public just doesn’t trust anything these people propose.
However this is Oklahoma where voters don’t tend to think clearly when they vote. The elected also sometimes trick the voters by wording the question in such a way where you have to vote Yes to defeat the issue.
They do get a bit miffed when the public brings up legislation that they couldn’t or don’t want to pass, and then do an end run around them. Just a guess but the author of it is either on his last term because of term limits, or is new and is being played as a useful idiot by the leadership who want to propose this but are afraid.
They have tried these stunts before, sometime successfully, sometimes not, and they will of course continue to serve their most important constituents, themselves and total control and power.
More state questions, and possibly the Legislature meeting every other year like some other states might be help. Cutting those elected salary in half could also be a good plan also as that could help the budget. Some states even have the audacity to tie their pay to that of a first year teacher. Teachers salaries would improve, and the elected might have to learn how to budget and how difficult it is to live on that kind of salary. The state has a good state employee retirement system probably because it is also the one the elected elite also have.
But that would probably also involve campaign finance reform forbidding large contributions among other things. That passing would be about as likely as the election of competent officials in Oklahoma. Also about as likely as a truly successful businessman running for the Governor of Oklahoma and making making the state in the “top 10” in any positive category.
Medicaid expansion won by a thread. Although you’re right about medical cannabis.
Beware any politician who wants to make it harder for people to make political decisions.