U.S. now hiring – Voters need not apply
By Christian Hartsock
web posted November 3, 2008
If there is one defining characteristic about liberals it is their scornful distrust of the American voting public. This is understandable, being that their party hasn't managed to win a presidential election while getting a majority of Americans to vote with them since 1976. (And in that particular case, let's just say it took only a one-term dose of Jimmy Carter for voters to concede their wrongdoing and have a rather immediate change of heart.)
Fortunately, the left has a virtual governmental branch of its own (commonly referred to as the "mainstream media") to disparage and intimidate voters when voters aren't especially in the mood to support its radical elitist agenda. The New York Times recently performed its civic duty by publishing an editoral on California Proposition 8, mentioning an "attempt to embed second-class treatment of one group of citizens in the State Constitution." At first glance I was surprised to find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with the Times for a change. But then I realized that the "group of citizens" they were referring to as the victims of "second-hand treatment" was not, in fact, the California voting public. Nevermind!
The Times went on to drool over the California State Supreme Court which had smugly repudiated the will of California voters as confirmed in the passage of the California Defense of Marriage Act for "acting to protect a vulnerable group from unfair treatment," assuring that the four San Francisco-based judges' defiance of the California electorate was well-intended, being that "the state's guarantee of equal protection is a job assigned to judges." The Times staff has previously invested a great deal of ink into expressing its concern over the jobs of American workers being outsourced across the Pacific Ocean, but apparently has no concern over the job of American voters being outsourced across the San Francisco Bay.
Liberals live in perpetual fear of social policy decisions falling into the hands of voters, knowing full well that they can't depend on voters to support their radical agenda and thus must depend on activist judges, government bureaucrats and media elites to promote and enforce their policies. This is why the left has had to bully voters out of the policy arena on every single social issue, effectively sending the message: Vote for us and we will do everything we can to render your voting privileges useless!
Since 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision has been legally immune to public reproach. Surely liberals would love for the people to have some say in such a monumental matter, but unfortunately scalping babies and sucking their brains out is frowned upon in too many circles. (Fortunately, however, the right cannot lobby for unborn children's suffrage – otherwise a margin of error accounting for at least 40 million unheard votes would be in order.)
In another case of liberal elitism's subversion of populism, the "promising potential" of embryonic stem-cell research unfortunately is not promising enough to enjoy sufficient support from potential private investors, so liberals need feed off the federal trough and mug the unwitting taxpayer for their allowance to fund it. Again, with respect to this issue, the votes of the American public are not necessary – but their tax dollars sure are!
In 2004, all eleven of the only eleven states that put the power to the people on the "same-sex marriage" issue (including Oregon) promptly put "same-sex marriage" back in the Dictionary of Oxymorons. In 2000, 62 percent of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 22 to clarify the meaning of marriage – but somehow four votes in San Francisco rendered the 4,618,573 state-wide votes for the proposition obsolete, aided by the opportunistic spirit of one prima donna Kennedy-wannabe mayor who now has the audacity to run for governor. Thus, pro-marriage Californians are put in the awkward position of having to once again tell the elites where precisely they can put their gay marriage agenda. (No pun intended.)
The left's cynical contempt for the American voting public is symptomatic of their inability to get the people on their side when they are self-avowedly "standing up for the people." Every time the people are privileged enough to have say on social issues and thenceforth vote out of the left's favor, the left swings back with cross-examination tactics straight out of My Cousin Vinny: "Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure? Are you positive? How could you be so sure?" And once the public has gotten so fed up that they must resort to constitutionalizing how damn sure they are, liberals start fumingly slamming their gavels in protest. Sharing a democracy with liberals is like playing foosball with someone who keeps lifting their side of the table to slide the ball into their goal whenever you start scoring too many points.
The New York Times amusingly accuses the pro-marriage lobby for "second-hand treatment" of a "group of citizens." The only group of citizens receiving second-hand treatment with respect to Proposition 8 are the California voters who made themselves abundantly clear eight years ago – only to have their will usurped by the hands of the few. Now it's time to level back that foosball table.
Proposition 8 is not so much a proposition over "gay marriage," but is more a proposition that asks: Who do we really want to have making our decisions? The People or the judicial elite? Liberals incessantly whine about the right wing's "assaults on democracy," but if the left really has anything against the right, it is the right's dark history of palling around with voters. 
Christian Hartsock, 22, is a filmmaker, political columnist and author known most for his unflinching, unapologetic and bitingly sarcastic observations on sociopolitical and international affairs and pop culture, all made from the frontlines of the Left Coast. His columns have been routinely run in several political websites and publications and he is an affiliate of MoveOff.net. Christian is the author of the book, In the Name of "Progress": The Liberalization of Christianity. He is the writer, director and producer of a political documentary, Separation, a short film, The Life and Love of Monte Callaghan, and is currently at work on a feature film that he wrote and is directing called The Ministry of Absence You can visit his website at www.ChristianHartsock.com as well as his MySpace page. Contact Chris at ChrisHartsock86@aol.com.