February marks the birthday of two giants, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Ungrateful America no longer observes a holiday in either man’s name. Yet some of us never let Feb. 22 pass without a tribute to the Father of Our Country, or Feb. 12 without homage to the Great Emancipator.
Honoring Lincoln on my radio show last Sunday, I was reminded of his words in 1864, when the nation’s survival was in doubt and presidential powers in dispute: “It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies.”
The National Security Agency and the Patriot Act come to mind. But the balancing act between “strong enough” and “not too strong” challenges our constitutional republic in less dramatic ways as well. Washington warned somberly against unchecked power: “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Written constitutions are an American innovation. The constitution is where the people tell the government what to do – unlike the law, with which the government tells the people what to do. “All political power is vested in and derived from the people,” begins the Bill of Rights in our Colorado Constitution; “all government, of right, originates from the people.”
Entering the state Capitol each day while serving there, I remembered that we as legislators weren’t the owner’s power but merely its trustees. The constitutional article that creates the General Assembly also decrees that “the people reserve to themselves the power” to propose and adopt laws or constitutional amendments by petition, as well as the power to approve or reject the same by referendum. Legislators are but hired hands.
Who are you more inclined to trust: elected officials and the political insiders that surround them, or yourself and fellow voters? The former are mostly decent and well-meaning, granted. But remembering Washington’s warning about fire, we can be glad that Colorado (unlike most older, Eastern states) constitutionally provides for citizen petitions to restrain concentrated power.
Through the years, however, concentrated power at the capitol and courthouse has undermined the effectiveness of citizen petitions on street corners. Petitioners have found themselves stymied by bureaucratic stalling tactics and shut out by legislative word games. Now, watchdog groups have a proposal to make the process fair again. It’s called the Petition Rights Amendment, or PRA. Voters will see it on the November ballot as Amendment 38.
PRA offers common sense in signature checking, ballot titles and protest rulings; impartiality in the voter guide and by public agencies; petition elections every November and by all local governments; uniform rules statewide; and no more phony emergencies by the legislature to suspend petition rights. What a fraud for citizen review of even such routine legislative bills such as a kids’ license plate (SB 100) or an arts council reshuffle (SB 49) to be blocked by a “public peace and safety” clause.
Election 2006 may feature petition votes on illegal aliens, eminent domain, classroom spending and traditional marriage (all currently leading in the polls), as well as marijuana and abortion (currently trailing). But your most important vote may be a “yes” on the Petition Rights Amendment itself. We need to make sure that the formula holds true, that citizen petitions in fact remain greater than concentrated power.
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Mea culpa: I erred in my Feb. 5 column by stating that all 15 members of the state judicial nominating commission are appointed by the governor. He names only eight; the rest are joint appointees of the governor, attorney general, and chief justice. But this means the system is even more flawed than I first argued. The chief justice shouldn’t help appoint (let alone chair) the commission filling vacancies on the high court. Nor should the chief, regardless of party, choose members of another commission that evaluates members of the supreme court. Deliver us from this self-dealing.
John Andrews is a Colorado fellow with the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. He was president of the Colorado Senate in 2003-04. He hosts “Backbone Radio” on Sundays at 5 p.m.on 710-KNUS.
