It seems voter sponsored initiatives are the only way to get our state government to listen to us voters. Does anyone have an opinion as to any better ways to make Olympia listen to its voters? Don't be shy! SPEAK UP!!!

-- Rolex Hoffmann (rolex@innw.net), January 26, 2001

Answers

Rolex, there is a better way. The people need to vote out the politicians who don't listen, which would be most of them. As long as the politicians keep getting re-elected, why should they listen? They obviously know better than us, right?

-- Matthew M. Warren (mattinsky@msn.com), January 26, 2001.

"The people need to vote out the politicians who don't listen, which would be most of them." Except the major parties have so rigged the election process, that you are really only going to get a tweedle-dum and tweedle-even-dumber choice. Have you seen how rigged the recall process is?

The way to handle politicians is to take away their authority to buy votes through patronage and other processes. Deny them the discretionary money that attracts he wrong kind of people into politics. Initiatives can be rel helpful here.

-- (mark852@hotmail.com), January 27, 2001.

yeah vote um out...good luck. The system is stacked against you. When your done beating your head against the wall...call me. I'll drive you to the polling place for the next initiative.

-- no chance (kingoffools_99@yahoo.com), January 29, 2001.