Have ballot initiatives just been completely co-opted by conservatives as a way to trick people into voting for policies when they know they don't have enough support to get those policies passed through traditional legislation?
Just saw a whole slew of new ballot initiatives being pushed by some people in front of King Soopers who seemed to have no idea what they were even trying to get people to sign. These are not concerned citizens trying to participate in the democratic process. It seems like they've just been hired by some lobby group to stand out there and try to get as many signatures as possible.
Every one of the 5 or 6 ballot initiatives just seemed like a conservative issue that is being hidden behind flowery, misleading language. The "right" to buy natural gas. "Keeping taxes low!", etc
The point of ballot initiatives (I thought) is to allow people the right to selective instances of direct democracy. If the people care about a single issue enough, they can come together in a grassroots way to get the issue on a ballot and vote on it directly, so the will of the people can directly affect laws and regulations.
But it just seems like it's increasingly perverted by dark money that comes from **somewhere** and always seems to be a well-funded, professionally organized attempt to prey on people who don't even really understand what they're signing, and these days these ballot initiatives often seem to benefit oil and gas companies, wealthy land owners, the absolute richest fraction of the population, or some other powerful minority group rather than the average person.
It just doesn't seem like it should not be legal to hire people to push these deceptive ballot initiatives on unsuspecting grandmas going out for groceries.
Is it just me? Has it just been a coincidentally conservative batch of ballot initiatives the last few years? What are your thoughts on this? I feel like it warrants wider discussion.