Letter: Proposed amendments neither fair nor patriotic

To the Editor:

To anyone still planning to vote "yes" on either or both of the proposed amendments to the Minnesota Constitution, please reconsider. The process itself is neither fair nor particularly American. I don't believe it represents the way we want to govern ourselves.

Think of all the other issues, besides these two, on which there is no broad consensus, on which the numbers on either side are more or less equal. Would you like them all settled in favor of whichever side musters a mere plurality of voters? Would you be prepared, however slim the margin and whichever way it went, to accept the outcome as "the people's decision"?

On how many potential issues would you be part of the 49.999 percent? How often might "the people" who were said to have decided an issue exclude you?

If you would resent this, as I believe you have a right to, how can you be prepared to impose it on others?

The framers of our U.S. Constitution struggled mightily with what seemed an insoluble problem: How to place government power firmly in the hands of the people, without thereby subjecting smaller groups and individuals to "the tyranny of the majority" (their words, not mine).

Their ingenious solution was to divide the power of government into separate branches and houses so no one part could push through a law without regard to the others. This balance serves to restrict lawmaking to matters on which some level of consensus has been achieved.

The amendment process we are witnessing seems nothing more or less than an effort, at the state level, to sidestep our normal process and indeed to enable the majority to exercise its tyranny on these particular issues.

If none of these thoughts trouble you, I still urge you to vote "no" this time around. Then get in touch with your state legislators and encourage them to go for something of genuinely constitutional stature, something closer to what they want. An amendment to eliminate the executive branch of government, or to limit the Judiciary to an advisory role, might be just the thing!

Brad Wronski

Red Wing

Tags: opinion, letters