How is it that our legislators can profess their profound respect for the U.S. Constitution yet deny its most basic premise? That is, power is rooted in the people who create the government.
Americans are not subjects. Pull out your pocket Constitutions and read the founders’ words. The preamble proclaims the people’s role “to ordain and establish.” The Declaration of Independence declares that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Our state echoes the national preamble: “We the people of Utah, in order to secure and perpetuate the principles of free government, do ordain and establish this Constitution.” This is our American birthright enshrined in our holy documents.
Now, in the face of the recent Utah Supreme Court’s decision affirming the people’s right to initiate law, the Legislature seeks to quiet the people’s voice. This, because of the fear of “undermining our cultural integrity.”
Such thinly veiled code words do not deceive. They are meant to agitate and disguise intent. Such power plays against the people are not the work of true conservatives. Bob Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan are surely rolling over in their graves.
Bob Goldberg, Salt Lake City