Truth, Lies, and Family Values

First, the truth. A citizen group called Outlaw Dirty Money is gathering petitions for an amendment to the Arizona State Constitution, appropriately called the Stop Political Dirty Money Amendment. I would have called it something with a little more pop, but it does get the point across, and honestly at that. You can read the text of the proposed amendment yourself on the linked website, but in a nutshell here's what it does:

1. All persons, businesses, and other organizations that spend $2,500+ to influence any election(s) must be publicly disclosed by said campaign. This is regardless of any middle-men who may pass dirty money from shady interests to corrupt campaigns -- if middlemen are involved, they must name the original shady interest who passed them the dirty money. The $2,500 figure resets with each 2-year election cycle.
2. Both individual citizens and the Arizona Clean Elections Commission will have the authority to exact a civil fine from any dirty campaign, ranging from the undisclosed money that triggers the fine to three times that amount.

Now, the lies. The Arizona Legislative Council, an appointed body made up of ten Republicans and four Democrats, is pushing Proposition 306, a measure that would steal authority from the Constitutionally-endowed Citizens Clean Elections Commission and then sneak that stolen authority into Governor Ducey's Regulatory Review Council. Of course, Ducey and the Republican-domineered Council know that the Commission is wildly popular, and nobody in their right mind would support their effort to neuter it.

And so the so-called 'summary' that describes Prop 306 to the public is deliberately misleading:

1. It omits the Clean Elections Commission's full purpose and scope -- to not only oversee the financing of political campaigns, but also to educate voters and to enforce the campaign finance laws that Arizona citizens voted into law in 1998.
2. It omits the theft of the Commission's authority to make rules, instead giving the impression that the Commission would gain more rule-making authority.
3. And it obscures the snookery of that authority to Ducey by failing to mention that the Regulatory Review Council isn't some impartial bipartisan entity -- it's a gaggle of biased bureaucrats hand-picked by the Governor.

And now we come to family values. We hear conservative elites bandy about the term all the time, but what do they mean? Well, in the conservative worldview, the family like all other things is hierarchical. Father knows best, mother exchanges deference and obedience for a patronizing kind of love, and the children are wanton amoral pets who must be distrusted and mercilessly overruled, manipulated, and disciplined. No really; if you don't believe me, go read Dare to Discipline. Now even most conservative families don't strictly adhere to this patriarchy, because despite what their elites would like us to believe, Feminism and our larger progressive culture has changed our society in ways both grand and subtle. But this strict family ideal does explain the ongoing machinations of conservative elites in Arizona and across the nation.

It's why the conservative elites of Arizona have been steadily chipping away, lying to and manipulating us, undermining our hard-earned rights since 1998 and before. We, the children of this great state and of the wider republic, are being abused by the so-called conservative movement. Because by their way of thinking, our limited ability to check their power via citizen initiative is too much; Daddy Ducey must rob us of that freedom. We are to be silent until spoken to. Hence, Prop 306 would strip us of our only check against the legislative overreach we experience daily.

We don't hear about progressive family values nearly as often, but they are both powerful and superior. In the progressive family, parents exist to love, respect, and compliment each others' abilities and contributions. Children are to be protected, nurtured, educated with fact, honestly guided to the full extent of their capacity, and ultimately treated like adults. In fact this is the only way that children become adults. Thus, the Stop Political Dirty Money Amendment is a shining example of progressive values at work: Its writers recognize us as both the sons and daughters of Arizona and as responsible adults, and their effort is to empower us with the facts that we need to be responsible voters, and to penalize irresponsible elites who hide the dark interests who have bought them.

So this Novemeber, remember your family values and vote accordingly. When you see all those conservative elites on the ballot, when you see the SPDM Amendment, ask yourself: Do you want to be treated like a nuisance that can't be trusted with facts or responsibility? Or do you want to be treated like a valued family member and responsible adult who can hold corrupt politicians accountable?

And also keep an eye out for other important citizen ballot initiatives, including two separate Voters of Arizona initiatives to roll back last year's successful scheming by the conservative elites to infringe on our citizen ballot rights.