Merit retention.

Am I the only person not blind to the conundrum created by the do-gooders in the Bar? In 1976, they "fixed" things by placing the selection of all appellate-level judges beyond the reach of the electorate, primarily because the electorate was too ignorant and unsophisticated to understand the role of those judges and, therefore, largely incapable of making rational decisions as to who to elect. So, to protect the unwashed masses against their own ignorance, the "privilege" of selecting their own appellate judges was stripped away.

Now the same sort of do-gooders are bemoaning the unwashed masses' inability to decide who to remove or maintain in those same judicial offices, because the unwashed have no concept of "merit" and might see fit to remove judges with whose decisions the electorate has profound disagreement. The way the do-gooders see it, the unwashed are simply incapable of deciding who to put on the bench, and then equally incapable of subsequently deciding who to keep or remove.

Basically, the do-gooders do not want the electorate to have any voice in anything to do with the judiciary, leaving the selection of that branch of government to the sole discretion of the "enlightened" lawyer class. Unfortunately for the do-gooders, such was not the intent of the founders who saw fit to memorialize the relationship between the people, generally, and the government with the words "We the people," and not "We the lawyers," and noted that all legitimate government draws its authority from the just consent of the governed. Nowhere did they write that judges are the ultimate source of authority and that they are entitled to rule over the people by judicial fiat. Merit retention was never sold to the unwashed as permanent tenure, but the do-gooders now protect it as such and squeal mightily if anyone suggests otherwise.

The do-gooders could have insisted, through the ballot, and as parents at the school board level, and not just by giving speeches to each other, that what used to be called "civics" be re-inserted into the K-12 curriculum, say somewhere between "Self-esteem" and "DodgeBalllsBad," so as to abide by Jefferson's admonishment that the remedy for an uneducated populace is education, not the stripping away of rights for the responsible exercise of which an educated populace is necessary. But, no, that would require too much personal effort, and besides, we've largely given over the raising of our young to the teachers' unions, and...