Thursday, May 15, 2008

Former state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka on a state constitutional convention

Written in the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark via The Capitol Fax:

I am distraught over state politics, which is why I am encouraging all of you to vote to create a constitutional convention come this November.

The law says that every 20 years we, the overwrought electorate, gets a shot at a referendum requesting a constitutional convention to convene.

In the past, it has been voted down because just about every entrenched interest does not want it to happen due to the little sacred cows each has hidden away or approved by the constitutional currently in play. After all, those sacred cows might go to slaughter if the public got into the constitutional convention mode.

Yes, it will be expensive, and, no, it won't come quickly or easily. The last time we had such a constitutional convention was in 1976. After that, opposition always managed to vote it down: Democrats and Republicans, management and labor, special interests all.

And so, we have no right of referendum or recall, we cannot really make too many improvements or changes in education or pension funding and a host of other things which need reevaluation.

Some pretty important and clout-heavy people will oppose it, but the power of the people can prevail if everyone goes to the polls and advocates for the constitutional convention.

It can be argued that all of the extremists and zealots will be energized by the thought that they can get their issues into constitutional form. But, like all things, it will take voting majorities to make such things law, and the better the delegates to the constitutional convention, the better the final result will be.

As Thomas Jefferson once said, to paraphrase, we all need a little revolution from time to time. It is time. One cannot help but be frustrated by the paralysis in the state legislature, where personal egos trump the public good and nothing gets done.

Go over there and read the rest.

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