Saturday, May 24, 2008

Amend the California Constitution

So a bunch of Godly bigots want to change California's constitution in order to deny protected rights to a minority. In and of itself, that's stupid, but what's just as stupid is that the California Constitution can be amended by a simple majority - >50%. Therefore, there needs to be a concurrent ballot initiative to amend the California Constitution such that a 60% majority is needed to amend the California constitution, effective immediately.

Having been through several ballot initiatives at the state and local levels myself in several states and locales, I can tell you that the most common tactic to get these things rammed through the system (especially when opposition is running at only 35%, as the proposed CA initiative banning gay rights is) is simply to put it up for consideration over and over every election (especially in the off-peak elections, because of low turnout) until it gets passed. Raising the bar to 60% (or more) would definitely make that much more difficult to accomplish. And frankly, shouldn't it take more than a simple majority to do something as serious as amend the Constitution? It certainly does at the national level.

Get some signatures.