US Politics
The Hostile Takeover of Direct Democracy: How California's Ballot Measure System Became a Billionaires' Battleground
California's ballot measure system, originally a tool for direct democracy, has evolved into a high-stakes, multi-million dollar battleground where competing interests bypass the legislature and wage expensive campaigns, as exemplified by the upcoming conflict over a proposed wealth tax on billionaires. This corrosive trend represents a dangerous subversion of democratic lawmaking, where policy is shaped not by elected representatives through deliberation, but by the deepest pockets in a cynical war of attrition against the will of the people.
