patrick.net

With less than a week to go before a threatened government shutdown over Obamacare, I've been wondering, why does neither major party propose putting the issue to a public referendum in November?

I can see why the Democrats would oppose even the idea of a referendum. A majority of Americans continue to oppose the legislation, but the party's campaign finance depends on it. Some Democrats claim instead the 2012 general election was a referendum on Obamacare, but a general election is about many things: opposing platforms, candidates, and parties.

Even if Democrats would never agree to a referendum, Republicans should at least propose one. It would put Democrats in the awkward position of arguing that voters shouldn't be allowed to vote. OTOH, opposing Obamacare is Republicans' only majority position, so I suspect they want to be able to run on the issue, rather than solving it. In other words, for some of them, the legislation might be merely an excuse to shut down Democratic governance.

Personally, I think a shutdown would be a stupid waste of time, and I would like to see a referendum on the legislation. So, I find it frustrating and somewhat puzzling that both major parties seem headed for a shutdown without even proposing a referendum. It says something about the times in which we live: both major parties herd voters like CAFO cattle, and are as unlikely to consider a referendum as feedlot operators would be to poll the livestock on how they should be slaughtered.

#politics