ONE MAN’S VIEW: It’s time to ‘cut the head off the snake,’ says informal voice of the Republican Party

Democracy in Action – Republican style

The snake: the current citizen’s process of changing a bad law passed by the legislature.

The head: your right to petition the government for change.

That’s the new mantra of the Republican Party trying to once again go against the will of the voters of Missouri – that’s us, the working people.

By a 62 percent margin, we voted to clean up Missouri politics last November with Amendment 1, the Clean Missouri issue that amends the Missouri Constitution. It forces former legislators to wait longer before cashing in on their public service to become lobbyists; opens up the records of the legislature; modestly restricts campaign fundraising; limits lobbyist gifts and creates a fair process for redrawing legislative districts during reapportionment.

The issue was put on the ballot via the citizens’ right to petition their government – the initiative petition process.

KILL YOUR RIGHT TO BE HEARD
And now, because they are threatened by the audacity of the voters to challenge their decisions, the Republicans want to change the initiative petition process itself.

They want to make it more difficult for our voices be heard when we feel the legislature has abused working people with bad laws, which appears to be the modus operandi for this Republican legislature (i.e. phony ‘right-to-work, paycheck ‘deception’, minimum wage, prevailing wages, etc.).

One Republican proposal being offered for filing an initiative petition: $500 filing fee, a 40-cent-per-signature fee and an additional $25 charge per page if submissions exceed 10 pages. BIG $$$ for a citizen-led effort!

‘THE SNAKE:’ YOUR VOICE
Here’s what the Missouri Times,’ the insider voice of the Republican Party, reported in its July 26 blog post:

“When the Republicans decided to go all in on the abortion law and leave an anti-Clean Missouri ballot question for next year, they also chose abortion over initiative petition reform.

“Now, some in the party are making waves that the people who primarily fund the (Republican) party are pushing to move an anti-Clean Missouri ballot measure behind initiative petition reform in the priority list to ‘cut the head off the snake.’”

In other words, let’s eliminate citizens from introducing any counter measure to stop a bad law by making it impossible for them to even begin the process!

Democracy in Action: Republican style.

We always have to remember, Elections have consequences!