Today is Election Day, and I don’t have the inclination to sort through all the arguments for and against the propositions and measures that fill up the 192-pages-in-small-type California election guide. Fortunately I have a bias that enables me to save time.
I am a conservative--no, not a movement conservative who wants to ban abortions, mandate the teaching of intelligent design, and abolish the estate tax--but a dispositional conservative who requires a (very) strong argument to be persuaded that new laws are necessary. We have way too many confusing and conflicting rules and regulations already.
Our system of checks and balances is slow as molasses, but the stability that it provides is needed more and more in a world of accelerating change. Voter initiatives are valuable to blast through politicians’ fortress walls, but they should be used very sparingly. Initiatives bypass the legislative process and often conflict with other laws. The courts are called in, and we have more frustration, delays, and recriminations.
So I turn a jaundiced eye to these proposals, many of which have fine-sounding names. I will vote “no” on most if not all of them. Besides, do you think there’s not enough change in the world that we have to vote for more? © 2006 Stephen Yuen
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