Do you trust the people?

Do you trust the people?

“Do you trust the people?”

We had barely been seated at the restaurant when my guest fired off his query. I had asked him to lunch after a state capitol event, where he was advocating that Minnesota should trade its bicameral legislature for a unicameral, and I had been pitching the idea of establishing statewide initiative and referendum.

He was a little skeptical of initiative and referendum. I was completely certain that without the initiative his idea would never see the light of day.

“No, I don’t trust the people,” I responded. “But I trust the people a whole lot...