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Some issues certainly should be approved or rejected by the voters. Elected officials should determine these issues. Bond issues, tax increases, city-county annexation, are typically the kinds of issues that elected officials want their constituents to ratify or reject.

California's 16-page Proposition 87, which would create a $4 billion program to reduce petroleum consumption by 25%, increase taxes for oil producers, prohibit producers from recouping the tax, and 15 more pages of details - should be very finely ground through the legislative debate process. Instead, voters hear 30-second sound bites that appeal to emotions and ignore negative consequences.

On November 7, 15 of the 26 initiative states will have 86 initiatives on the ballot, most of which should be much more extensively considered by elected representatives. The reality is that few of the voters will even read the initiatives, and even fewer will understand the consequences of their vote. Many will simply ignore the initiatives, and not vote at all. The result: the special interest proponents who have the most money will likely win.

In Washington, where ballot initiative 933 seeks to limit regulatory takings, The Nature Conservancy leads in financial contributions to the opponents who have outspent the proponents nearly three-to-one.

This is no way to make public policy in a representative government. This trend toward the initiative process has grown because elected officials have not been responsive to the needs of their constituents. Consequently, the method of sausage-making prescribed by our founders is being transformed, and the public-policy sausage our nation is fed is becoming increasingly indigestible.

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Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), and chairman of Sovereignty International .

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

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