Why We Lost Prop 8 and How We Can Win Gay Civil Rights and Marriage Equality – A Countdown of Political New Year's Resolutions! #2: Precedent

Reason Two: Precedent

We failed to make the case that amending the State Constitution by majority vote to decide controversial issues is a dangerous, slippery slope. If all that’s needed is a galvanized minority who go to the polls and achieve a majority of the vote, look for future referendums to change the State Constitution to:

-Privatize all Social Security accounts of California residents.

-Eliminate all private ownership of guns.

-Eliminate women’s reproductive choice in cases of rape or incest.

-Eliminate the non-profit status of churches and other religious organizations.

-Eliminate Affirmative Action and all efforts to integrate public education.

-Eliminate all offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.

Prop 8 presages the end of individual rights and of constitutional democracy in California! We should have had conservatives falling over themselves to vote this one down.

New Year's Resolution: "The tyranny of the majority" is just that. And it cuts both ways.

We need to engage in a broader discussion about the entire system of propositions in California, where actual governance is being destroyed by these majority-vote referendums.