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[deleted] t1_iupg5hx wrote

Reply to comment by NCSUGrad2012 in Voters can erase racist wording in Alabama Constitution by motayba

[deleted]

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GuudeSpelur t1_iuphe1l wrote

> What on Earth makes their constitution so long?

Alabama's legislative process is... special. They don't have a regular old code of laws like basically any other sovereign entity on the planet. Rather, every single act of government in the state of Alabama, from statewide tax codes to your local city council renaming a school, comes in the form of a constitutional amendment.

The "fun" part about this whole setup is that the reason they organized their state government this way was because right around the turn of the 20th century, the KKK types who dominated the state government got really upset that city governments were undermining Jim Crow state policies with local ordinances, so they abolished all non-Constitutional legal code to consolidate 100% of political power in the state government. Specifically so they could force people to be more racist.

Edit: I did some more reading after I woke up this morning. The legislative process is not quite as bad as I originally said. Statewide laws can indeed be regular bills like other states have. It's every level below that whose governance that must be explicitly authorized by Constitutional amendment. Though since most issues of day-to-day life are matters of local governance, in practice this means that an astronomical amount of Alabama government goes through amendments.

The racism thing is 100% true though. The delegates who originally wrote the Alabama constitution explicitly said their goal was to enshrine white supremacy in the state constitution.

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Indercarnive t1_iuplw0o wrote

In America, 80% of the time when you ask "why is this the way things are" the answer is racism.

The other 20% is corporate exploitation.

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junktrunk909 t1_iupoetr wrote

The other 40% is poor education

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Hopeful_Hamster21 t1_iupugli wrote

And the other 60% is also poor math education. Smh.

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kottabaz t1_iur6qr7 wrote

This formula is complicated by the fact that the owner class uses racism as a marketing campaign to sell corporate exploitation.

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moleratical t1_iuuc2mi wrote

Racism is always the answer.

Wait, no... Not like that

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bhoe32 t1_iupk0hg wrote

Lived here most of my life and just learned the "why".

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Claystead t1_iuqxqau wrote

It’s ‘Bama, the answer to the question "why?" is always either "to rub the nose of those Northern carpetbaggers" or "listen, it’s necessary to make sure… certain segments don’t get uppity or immoral." Sometimes both.

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bhoe32 t1_iuqyhfy wrote

The third option being so we can let corporations destroy the environment.

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h3yw00d t1_iur11gs wrote

In 1901 they didn't care about the environment but they did care about something else.

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4dxn t1_iuq4y2t wrote

clearly you never took the time to read your constitution. by time, probably a long long time

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bhoe32 t1_iuqwwet wrote

I keep moving out of state to start life somewhere else only to move back. It's odd how much the rest of the country is similar to Alabama.

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ddubyeah t1_iur3ow7 wrote

It’s weird right? I saw more rebel flags in West Virginia than I ever had in Alabama.

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russmbiz t1_iurdfjq wrote

I've been to many states, but I live in Alabama and always have. This place has so many rebel flags. What parts have you lived in? They are all over the place in the areas I've been. Definitely more than in any other state I've been to.

Granted, when traveling to other states I tend to stay on highways so I likely don't see nearly as much backwoods as I do around here.

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ddubyeah t1_iurf3mq wrote

Down on the coast in bama. But, I was working in rural areas in WV. I also had never seen poverty quite like I did in WV.

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russmbiz t1_iurfdul wrote

See, that's the way I feel about Alabama. When going through really backwoodsy places in bama, I always think "I've never seen poverty like this anywhere else."

So it seems like it's usually the poor areas with the rebel flags, regardless of what the state is.

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bhoe32 t1_iur40ri wrote

People keep trying to appropriate our culture. I will say my thick choctaw county accent really made dating easy when I was in oregon.

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lalalalovey t1_iuqzce2 wrote

Try Vermont or Oregon next - Former Alabamian

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bhoe32 t1_iuqzh9p wrote

I just moved back from cave junction. Most of Oregon was beautiful but very red. Imagine my suprise at all the rebel flags I saw in the state of Jefferson.

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lalalalovey t1_iur11pc wrote

Ah I lived in Bend.

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bhoe32 t1_iur17ta wrote

I do miss Oregon. Such a beautiful place. I also met a beautiful woman there. But I don't have either now. Maybe soon I can go back.

