Government must Govern

The Michigan ballot proposals which we face this coming Tuesday are an intriguing lot. But no matter what each one individually may say, they all have one thing in common. They're all attempts to enshrine ideas within the state constitution. That's not necessarily good.

There's no inherent reason to tie too many things into our governing document. Constitutions are only supposed to be basic guidelines or offer a skeletal frame for the workings of government. Filling them up with any and everything is counterproductive; it can cause inefficiency in government by tying its hands. As much government waste as there may be, if we put too many limits on it we may as well not have it at all.

This is not to say that every ballot measure should be voted down. Each must be accepted or rejected on its own merits or lack thereof. But a good general rule of thumb is to vote against them. As much as it pains us to say it, because we do know that government is all too often unresponsive, the job of legislators and executives and judges is to let the legislate, execute, and judge. We have to let them do their jobs. We can vote them out later should they not.