Red state voters approved progressive measures. GOP lawmakers are trying to undermine them | In the wake of ballot measures that increased abortion access and improved sick leave for workers, a coordinated effort is unfolding across the country to shift power to partisan legislatures
Posted by ONETRILLIONAMERICANS
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> Across the country, Republican lawmakers have been working to undermine or altogether undo the will of the voters by making it harder to pass amendments and laws through citizen-led initiatives.
> In Missouri, the 2025 legislative session was dominated by Republican lawmakers trying to reverse two major measures that voters had put on the ballot and approved just months before; one made abortion in the state legal again, while the other created an employee sick leave requirement.
> GOP lawmakers in Alaska and Nebraska also have moved to roll back sick leave benefits that voters approved last year, while legislators in Arizona are pushing new restrictions on abortion access, despite voters six months ago approving protections.
> At the same time, Republican leaders in Florida, Utah, Montana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Ohio, North Dakota and South Dakota have approved efforts to restrict citizen-led ballot initiatives or are considering measures to do so, essentially trying to make it harder for voters to change laws outside legislatures.
> In some cases, legislators aren’t just responding to measures that voters approved; they’re acting shortly after citizen-led efforts failed but came too close for comfort, such as an abortion-rights initiative in Florida, which in November fell just short of the 60% of votes needed to pass and loosen the state’s ban on the procedure.
> Republican elected officials across these states make strikingly similar arguments: They say the initiative process is susceptible to fraud and unduly influenced by out-of-state money. What’s more, they say that they, as elected officials, represent the true will of the people more than ballot initiatives do.
Checking in from Ohio, where our gerrymandered Republican statehouse is working to undermine both abortion and marijuana amendments recently enacted by direct voting—of course directly after they tried to raise the threshold for state constitutional amendments…
Some voters views could be defined as “Social Democracy with Culture War characteristics”.
More evidence on how a lot of red states are captured democracies.
This is nothing new. Back when I lived in Idaho, a ballot initiative was passed that expanded Medicaid coverage to the individuals who were ineligible for it in-state but also couldn’t afford their own coverage.
The legislature attempted to override that. Thank god for Governor Little being an actual small-government Republican because he stopped that in its tracks.
Magat republicanism is inherently against the democratic will of the voters
Pretty much the first thing you learn from studying American PoliSci is the average American is a liberal that claims to be a conservative.
Although, since the only time people can express their political will is by voting, it really doesn’t matter too much people’s actual disposition if they solely vote against their beliefs.
the solution is for the voters in these states to stop electing chuds, but what do i know