California,
You are my home state, the place of my birth, and the place I plan to live for the rest of my life. You disappointed me today (as you did on November 4, 2008), but I have some suggestions for improving the quality of life in this state, which can be implemented by changes voted on in the next general election.
1. Amend the State Constitution to disallow constitutional amendments to be proposed by initiative. All constitutional amendments should be proposed by the legislature, period.
2. Restore California's integrity by repealing that idiotic ban on recognition of same-sex marriages. It creates a wholesale contradiction within the constitution itself (contrast it to the equal protection clauses), and it's not really being implemented as intended anyway (see the CA Supreme Court decision, upholding recognition of the 18,000 same-sex marriages already performed, completely contrary to the plain language of the constitution).
3. (this is pie-in-the-sky dreaming) Completely eliminate the initiative process. It's a failure. Nothing good has ever come of it that I've ever heard of. Everything either ends up having horrendous unintended consequences or getting overturned -- all of which just makes things more expensive for the state (in terms of court proceedings and tax consequences, etc).
While I anticipate that I will always be proud to be Californian, I cannot say that I am proud of how my home state is governed.
Sincerely,
a humble voter
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A possible fix which would allow initiatives to be slightly less crazy: have each registered voter not casting a vote on a given measure counted as "no change". This really puts the burden onto those desiring change to convince more than 50% of all registered voters to get out and actually vote for change...
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