Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks the United States may lose its democracy in the next decade. The socialist recently told the New Yorker that there is “a very real risk” that the U.S. will not be a democracy in 10 years.
Ocasio-Cortez is wrong.
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She is also hypocritical. Consider that while the U.S. is a constitutional republic, states offer some direct democracy: ballot questions. But in Massachusetts, when the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature doesn’t like the results of an election, they ignore it or try to change it.
In 2000, 72% of Bay State voters supported a ballot initiative to create a state-level charitable tax deduction. It’s 2022, and Massachusetts still doesn’t have such a deduction. Last December, the Massachusetts Legislature overwhelmingly voted to delay its implementation. If they don’t delay the tax deduction again, it will go into effect in 2023. When people voted for a charity tax deduction, the question didn’t ask voters if they wanted the deduction 23 years (or more) later. Odds are, the average person who voted on this measure doesn’t remember it by now.
More examples of this disinterest in democracy?
Also in 2009, Bay Staters approved a ballot measure to lower the state’s income tax from 5.9% to 5%. However, the Legislature didn’t allow the income tax rate to reach 5% until 2020. After it passed, state lawmakers decided that each time the state met certain thresholds, including a balanced budget, the rate could decrease by 0.05 points each year until it hit 5%. The Legislature decided that after the rate hit 5%, the charity deduction could go into effect the following year. The state income tax rate became 5% 20 years after the initial vote. Voters didn’t agree to these provisions; lawmakers made them up after the election.
In 2012, the pro-life cause won at the ballot in the commonwealth. Bay Staters voted 51% to 49% against legalizing physician-assisted suicide. It got support from Republican voters and conservative minorities in cities such as Lawrence, Brockton, and Springfield. However, a bill in the legislature for the third straight session would legalize physician-assisted suicide.
If Ocasio-Cortez wants to protect democracy, she should tell Massachusetts lawmakers to respect their constituents’ votes.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
