Republicans Broke Democracy. Here's How to Fix It Without Them.

In November 2023, Ohio Republicans watched in horror as 57% of their voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution. They'd gerrymandered themselves into bulletproof districts. They'd passed six-week bans and mandatory funerals for fetal remains. None of it mattered. The voters went around them.

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In 2022, the Michigan legislature had killed voting rights bills for a decade. So 67% of voters passed them anyway. Missouri Republicans spent years blocking minimum wage increases. In 2018, voters gave themselves a raise without asking permission: 62% approved it. In South Dakota, the people legalized marijuana in 2020. The Republican governor sued her own constituents to stop it.

There's a pattern here that nobody's talking about: Republican legislatures across America have stopped representing their voters. The polling doesn’t lie. Seventy percent support legal marijuana, 65% support higher minimum wages, 66% support expanded Medicaid. The legislatures kill it all anyway.

Without culture wars, Republicans have nothing. If the Democrats don’t have a chance in your state, wildly popular policies still can.

Here's the overlooked mechanism: in half of America, you don't need your legislature's permission to pass laws.

Twenty-six states have initiative or referendum powers. Over 1,000 counties can pass ordinances that override state law until someone notices. In Jackson, Mississippi, residents just won municipal voting rights through ballot initiative after the Republican legislature tried to strip them.

Republicans spent forty years capturing state legislatures. Voters are making them irrelevant in a single election cycle.

This is how democracy actually works.

Look at what just happened in Ohio. The pharmaceutical lobby spent $4.8 million convincing 150 state legislators to protect opioid distributors from lawsuits. It worked. The bill passed 91-6.

Then Dayton put the same question directly to voters: Should we be able to sue drug companies for the overdose crisis? The pharma lobby spent $12 million trying to stop it. They lost 74% to 26%.

It costs about $50,000 to buy a state representative's vote through campaign donations, junkets, maybe a job for their kid. To buy 50,000 actual voters, you need $5 million minimum. And even then, you usually lose.

In Phoenix, the state legislature banned plastic bag regulations. Tempe passed one anyway through citizen initiative. The state sued. While the lawyers fought, 200,000 tons of plastic stayed out of landfills. In Birmingham, when the Alabama legislature blocked minimum wage increases, the city passed one through referendum. Workers got eighteen months of $15/hour before the courts stopped it. That's $12,000 extra per worker that wouldn't exist if they'd waited for permission.

Every one of these victories started the same way: someone read their city charter. If your city or county doesn’t allow it then start fighting for it.

Here's how Michigan did it. In 2018, Republicans controlled every branch of state government. They'd gerrymandered themselves into 64% of legislative seats with 47% of the vote. The democracy groups stopped playing their game.

They formed Voters Not Politicians. Collected 425,000 signatures in 110 days. Put redistricting directly on the ballot. The Republican legislature couldn't touch it. The governor couldn't veto it. It passed 61-39.

Then they did it again with voting rights in 2022. And again with abortion. Three cycles, three constitutional amendments, three massive victories. The Republican legislature is still in power. They're just irrelevant now.

It’s a simple template, just check if your state has initiative powers. Twenty-six do. If not, check your city charter. Pick something that polls above 60%. Write it as a constitutional amendment, not a statute. Gather signatures. When you have 60% public support, you just need to get them to the polls.

The participatory budgeting experiment in Burnsville proves what happens when citizens take control. Since 2015, residents directly decide where $1.2 million goes every year. The city council predicted disaster, that people would vote themselves tax breaks and defund everything.

Instead, they funded mental health crisis response teams. They created youth job programs. They fixed sidewalks in poor neighborhoods that had been broken for twenty years. Turnout tripled. When surveyed, 89% of participants said they trusted their local government more as a result.

In Burnsville, they started with twelve people in a church basement. In Michigan, it was thirty people on a Zoom call. In Missouri, one retired teacher started the minimum wage petition from her kitchen table.

The myth is that changing laws requires lobbyists and PACs and political machines. We shouldn’t have gatekeepers to how our communities are led. All you need is clipboards and Google Docs and people who are pissed enough to knock on doors.

When South Dakota voters legalized marijuana in 2020, Governor Kristi Noem sued her own constituents. She argued voters didn't have the constitutional right to pass constitutional amendments. The South Dakota Supreme Court, all Republican appointees, agreed. They voided the will of 54% of voters.

The Republican response to direct democracy is always the same: If they can't win, they change the rules.

In 2023, Ohio Republicans tried to raise the threshold for constitutional amendments from 50% to 60%, but only after abortion was polling at 57%. Voters killed that too, 57-43. In Missouri, the legislature tried to require initiatives to pass in five of eight congressional districts, districts they drew. It failed. In Arkansas, they quadrupled the signature requirements. In Florida, they banned paying signature gatherers.

Here's what they understand that Democrats don't: Direct democracy is an existential threat to minority rule.

Not every initiative wins. California's rent control lost. Ohio's marijuana legalization failed in 2015 before passing in 2023. But that's not the point. Republicans took fifty years to overturn Roe. They lost hundreds of cases, thousands of bills, and still kept coming. This is asymmetric warfare. Every initiative they have to fight costs them millions. Every city ordinance requires lawyers. Every ballot measure forces them to defend the indefensible in public. You don't have to win every battle. You have to make them fight on more fronts than they can handle.

