The essence of democracy is that governments don’t do things, especially big things, without the consent of the governed. That bedrock has been undermined for years. First there were the courts, including the Supreme Court, which legislated from the bench. Now, as the judiciary has done less of this, the left has relied on increased activism from government bureaucracies and regulatory agencies to enforce their unpopular agendas.

This What’s Ahead segment discusses yet another undemocratic method of overriding or ignoring popular opinion: a referendum that ostensibly has only one goal – a popular one – but is cleverly worded to achieve agendas most people oppose. New York’s Proposition 1 is an ugly example of this – and should be rejected. One result, if approved, will be to allow non-citizens to vote in statewide races.