Trib Forums

Firefly has a great post up about "The Buzz" over at the Great Falls Tribune website. While I occasionally peruse the comments there, I have avoided engaging. For some reason it feels sort of...constrictive...to me. Plus, there are several posters who tend to wield their 'posting seniority' as an ersatz license to be rude, condescending and, frankly, occasionally unintelligible.

I intend no knock on the Tribune for trying to 'get into the new media' and I think it's a nice service. Saying that, though, I read some of the same posts that Firefly read, and I feel compelled to offer some additional comments. The individual making one of the posts displays a fairly fundamental ignorance about our constitutional form of government.

First, these snippets: "Our elected representative follow the laws that determine when and how the people vote on issues. The present issue does not allow a vote." Then, he goes on: "It does not matter whether 80 or a million turned out to protest, the law is there to protect is from a mob. What happens if a mob were allowed to force a vote that affected your rights? This is why we have laws."

The "law," in the most general sense, is not designed to protect us from "a mob." There are certain constitutional provisions that, even while subject to amendment, are designed to protect the minority from the whims of the majority. (See, e.g., the Bill of Rights) Short of these constitutional protections, though, the law is not designed to protect us from "a mob," the mob in this case being the majority.

To suggest that "our elected representatives follow the laws that determine when and how the people vote on issues," is to beg the question. Our elected representatives make the laws that determine when and how the people vote. The power to make the law includes the power to repeal the law. The notion, then, that the City Commission is constrained by "the laws" to prevent a vote on the coal plant is silly. It is well within their power to provide for a vote. ("The governing body may refer existing or proposed ordinances to a vote of the people by resolution.") If there is not an ordinance allowing a vote they can pass one. If there is an ordinance prohibiting a vote, they can repeal it.

Further, only someone completely ignorant of the Montana Constitution would cringe at the following hypothetical: "What happens if a mob were allowed to force a vote that affected your rights?" I suggest that the writer might want to review Article III, Section 4 of our Constitution, as well as MCA Sec. 7-5-131. If 15% of the qualified electors of a local government entity constitutes "a mob," well, then, a mob certainly is allowed to force a vote.

With all due respect, I suggest that people who want to lecture others about civics should first spend a little time reading.