On Election Day, the citizens of Massachusetts will be asked to vote on two issues that are inextricably linked.
Question 1 asks if the citizens of Massachusetts (we, the people) should decide on staffing requirements for nurses in Massachusetts hospitals, or should we leave that to the wealthy owners of these hospitals?
Question 2 asks if the citizens of Massachusetts (we, the people) should have the only say in our elections or should we allow the wealthy class and the corporations they own, to gain a significant advantage in our elections?
1 & 2 ask the same question: Should we let citizens of the Commonwealth decide how our hospitals and governments are run, or should we leave it to the wealthy class?
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A question on #2. If the state calls for this convention for that purpose, what does that do for any other calls for a constitution convention? Does this give cover for Mass. to join for that call, and send delegates without any instructions on that idea to legitimize such a move? If we stumble into such an ALEC convention, and get outvoted in both cases, it would seem we can end up with a balanced budget amendment and no check on corporate funding for elections.
Whether or not calls to convention can limit the scope is untested. I’m sure you know that the 1787 convention was called with the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation rather than throw them out entirely. I’m less paranoid than some regarding the prospect even of an open convention because there are so many moving parts to the actual ratification process that there would still need to be pretty broad consensus to amend the Constitution.