an icepick through the keyhole

Christina and I were having a discussion about this earlier today and it made me crystallize my thoughts. I am actually drastically in favor of this topic becoming a state-wide electorate vote and not something passed by the legislature. As this is a legal concept that has never existed in the history of mankind, I feel this is far too heavy of a subject to be left up entirely to representative democracy and requires direct elections to attain legitimacy. Let's face it: Our representative bodies are more often than not representing their favorite lobbyists and/or supporters and not their constituency. Any way you spin that leaves plenty of room for the public to continue to claim their representatives didn't vote the way they personally would have and therefore it's not seen as legitimate to whatever section of the populace doesn't come out on the winning side of the vote. A direct election of the people will at least produce a result that cannot be spun as not being the will of the people. (It's for this same reason that the San Francisco "marriages" are, in my opinion, in clear-cut violations of the law. Not for the participants but because of the Proposition that limited state-sanctioned marriages.) I have no illusion that the polarized sides of this topic will espouse their respective disbelief at whatever side comes out with fewer votes and try to claim illegitimacy, but in the end I think only a direct poll of the voting populace will bring about any real legitimacy to this issue, irrespective of the outcome.