Whoever wants it more gets to win the fight. We need freedom and justice more than they want tyranny and hate.

Look at what's already in motion. In Nebraska, organizers just submitted signatures for paid sick leave. It polls at 74%. In Arkansas, they're gathering signatures for a $15 minimum wage. 68% support. In North Dakota, North fucking Dakota, they're pushing a marijuana initiative that polls at 64%.

If these pass, the dam breaks. Every red state with initiative powers will see organizers copy the template. Every purple suburb will realize they can override their gerrymandered legislature. Every blue city in a red state will start reading their charter.

The Republicans' forty-year project depends on controlling legislatures that don't represent their voters. Across the twenty-six states with initiative powers, voters can bypass those legislatures entirely.

As of August 2025, Republicans hold 55.5% of state legislative seats. If ten percent of the initiatives that poll above 60% actually make it to ballots, Republican state control becomes ceremonial.

They know it. That's why Idaho banned signature gathering at farmers markets. That's why Arizona requires signatures from all thirty counties. That's why Mississippi killed their entire initiative process after voters expanded Medicaid.

They're terrified you'll figure out what Michigan figured out: You don't need to win the legislature if you can ignore it.

If you live in one of Texas's 352 home rule cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, or El Paso, your city charter allows citizen initiatives. You need signatures from 5% of voters or 20,000, whichever is smaller.

Texas state law aggressively preempts local control. They killed Denton's fracking ban in 2015 with HB 40. They'll kill your minimum wage increase too. But forcing them to publicly overturn popular policies has value. Make them sue their own cities. Make them explain why 70% of voters don't matter. Every override costs them political capital they can't afford to keep spending.

Cities and counties are where you have the most power and face the least resistance.

To pass a statewide initiative, you need hundreds of thousands of signatures. For a city referendum? Maybe 5,000. The oil lobby will spend $50 million fighting statewide marijuana legalization. They might not even notice your city decriminalizing it until you've already won.

There are 19,000 cities and 3,000 counties in America. Republicans can't control them all. They can't sue them all. Pass your $20 minimum wage. Implement it immediately. Make them come to court and explain why your voters can't have the raise they voted for. Make them be the assholes ripping benefits from people's hands.

If you live in Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, or Tempe, you have full initiative powers. The Arizona legislature keeps banning what cities can regulate: plastic bags, minimum wage, sick leave. Pass them all anyway. The lawsuits take years. The benefits start immediately.

If you live anywhere in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, or Oklahoma, you can amend your state constitution. Your legislature is irrelevant. Pick your issue.

Here are some of the most impactful policies you could pass in the interest of preserving American freedom and justice:

Automatic voter registration passed through initiative in Oregon in 2015. Added 272,000 voters in year one. Michigan copied it. Then Nevada.

Extended early voting: Michigan's Proposal 2 in 2022 guaranteed nine days. Working-class turnout jumped 15%.

Restoration of voting rights: Florida voters restored rights to 1.4 million people with felony convictions in 2018. Passed 64-36.

Minimum wage to $15 has never lost when put to voters. Not once. Even in deep red states, it pulls 55-65%. Missouri just passed another increase in 2024 with 58% support.

Paid sick leave passed in every city that's voted on it. Keeps restaurant workers from serving you while contagious.

Medicaid expansion passed in Missouri (53%), Oklahoma (51%), and would have passed in Mississippi if the state Supreme Court hadn't killed the entire initiative process to stop it.

Mental health crisis response: Denver's STAR program sends mental health professionals instead of cops to certain 911 calls. Crime down 34% in target areas.

Marijuana legalization passes at 60%+ in every state that's tried it. The template exists. The petition language is public.

Participatory budgeting is the sleeper. Thirty cities already do it. Your city council can't stop it if citizens petition for it. Start with 50% of the budget. Watch what happens.

The infrastructure already exists. The Participatory Budgeting Project has free toolkits. The Fairness Project will fund your minimum wage campaign. The Marijuana Policy Project has petition templates for every state. Ballotpedia tracks every local charter.

You don't need permission. You don't need a nonprofit. You need a clipboard and whatever makes you angriest about your legislature.

In Jackson, Mississippi, the Blackest city in America, in the reddest state in America, residents just used ballot initiatives to restore the voting rights their Republican legislature tried to strip. They won 73-27.

If Jackson can tell Mississippi Republicans to fuck themselves, what's your excuse?

Picture what happens when ten cities do this simultaneously.

The headlines write themselves: "Arizona Cities Defy Republican Legislature." "Medicaid Expansion Wins Where Democrats Couldn't." "Voters Override Gerrymandered Majority."

Now every organizer in every red state sees the proof. The template spreads to Texas, where Austin organizers are already gathering signatures. To Tennessee, where Nashville wants its city council back. To Florida, where Miami groups are reading their charter for the first time.

Republicans understand this. It's why they're desperately trying to kill initiative processes state by state. They know their entire model depends on gerrymandering districts, ignoring voters, passing unpopular laws, and blaming Democrats for not stopping them. The model collapses the second voters realize they can bypass the middleman.

But you don't need your representatives to do all of this. You need your neighbors, a clipboard, and the municipal charter.

They broke democracy by buying the referees. So we're changing the game.

Check your state at Ballotpedia. Find out what powers you have. The next election in most states is November 2025. Signature deadlines are typically 90-120 days before.

Let’s get after it.

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Conservatism: America’s Empathy Disorder

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