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lalalalovey t1_iur6u7x wrote

Or try Burlington, VT next. It’s a gem.

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bhoe32 t1_iur75ea wrote

I just went and visit a friend in coastal Maine. had a very familiar conversation with a guy about blue grass and how he feels about minorities while there. I think my next move is gonna be out of the country. I wanna go somewhere that doesn't speak the damr language as me.

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YoureNotMom t1_iupng1p wrote

I, personally, don't need a source for this because it sounds exactly like something people who lived in Alabama before 1990 would do, but it'd be nice if you had one.

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course_you_do t1_iuppd2t wrote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Alabama

>The length and chaotic nature of the current constitution is the result of an attempt at centralization of power in the state government dating from the late 19th century, when white Democrats dominated state government.

Keeping in mind that this is before the D/R platform switcheroo in the early 20th century.

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sinfulsummers t1_iupphay wrote

Before 1990? Alabama is as much of a racist shithole today as it was back then. The state that rejected progress. Over and over and over again.

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BigBobbert t1_iupsm1o wrote

Well, there was that time a few years where they decided NOT to elect a pedophile to Senate. I’ll give them that much.

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YoureNotMom t1_iur3hip wrote

Gonna be honest, this is the exception that proves the rule. If it's the beginning of a trend, then count me happily surprised, but i very much doubt that'll happen.

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edtheham t1_iupslqc wrote

This gets me. We try to improve things and get excoriated for it. We leave things alone and get excoriated again. What do you want us to do? We are trying to modernize our Constitution. What is it to you? Why do you care?

Why don't you go to the Secretary of State website and read up on what the changes are, if you actually care. Oh , never mind you might have to address your own prejudices. Don't do it.

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PuellaBona t1_iupxndi wrote

Please, what have we tried to improve? Abortion is illegal, being trans is illegal, Medicare expansion was denied, we're 50th in education (let's not kid ourselves with the new rating after covid isolation), gerrymandering, we're the fattest, and we voted for trump and a football coach.

I could go on. I was born and raised here, and the only thing that's changed is the level of apathy we have for politics because the right wing majority isn't going anywhere so nothing will ever change.

This whole constitutional modernization is a bread crumb we're tossing to the gerrymandered black communities we're fucking over.

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NettingStick t1_iurar25 wrote

We spent a decade in the late 90s and early 00s fighting for a new constitution. I dunno if "overthrowing the racist government" counts as trying in your book. It sure as shit does in mine.

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sinfulsummers t1_iuq9jnh wrote

What improvement? That state is as backward as it's ever been. The racism is as shocking as it was 100 years ago. It's still full on Jim Crow, anti-progress which is just how they like it down there.

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420ipblood t1_iur0rzx wrote

Hey, thought I should clarify something for you. The 19th century is 1800's and the 20th century is 1900s. So we're talking 1800-1900 for the "turn of the 20th century", not Y2K. Thought you should know.

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PsychologicalBank169 t1_iuqsgo0 wrote

aside from the racist reasons behind it, this way of governing sounds *terribly* inefficient

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Bagellord t1_ius5q7h wrote

It's really really dumb. Pretty much every election, I have ballot issues for counties that are on the other end of the state from me.

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Almainyny t1_iuq8ge1 wrote

Fucking amazing. My country is one hell of a place.

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kaydub88 t1_iuqv8xe wrote

Florida is similar. We're always amending our constitution instead of passing laws and regulations.

And usually it's "the people" adding amendments but the the people (our legislature) that'll pass laws.

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needabiggerhammer t1_iuq3ad7 wrote

AL's seems obscene in length, but I think most state constitutions are a bit on the long side.

https://www.ncsl.org/blog/2017/11/17/your-states-constitution-the-peoples-document.aspx

Yeah, Alabama is an outlier. TX at #2 is 88k lines. Article is a bit old, but doubt the ratio has changed much.

I guess it does make sense. The federal one is pretty light because they left most of the power to the states. The states would need to get more into the weeds in theory and they are easier to amend. Odd thinking about it though since when we talk about the constitution it is usually in reference to the nice tiny federal one.

Have to confess, I have not read my current state's one. US Constitution plenty of times, have a copy on my desk in fact (no particular reason, just haven't put it back), but the founding documents of our states are just as important.

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