Joe Proenza 🇺🇸

It’s pretty clear to me that the old Progressive era focus on ballot initiatives has outlived its usefulness in a post-citizens united world. Just take a look at Amendment 3 in Virginia. The entire purpose of the amendment is to immediately grant felons the right to vote when they’re released. Yet all of the pro amendment-3 ads emphasize “protecting everyone’s right to vote” and, of course, villainize the Trump Administration. The implication here is that we need this amendment so the Bad Orange Man doesn’t take away your rights — but that’s not the stated purpose of it! It’s explicitly granting voting rights to felons. In a rational democratic system, there’d be arguments between legislators on the ability of felons to re-enter “civic society” and what that looks like. But this is functionally resistance-liberal slop. There’s no actual discussion. It’s intentionally misleading and alarmist. It’s just another way of subverting an actual, reasoned democratic process.