Cross posted at printer Democracy

Steve is correct when he reminds us that progressive’s shouldn’t hate the game, they should hate the player. It isn’t the fault of the initiative process that it has been hijacked by right wing money makers like Eyman, it is our fault for giving the process over to them. A lot of good progressive things have come out of initiatives, as Steve points out. Read his post, it is good.

So, now that we’ve pretty much given over the process to guys like Eyman, what do we do? I have an idea that would hopefully encourage more regular citizen involvement in the process, but there are other ideas.

I’m not a big fan of Permanent Defense’s “report right wing signature gathering” (even though I’ve got me some to report). I don’t think it is an effective way to counter the signature gathering step in initiatives, and it boarders on encouraging harrasment.

While I’m talking about Permanent Defense also not a big fan of the name. For one, it is a take off on Eyman’s Permanent Offense, you shouldn’t allow your opponent to define you, even in what you call yourself. Plus it is a negative term, like “we’re always on defense,” or “you’re so defensive.”

The No on I-933 crowd seems to have struck on a great alternative to the “Report” scheme. They’re encouraging people to sign a petition signifying that they aren’t in support of I-933. While it would be interesting if someday a “No On” campaign could compete for signatures to keep an initiative off the ballot, this idea seems to be more powerful now as a campaign/PR tool.

Imagine Eyman getting out of his car at the Secretary of State’s office finding dozens of anti-Whateverhesupto folks with their own petitions.

Plus, there wouldn’t be any weird size requirments to the anti-petitions.