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   So what’s in

       these 

         National

           Initiative

              tapes 

                  anyway?...

 

 

Glad you asked. 

Read on and you’ll learn some of what’s in the National Initiative tapes:  NI 9801 -- NI 9804

 

The Push for a National Initiative Tape NI 9801.

(Former US Senator Mike Gravel (D) Ak & Ed Koupal).

 

If America adopts the National Initiative Process into its political process, these two men will be remember for initiating it.  Issues covered include:

Overview of People’s Lobby history -- Clean Environment and Campaign Reform Initiatives, anti-nuclear campaigns and start  of National Initiative campaign.

Senator Gravel on filibustering to end the draft, his publishing of the Pentagon Papers,  Alaskan Oil pipeline, Watergate cover-up,  differences between inherent and delegated political power, structural traps of our political system, the need for representative governments and its shortcomings, how today’s technology offers America an opportunity to add the National Initiative as a step toward governance maturity;  funding a National Initiative campaign.  Louis Kelso’s Binary Economics program to democratize capitalism and its cousin,  CSOPs (Consumer Stock Ownership Plans) connected to  coming utility deregulation as a possible means to fund a National Initiative Campaign.

 

 

Philadelphia II’s National Initiative  Tape 9802

 

How long do major political changes take?  Should people have access to the tools of Direct Democracy -- initiative, referendum and recall on a national level?  Is initiative maturation a better answer to governmental  gridlock than devolution?   Perot’s stand on National Initiative movement.

Are initiatives too complicated for voters?  The progressiveness of people initiated initiatives.  Tools proposed for Philadelphia II’s National Initiative Process:  phone registration for life, week long voting, qualifying national initiative law via polls rather than signature gathering, public hearings, qualified initiative change process, advisory vote, Electoral Commission, voting pamphlets, media program, financing and majoritarian vote.  National Initiative Process for Constitutional changes with a  more difficult two vote process.  Others commenting on National Initiative Process:  Dan Lowenstein, first Director of Fair Political Practices Commission and UCLA Professor, Roger Jon Diamond, former People’s Lobby attorney,  John Davies, political consultant. 

 

Gravel Argues for National Initiative  Tape 9803

(Before the 1995 Washington State Supreme Court)

 

Review of 9th, 10th and 14th amendments.  Are “people the source of all political power?”   Is the traditional Constitutional Amendment process the only means of adding a National Initiative to our Constitution or can it be done through people’s “inherent constituent power.”

 

Some questions raised in Philadelphia Corporation v. Gregoire, October 27, 1995:  Is the wave of the future, increased “people” participation in “representative government.”  Do “the people” need permission to decide questions regarding initiative procedures from their appointed representative or government bureaucrats?  Does Philadelphia II’s National Initiative Process exceed the scope of Washington’s legislative authority?  Do state officials have a responsibility to title a people’s initiative  even though the Attorney General doesn’t consider it to be an initiative?  Is the example of our Founding Fathers tossing the Articles of Confederation to establish the Constitution analogous to using state procedures to establish a National Initiative Process?

 

The Initiative and National Initiative  Tape 9804

(Edwin Koupal at Santa Barbara City College)

 

A hint of what made Edwin Koupal tick and how he planted the seeds of the growing contemporary initiative movement.  People’s Lobby’s  learning curve regarding signature gathering and  politics from the Clean Environment Initiative defeat of 1972 and subsequent initiatives.  Why only the ballot and laws make real change.  Some People’s Lobby lawsuits:  Allioto’s conflict of interest, Senator Carpenter’s financial disclosure, Assemblyman Gonzalez’s campaign disclosure, Standard Oil’s F310 hoax, 18 year olds right to vote from residence, right to petition government on shopping centers.  On initiatives:  Governor Hiram Johnson’s 1911 campaign for people’s right to have the initiative process.  Why oil rich Santa Monica has no oil wells.  The (then) 27th Amendment movement for a National Initiative Process.  Why People’s Lobby type organizations could run on a low budget.  Why issue campaigns are different from candidate campaigns.  Controversy and issues.  Chaos and attention span.  Sloganeering and education.  Voter pamphlets and opinion leaders.  National Initiative Process as part of presidential candidates’ platforms.  The opening and close of this tape helps explain how the drive and charisma of the Koupals formed a rare grassroots organization that produced significant changes in the state of  California and planted the seeds of the National Initiative Process on the national agenda..