|
A
Gallup poll released in late June found that only
14 percent of those surveyed had either “a great
deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in
Congress -- the lowest confidence level in the
survey’s history. And even lower than HMOs –
now that’s got to hurt!
While
I personally think it’s useful and necessary to
have a healthy distrust for the federal (and state
and local) government, this number sent more than
a few pundits scurrying for the nearest mic to
tell us why things are so bad and will probably
only get worse.
They
have a lot of material to work with. For starters,
conservatives are hopping mad over the immigration
bill which is no more than a sugar-coated amnesty.
Some even go so far as to say Republican who back
the bill are no better than traitors to the
country.
On
the other side of the aisle, progressives are
disillusioned and upset that the newly minted
Democratic majority has failed to do anything
about ending the Iraq war.
In
the meantime, Congress has continued to indulge in
an orgy of earmarks (32,000 of them were crammed
into one appropriations bill) despite solemn
promises that such behavior would no longer be
tolerated.
Draw
all these threads together and you get a pretty
good idea of why folks just aren’t too happy
with the political class these days. But that
doesn’t mean the Republic is about to fall. Far
from it. These numbers are just a snapshot in
time. And looking back at Gallup’s own
comparisons from a year earlier – when the
GOP-controlled Congress was dreaming of bridges to
nowhere, the approval rating was just 19 percent.
Higher than HMOs, but lower than the press -- that
really had to hurt.
What
we might be seeing is that, similar to public
attitudes in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
people are just tired of politicians.
The
time this attitude prevailed, there was a popular
backlash. It took several forms, both in what were
then-record numbers of incumbent defeats in the
1992 elections (which were dwarfed by the 1994
returns) and, more ominously for the political
class, the rise of the term limits movement.
There
is little chance that term limits (a cause in
which this author labored for some years) will
rise again. Short of a congressionally approved
constitutional amendment limiting terms, the
matter is dead at the federal level. As for
throwing the bums out, some of that did happen in
the 2006 elections, most notably, for Virginians,
in the person of George Allen.
But
even with these seemingly cathartic purges of
congressional deadwood, the public doesn’t seem
at all pleased with the results. Could this mean
that the 2008 contests will feature even more
widespread incumbent losses? Barring a miracle,
that’s not very likely, either. In spite of the
anger directed at some incumbents over the war or
immigration, anger is a famously difficult emotion
to sustain over 18 months. And the bad feelings
out there today may very well be forgotten by
fall.
However,
I suggest that if people want to look for another
way to register their displeasure with the
political class – whether it’s in Washington,
D.C. or in Richmond – it would be to rally
behind the one idea that really irritates them:
Initiative and referendum.
Given
my previous Bacon’s Rebellion column
about irrational voters ("It's
All Our Fault!) that this may seem to be a
highly dangerous idea. And, given the level of
uninformed antipathy the Virginia press showed to
then-gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore’s
idea of limited referenda, I expect the media
would hoot down anything similar coming from mere
voters.
But
consider this:
The
transportation bill passed during the last session
allowed for the creation of regional taxing
authorities to support local transportation needs.
In the abstract, I don’t have any problem with
this. But the authorities are essentially
insulated from direct voter oversight. Their
members are not elected. Their taxing decision and
lists of projects are not subject to popular
approval. In reality, the legislature has created
a system of regional government that is nearly as
far from republican principles as possible.
If
this system is to continue, and perhaps serve as a
model for other, future taxing authorities, would
it not also make sense to impose a direct, popular
check on their powers? Initiatives and referenda
could do that.
Don’t
like the fact that local gas taxes have been
doubled? Put the matter to referenda and find out
if your fellow taxpayers agree.
Don’t
approve of the idea to build multi-million dollar
bike lanes? Put it to a referendum and stop it.
Similarly,
what if voters decide they really do like the
regional taxing authorities, but the legislature
won’t create any more for, say, Central
Virginia? Run an initiative campaign to create
your own (more accountable) authority.
In
other words, there are ways to work around the
existing system and create changes or implement
policies that the public feels are being ignored.
Initiatives and referenda are not fool-proof. Nor
are they cure-alls. But they can help move
policies forward that the political class
ignores.
Can
state and local-level measures affect matters at
the national level? They did – for a brief time
– on term limits. And they can and still do on
matters ranging from pre-school education to
campaign finance to abortion.
A
big impediment to having this workaround in more
states is, of course, the requirement to pass
constitutional amendments to create them. Which
means they first have to be approved by
politicians, who dislike them intensely.
Virginians
are familiar with legislatively approved referenda
for bond issues and constitutional changes. The
process has worked as it should – orderly,
respectable, and predictable. Could the same thing
be said of full-fledged initiative campaigns?
Probably not.
But
initiatives and referenda would add a meaningful
and powerful weapon to the voters’ arsenal for
keeping their representatives honest and for
ensuring that the policies closet to their hearts,
minds and wallets are addressed.
--
July 2, 2007
|
