Convention a temptation to be resisted

The decision by the state's Catholic bishops to oppose the calling of a constitutional convention to revise New York's laws strikes us as reasonable (a front page article about this appears in the hardcopy edition of The Evangelist).

Voters will have the opportunity to begin the process toward such a convention when they vote on a referendum on the November ballot. But the bishops give several reasons for casting a "no" vote on the referendum, including the expense of holding such a convention and its probable ineffective outcome.

Those voters who see in the constitutional convention a chance to redress their grievances are grasping at distant straws when much sturdier supports lie closer at hand. As the bishops note, for example, voters have approved 46 constitutional amendments in the past 30 years without the necessity of calling a convention.

But there is another power in the hands of the electorate, an effective power which it seldom wields: the ability to vote out incumbents. Voters who express grave disappointment with the direction of their legislature nevertheless seem addicted to electing the same men and women to the Assembly and Senate. Those voters then seem surprised and dismayed when nothing changes.

To such New Yorkers, a constitutional convention seems like an answer to their prayers; they view it as a way of circumventing politics as usual and inserting their wishes into the process. But it is a chimera. Most likely, the same politicos they can't stand now will hold sway over the convention, getting paid more of the taxpayers' money to do not much of anything.

Those voters of New York State who really want to end business as usual have an opportunity every two years to campaign for and elect new representatives with better ideas. With that power in their hands every 24 months, voters don't need to go looking for a constitutional convention.

(10-23-97) [[In-content Ad]]