Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has announced that State Question 832 will be included on the June 16, 2026, ballot. This will be a difficult question for Oklahomans as, if passed, it will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2029.Proponents for the initiative argue that wages have fallen too far behind prices and it’s impossible to live off the federal minimum wage. Opponents say the increase will send prices sky high and crush small businesses and farmers. Instead of arguing which view is correct, historically speaking, I am more interested in the procedure.The Oklahoma Legislature has kept the minimum wage at the federal level since 2009, and seems content for it to remain that way. This hike can only happen if the people of Oklahoma vote for it. While giving the people a direct vote on these matters seems to live up to our democratic values, it’s actually in direct opposition to what our Founders envisioned.It is important to understand today that while we believe in democratic principles, we are in fact a republic not a democracy. When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they put in place protections for the people against a strong federal government. But they also put into place protections for the government against the people. This is most evident in the original Constitution where “the people” only elect members of the House of Representatives.This was the one area where democracy came into play. We elect our representatives. Originally, however, senators were chosen by state legislatures. And presidents today are still elected by the Electoral College. Both were done to separate the people from these offices.While government can become tyrannical, so too could the people. The Founders recognized that. In possibly the most famous of the Federalists’ Papers, Number 10, James Madison argued that a majority of the population can become tyrannical, and that in a pure democracy, factions could easily dominate and oppress minorities.Simply for the sake of argument, let’s say that raising the minimum wage to $15 will wreck the economy. However, if the majority of Oklahomans vote for the raise for their own personal gain, is not the majority rule harmful for the rest of Oklahoma? Is that not tyrannical?Alexander Hamilton shared Madison’s view. In Federalist Paper Number 71, Hamilton worried that the people too often voted with passion instead of reason. At their core, republics were founded because elected leaders ...
