Thirty-one years ago in November an overwhelming 70% of voters approved a ballot initiative process for Mississippi. Two years ago the Mississippi Supreme Court threw out the process over a wording snafu. Despite state leaders’ calls for the process to be reinstated, that has not happened. So, another November general election will pass with citizens denied their right to alter their constitution.
Soon after the court decision, Gov. Tate Reeves, Speaker Philip Gunn, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the initiative should be reinstated. “Getting it fixed sooner rather than later is where we as the legislature should be,” said Gunn in May 2021.
Two years later Lt. Gov Hosemann said, “I was for the ballot initiative and I didn’t get it,” when he and Gunn could not agree on the details of a revised initiative process in the 2023 legislative session.
Hmmm.
In 2021 the thought was to fix the language and reinstate the process. By 2023, leaders’ thoughts had shifted significantly.
My take is that the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Speaker got scared of the initiative process, particularly the latter two. Enjoying immense power over legislation and public policy, they feared citizen initiatives would diminish that power.
The constitution gives citizens “the inherent, sole, and exclusive right … to alter and abolish their constitution and form of government whenever they deem it necessary to their safety and happiness.” The Legislature is supposed to provide the method.
The ballot initiative process approved in 1992 was a very conservative method. The Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University published an initiative handbook in 1995 that said the state’s process was “one of the most difficult processes for amending a state constitution through citizen initiative found anywhere in the country.”
Apparently, such a cumbersome process could not allay state leaders’ fears. Thus, the skullduggery that crafted the dramatic changes proposed in the revised process.
At one point, pundits believed reinstituting the ballot initiative process would be a hot issue in this year’s elections. Not so much. Yet, polls continue to show a large majority of Mississippians favor having an initiative process to amend their constitution.
“It is far better not to say you’ll do something than to say you will and then not do it” – Ecclesiastes 5:5.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
27 comments:
They got scared to death after 73% of Ultra-Conservative Mississippi voted for medical marijuana. The good ol' boy system still works and Mayor Mary bailed them out of the ballot initiative process and until the opponents are voted out, the people will have no voice, and continue to be the sheep our leaders want them to be.
I can stop reading any time Crawford writes “Hmmm,” which is common. It’s a signpost that warns “Beware, bullshit conclusion ahead.”
They simply can't. That is why. Our State and Federal leaders toy with our lives in too many evil ways.
I perfect example is with the military. Why do 22 American veterans commit suicide each day? and why doesn't anyone ever ask them why? Well, every Vet and their loved one knows why. Every Vet will tell you why. But we aren't allowed to talk about why.
It was George H.W. Bush who once once said "If the American People ever find out what we have done, they will chase us down the street and lynch us."
And of course now the MSM has scrubbed this quote and "debunked" it because the Bush's are now conveniently on the good side of history.
You can't have ballot initiatives because you will demand to have things and to know things that they don't want you to know. YOu don't need to know why you are taxed to pay for illegal alien children's bags of Bimbo fudge rounds. Or why Afghanistan and Iran have nicer schools for their children than we have. Of course, Ukraine will have the same thing soon.
Keep peddling that flalsehood. I65 got 58% of the vote.
Mississippi would turn into California quickly if we allow initiatives to be passed by our voters. People would vote for any pie in the sky initiative never knowing where cost come from or who will pay.
Kingfish has learned how to monkey with the numbers. He knows as well as you and I know that 58% of voters favored medical MJ and 73% of that number voted for I65.
KF, surely you aren't ignoring how the ballot ending up being worded. thanks to the legislature, rather than how it was proposed?
And, even the result you quote caused the legislature to make any initiative so expensive and time consuming as to be impossible.
And, sadly, the fact is our Constitution and our legislature is designed to favor, originally the Delta Planters and now rural communities. It caters to some religions (if you've ever worked on a campaign or read about the Chotaw casinos) you know the evangelicals and fundamentalists have tremendous influence on this legislature as they saw the role of churches politically in Civil Rights for manpower and churches weren't forming businesses on the side and so wealthy as mega churches are becoming as a result
. Nor are we considered corporate friendly to many large industries particularly international ones. Even some of our most successful citizens look elsewhere to expand, compete for contracts or hire. Some don't live here at all or only part of the year. I don't blame them actually. It's a good business decision as they need to attract the best employees. I don't know how well our schools ( high schools and colleges) follow their graduates but I know more than a few among my peer's and who were in my children's classes started nationally and internationally successful businesses elsewhere and excelled in the arts in ways that could have worked here. But, we don't really even tout or seek their advice.
