I find it disingenuous of state Sen. James Manning to write that, “Our representative democracy only works with mutual trust” (“The Legislature’s Unfinished Business on Climate,” 8/29).

In what the Bend Bulletin called “a protracted expression of contempt for voters,” Manning and his Democrat colleagues — including all from Lane County — repeatedly violated that trust during the 2019 legislative session.

They did so when they revoked the voters’ two-to-one denial in 2014 of driver licenses for illegal immigrants (House Bill 2015), and Manning especially so as he carried the bill on the Senate floor.

They did so when they passed a multi-billion-dollar gross receipts tax (HB 3427) after voters said no in 2016; and when they sabotaged and killed the citizen referendum on that tax measure (HB 2164) in what The Oregonian called “blatant voter suppression.”

They did so when they made it more difficult for citizens to sign initiative and referendum petitions (Senate Bill 761), ignoring a massive amount of opposition testimony.

They did so when they continued to weaponize the “emergency clause” to prevent referenda. Democrats took multiple steps to suppress citizen challenges to their decisions.

Space limits the examples. Oregon voters gave Democrats absolute power in 2018, but did they really bargain for this type of “representation?”  I respect Sen. Manning for his military service, but he and his Democrat colleagues showed us exactly what they thought of us.

Jerry Ritter

Springfield

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