This was brought forcibly to my attention in Oregon on the issue of physician-assisted suicide. Talking with people on both sides of that issue, I got a pretty clear sense of how deeply felt the intellectual debates and the emotional arguments are. It really tested people's fundamental views of themselves, of their relationship to their Creator. I don't know of any legislative body, which knew that their constituents were as evenly divided on an issue that cut as deeply as that issue, that would not find a way of postponing that decision until there was greater agreement in the society. Thirdly, Broder said, the rights and legal protections of minorities are in danger.
Racial minorities are at-risk.
In California a ballot initiative repealed the California open-housing law. White Californians were not ready for that law, and minorities were denied the protection of their state's open-housing law. Ethnic minorities also are potentially at-risk, he said. California passed an initiative outlawing bi-lingual education, even though Latinos, who were most affected by that, were opposed to it. Furthermore, state-wide ballot initiatives can pit geographic areas against one another.