Voters stiffed on initiatives are likely to re-elect stiffs

Pump the brakes.

There will be no voter uprising. Over the years, I have heard talk and talk and more talk about how outraged voters are going to throw the bums out, and it does … not … happen.

Not here.

You just got stiffed by the Arizona Supreme Court.

You got stiffed by the people who control the politicians in charge of Arizona’s state government.

They put Gov. Doug Ducey in office, and he delivered for them by stacking the Arizona Supreme Court on the off chance that voters like you would want to make a few decisions on your own about how the state is run.

If that were to happen — if you were able to vote up or down on public policy — you might decide that it is grotesque and wrong to allow anonymous “dark money” donors to control the politicians in charge of Arizona’s state government, as they do now. You might at least require them to come out of the shadows.

Nope.

Likewise, if you were able to set public policy, you might vote to invest some actual money in Arizona’s education system.

No way.

So the people who control the politicians in charge of Arizona’s state government filed lawsuits against two important initiatives, and Ducey’s stacked court came to their rescue, removing the Outlaw Dirty Money and Invest in Ed initiatives from the November ballot.

That’s exactly what Ducey and the Republicans who control the Legislature wanted to happen. They worked very hard to make it happen.

Joshua Buckley of the Invest in Ed Group issued a statement Wednesday saying, in part, “Today’s State Supreme Court decision is an utter outrage. Our highest court has joined the entrenched politicians at the Capitol in blatantly protecting the elite and the wealthy over the rights of voters and the needs of Arizona’s children. They’ve ignored the basic right, enshrined in the Arizona Constitution, of Arizona voters to enact laws on their own behalf. … Arizona students and teachers will not accept that. Any politician who has been part of this effort to stifle the will of the voters will be held accountable and pay the consequences in November. Our school children deserve better and our fight will continue.”

It’s a nice thought, but … no. The politicians responsible will be held accountable, not when it comes down to it and voters must choose between a candidate whose name is followed by an “R” and one whose name is followed by a “D.”

Arizona voters for years have been electing politicians who do not feel any special obligation to regular people or

their children, only to their wealthy benefactors.

These politicians understand that most of us vote based only on party affiliation, without ever finding out if that person gives a damn about you or your kids.

Ironically, the Arizona Supreme Court said the ballot language for the Invest in Ed initiative, which is limited to 100 words, didn’t properly explain its funding, and since voters didn’t have what the court believed to be enough information to make an educated decision, the initiative was kicked off the ballot. One hundred words of explanation?

Ha!

How about one letter?

If the Arizona Supreme Court applied the same logic it used to remove the Invest in Ed initiative to the rest of the ballot, it would remove 99 percent or more of the legislative candidates. There’s no way voters can make informed decisions about politicians based on the “R” or “D” after their names. Yet we do. Every time.

Voters hoping to decide a couple of important public-policy issues got sandbagged, hosed, stiffed.

And I’m guessing they’ll re-elect those who stiffed them.