America’s founders believed direct democracy was a slower, more indirect path to tyranny. To prevent this, they avoided establishing an “elective despotism” and designed a system that filtered democracy through representative legislatures. Popular ballot initiatives didn’t exist until the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. Now, progressives use ballot initiatives to turn red states blue, including a proposal to abolish primaries altogether. What is the Republican Party’s response?
As Democrats work toward creating a permanent political majority at the national level, their extremism has intensified popular backlash in nearly half the states, making them even redder. Currently, Republicans hold trifectas in 23 states and de facto trifectas in 26 states, including Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, where Republican super-majorities override Democratic governors. In most of these states, Democrats are relegated to a permanent, irrelevant minority in statewide office and legislative control, and, in many, Democrats are barely visible within the state.
Many ballot initiatives are filled with convoluted language and confusing double negatives, making the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ outcomes unclear.
This expanding sea of dark-red states threatens the dominion of Marxists because their policies depend on unanimous opinion and cannot abide stark opposition. If Republicans were truly a conservative party, the contrast between states would become so pronounced that maintaining the Democrats’ culture of anarcho-tyranny and chaos outside their urban core would be nearly impossible.
For years, Democrats have limited the shift to the right in red states by collaborating behind the scenes with fake Republicans who subvert red-state values and cater to special interests. They would occasionally appease conservatives on issues like life or guns to keep them at bay. With the rise of the State Freedom Caucuses and grassroots takeovers of many state Republican parties, however, Democrats are losing their ability to campaign in red jerseys but govern from the center-left. The success of Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, once a purple state, has inspired activists in much redder states to ask, “Why can’t we achieve the same in Idaho?”
Fear not, because Democrats never give up and have a plan for every contingency. Last decade, they used clever campaigning and substantial funding to abolish primaries in Alaska, creating a jungle primary system with ranked-choice voting. This system essentially fosters a “no labels” dynamic, allowing covert Democrats, with the help of subversive establishment Republicans, to block conservatives from winning closed partisan primaries and then use a convoluted formula to defeat them in a ranked-choice general election ballot.
Well, why would they limit their successful model to Alaska and not try it out in the other 20-plus red states? A left-wing astroturf group called “Idahoans for Open Primaries,” led by former “Republican” Gov. Butch Otter, successfully turned in enough signatures earlier this month to place the Alaska model of ranked-choice voting on the ballot in November. If successful, this proposal will abolish Republican primaries and allow an array of undocumented candidates to run slick ads to fool voters into supporting RINOs like Otter as the only option for the general election.
According to Ballotpedia, 10 states including Idaho have statutorily banned ranked-choice voting, but left-wing activists working with phony Republicans are using the initiative process to change their state’s constitution.
Starting in the upcoming legislative session, all red states must make initiative petitions much harder. One proposal would require uniform signature gathering across the state or mandate that the ballot question achieves a 50% or 60% threshold in every congressional district. This would prevent liberals from running up the score in urban areas to change the entire state.
If we don’t defeat ranked-choice voting and limit initiative petitions, liberals will use convoluted ballot language to turn red states blue without winning elections. This is how they are codifying a right to abortion up until birth in every state they attempt. They will use this tactic in every state on any number of controversial issues.
Consider Missouri. While Donald Trump and Republicans are poised to win in a landslide statewide, they could be saddled with laws passed via ballot initiative to impose a $15 minimum wage and abortion until birth.
Many ballot initiatives are filled with convoluted language and confusing double negatives, making the “yes” and “no” outcomes unclear. This allows monied interests to manipulate the people. Our founders understood that direct democracy equates to the elites deciding everything. As John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, aptly warned, “Pure democracy, like pure rum, easily produces intoxication, and with it a thousand mad pranks and fooleries.”
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