Monopoly: a popular boardgame. Not a popular concept with voters, though.
Thanks to the GOP's stranglehold on both Congress and the majority of state legislatures around the country, one of the few venues for progressive reform these days is the ballot box itself. In recent elections, progressives have successfully organized at the state level to increase the minimum wage, legalize marijuana, and even expand background checks for gun buyers.
But Republicans have grown wise to this approach and have descended to new lows to prevent liberal ballot measures from passing into law, even when voters back them. And two measures in two states that are on the ballot next week offer good illustrations of the kinds of scummy tricks the GOP is only too happy to deploy to thwart the will of voters.
In Ohio, organizers petitioned to place Issue 3, which would legalize both medical and recreational marijuana, on the ballot. Issue 3 would also allow just 10 farms to grow pot as a means of carefully regulating the plant's production, a system proponents call a "structured oligopoly."
But Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, no friend of the legalization movement, insisted on calling this setup a "monopoly" in the text of the measure that voters will see on their ballots, because he "figured that 'monopoly' was the most easily understandable" term. This bit of chicanery was in fact a deliberate move to sabotage Issue 3, because opponents also succeeded in getting the GOP-controlled legislature to include a competing measure, Issue 2, on the ballot as well.
Issue 2, on its face, has nothing to do with marijuana but rather styles itself as the "anti-monopoly amendment" and would purportedly outlaw "monopolies" like the kind Husted claims Issue 3 would create. Despite the public's general fondness for the board game of the same name, voters typically aren't too fond of monopolies, and scattered polling shows more support for Issue 2 than Issue 3 (which seems to be a tossup). It's a diabolically clever move: Opponents of legalized marijuana want to try to stop any trade in pot by posing as defenders of commerce.
More on this world-class trickery below.
It's possible that both measures will pass, though it's not clear what would happen in that event. Husted insists that Issue 2 would block Issue 3, but legalization supporters obviously disagree. The only thing that's certain is that litigation would ensue, but given the conservative nature of the Ohio Supreme Court, there's a good chance progressives will lose in the end—which is exactly what Buckeye State Republicans have in mind.
Meanwhile, in Mississippi, organizers collected enough petitions to put Initiative 42 before voters, a measure that would amend the state constitution to require "adequate and sufficient funding" for all public schools. The story here is similar to Ohio's: Prominent Republicans have come out against Initiative 42, and the legislature added an extra obstacle to passage by putting Alternative Measure 42A, which would preserve the status quo, on the ballot as well.
Here, though, it's not just a matter of competing proposals. Under Mississippi law, the ballot voters will see is an absurd mess. For Initiative 42 to pass, supporters have to answer both parts of a two-part question. They must first vote on a ridiculous preliminary question that asks whether they want to vote "for approval of either" 42 or 42A, or want to vote "against both." Then, on a separate question, voters need to pick between 42 and 42A.
So for progressives to win, a majority of voters need to vote "for approval of either" on the first question, and then vote for Initiative 42 on the second question. Conservatives, though, only need the "for approval of either" question to fail or for Initiative 42A to pass. Alternately, if enough voters are confused and fail to fill out their ballots fully, that would suit Republicans just fine, too.
And that sums up conservative tactics perfectly. Despite controlling so many levers of power, they can't bear to lose when progressives approach voters directly, so they resort to chicanery and deceit. If they believed their concerns about legalized marijuana or fair school funding were truly meritorious, then they'd have no problem making that case to the public. But it's obvious they don't, which is why they're resorting to cockamamie ballots and bogus posturing.
This is what we can and should expect, though. The only thing our side can do is remain alert and work harder than ever to make sure voters are heard at the ballot box.