George,

Recently, two interesting proposals have been put forth by leading Virginia politicians. Former governors George Allen and Douglas Wilder, along with gubernatorial wanna-be Jerry Kilgore, have called for a referendum on the tax issue, and House Republican leader Vincent Callahan has suggested that the Virginia legislature should become unicameral (like Nebraska). I think these two ideas should be combined and carried one step further. We should have a noncameral legislature -- that is, no Houses (no legislature). Why bother to elect representatives if we (the people) are going to be asked to make the hard decisions (through referenda) when crunch time comes?

Seriously, we desperately need the checks and balances provided by our bicameral legislature. Think of all the legislation that gets passed in one House that (fortunately) gets killed in the other.

As for referenda, this device is a perversion of the democratic legislative process. One of the most fundamental concepts of democracy is minority rights -- the obligation of the majority to consider the concerns of those in the numerical minority. When the representative legislative process is working well, these minority concerns are listened to and reflected in compromises made in the final wording of the legislation. No such consideration and compromise is possible in the referenda process.

Furthermore, referenda are very impractical. Most problems these days are extremely complex and require carefully studied and well crafted legislation to resolve. The wording of referenda, by necessity, is far too simplistic. Referenda are blunt instruments -- like using a sledge hammer to fix a car.

And, finally, referenda are a cop-out for politicians anxious to avoid controversial issues. Politicians who call for referenda are evading their responsibilities. True political leaders work to solve problems themselves -- that is what they were elected to do.

Do George Allen, Doug Wilder and Jerry Kilgore want Virginia to become like California where referenda have contributed greatly to a failed political system? Notice that there is no Hollywood here in Virginia. We have no place to go to find a celluloid hero who can come to the rescue and save us from ourselves after we make bad choices in referenda votes.

David RePass (electronic mail, March 5, 2004)