61% of the electorate voted for either Initiative 65 or Initiative 65A. Initiative 65 received 57% in the election between the two initiatives. Check the Secretary of State's certified election results.
Keep up the misinformation.
Always amused when Crawford and the Barksdalers opine about the same topic in the same or adjoining weeks. If they could find a way to tie a rope around Reeves' neck for the initiative process they would have done that also.
The trojan horse that is medical maryjane is misinformation.
@12:26, the objective of I65 was never about medicinal alternatives. Students on our college campuses were told by the Fundor's signature gatherers that they needed to pass medical marijuana first in order to eventually achieve outright legalization. The grow, process, distribute infrastructure that has been set up in the state is exponential overkill for the comparatively few souls who have sought the wonderdrug's magical medical relief. These big financial bets were never placed with only the medical market in mind.
@1:11 PM
I've been watching medical-industry controlled and regulated "pain management" destroy my elderly mother. I am not even talking about addiction at this point. Simply observing the side affects. I wont try to defend MM, but I will say the pharmaceuticals that are currently legal and prescribed aren't doing anyone any favors. I honestly don't see how MM can be any worse. I also don't see how recreational cannabis could be worse than the epidemic of drunkards in this state.
Maryjane isn't the harmless drug many think it is. The paranoia is real.
https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2023/05/young-men-at-highest-risk-schizophrenia-linked-with-cannabis-use-disorder?
https://humanevents.com/2023/05/04/marijuana-may-cause-of-30-percent-of-schizophrenia-cases-in-men-study?
KF - As to your last post, that's pretty much what was posted at 11:33 by 'Toker'. The only difference is a slight (insignificant) variation in the numbers.
If anybody is pushing a false narrative, it would be you. Either you don't understand what was on the ballot and how the votes convert to percentages or you're playing footloose with your interpretation.
But the larger point here is that the legislative body as a whole, the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor do not trust the people with the initiative and referendum process.
It's also a fact that without this process and hard work by a lot of conservatives, we would not have Voter ID. Of course Delbert takes credit but he had not one damned thing to do with it.
Interesting theory, there, Prospero, I mean Prospera. By chance is it backed up by factual evidence or entirely speculative?
Just get us an initiative to oust a little tyrant from his perch in Jackson.
Vote all y’all want, but some fed judge will overturn it anyway.
Sure you can vote for or against something but your vote doesn't count anyway. Those who make the decisions do not care if you vote or who you vote for. They will throw your vote in the trash can and do whatever they want to do as they know so much more what is good for you.
@12:15 - could you help a poor boy out here? Please tell me what point you were trying to make in your diatribe. Including the "indian casinos", delta, rural, christians, churches, whatever ..... I got lost trying to understand. At first it seemed that you were disagreeing with KF's numbers (which, by the way, were correct, despite the tokers wanting to spouot their 73% bullshit) but then you took a fork in the road (something that Yogi Berra always said to take when you got there, but I digress) and went down the rabbit path on some other issues.
Maybe you were just trying to emulate Crawford's writing style of mixing issues together to try to lead to an illogical conclusion
Isn't the acronym MJ? MM is a candy. MJ users combine drugs and alcohol, not so much substitute one for the other. Wealthy recreational users often have MJ, Coke and alcohol alternatively at one event.
@7:30, if I’m not mistaken, MJ is marijuana; MM is medical marijuana.
Some of y’all appear to think that it’s your business whether someone else uses marijuana, either medicinally or recreationally, all while pretending you’re in favor of small government.
Fascinating…
agreed I am lighting up illegal or not, I am 66, been smoking for 50 years, come get me!
What/who is a Barksdale?
Mayor Mary Hawkin-Butler lawsuit did away with the initiative process, she should be lobbying for lawmakers to reinstate it.
I don't care if you sniff glue but stay away from kids and guns.
Technically, now, it's neither MM nor MJ. Those who have applied for and received the card will note that it entitles one to purchase MC, Medical Cannabis.
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