When the People Decide - A matter of life and death

A matter of life and death

07/11/22 • 25 min

For decades in Nebraska, people would gather in the parking lot of state prisons to tailgate executions of prisoners on death row. A new crop of state legislators decided to put a stop to the death penalty, but the state’s residents—and its governor—had other plans, and used a ballot initiative to achieve them.

We often think of public policy as having the best interests of society, but given the chance, do individuals vote on what is valued in their communities, or their own personal beliefs? Until now, we’ve explored how people have come together to make changes their lawmakers won’t, but in this episode, we explore another pivotal angle of ballot initiatives.

Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.

Previous Episode

Bastard Nation finds its voice

In the early 1900s, birth records of children given up for adoption were sealed and confidential, an effort to shield mothers and children from the societal shame of being born out of wedlock. Fast forward to the advent of the Internet, and adopted adults used the power of the web to form online networks connecting the community, and as helpful as these support groups were, adoptees still lacked the legal protections to access their birth records.

Groups like Bastard Nation helped its members navigate access to birth records, as well as fight the stigma of adoption altogether. It was out of this radical group that the very intimate issue of adoption made its way to the ballot box, begging the question, what are the limits of making the personal, political? This episode explains how this initiative addressed the social stigma around adoption and addresses the longstanding debates around the power of ballot initiatives.

Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.

Resources

Bastard Nation

Measurable Rights documentary by Paul Fornier/Storm Rock Films

Measure 58 online archive

Adoption Politics by E. Wayne Carp

Next Episode

The invisible third party of reform

The polarization that exists in U.S. politics has some voters questioning the integrity of our two-party system—whose interests are the politicians really representing? Ballot initiative organizers claim that they are building new coalitions that transcend party lines, and unite voters on their values, not their partisan affiliations. In doing so, they echo progressive reformers of the past, who created big changes and prompted observers to call their work part of an “invisible third party of reform.”

Ballot initiatives that are largely popular with everyday citizens, like Medicaid expansion and voting rights restoration, but that are seen by politicians as too progressive for bipartisan support, are finally reaching voters at the ballot box. In this episode, we examine how the current era of political reformers ushers in alternatives to stalled legislation by going beyond party lines and bringing the issues straight to voters, and asking the question, what do ballot initiatives say about the kind of political system we want in the U.S.?

Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.

Resources

Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

Reclaim Idaho

Let My People Vote: The Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens by Desmond Meade

The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915 by Jon Grinspan