Grassroots democracy, ballot initiatives and big money politics. In 1774, when Thomas Jefferson proposed that citizens should vote to approve their state constitution, he probably hadn’t imagined paid signature gatherers and cross-country campaigns funded by the rich and the famous. What started as a mechanism for politics by the people, without the politicians, has become a high stakes game. Take Oregon, where the food industry has raised more than $4 million to defeat an initiative requiring the labeling of genetically-modified foods. Bully politics? Mob rule? The ballot initiative may still be the best way to get the people back into politics, but money and power are insidious forces. Too much manure is never good for the grass roots.
Guests:
Lane Shetterly, member of the Oregon House of Representatives
Dane Waters, executive director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank that tracks ballot questions
Florida State Senator Kendrick Meek, chairman of Florida’s Coalition to Reduce Class Size
Ed Moore, a member of “The Coalition to Protect Florida.”