The voting is well over and it seems that not everyone is happy with the outcomes. Who would have thought an election would not solve all of your problems? It has taken me a while to put my thoughts together on this and write them down. I am still not sure I have it all the way I like it, but if i wait any longer it will not be timely and relevant so here goes.
Prop 8 If the State Supreme Court has any balls they will rule that Prop8 is legal and amend the state constitution. Religious conservatives will be able to rejoice in their victory over the forces of homosexuality.
Until...
The State Supreme Court should follow this decision with the abolishment of State Marriage. You heard me. All state issued marriage certificates would be reworked to only allow for civil unions between two consenting adults. Polygamists will have to wait. This will get the state out of the marrying business, force the acceptance of Civil Union as the legal equivalent of a marriage, and let the religious types keep Marriage for churches and heteros. No it is not perfect, but it would be a mighty endrun around the constitutional amendment.
I have never thought that the state should be involved in either the relationship between people and their gods nor those between consenting adults.
The Presidential ElectionAs has been said over and over again this was a historic election. This is said every four years as partisans do their best to paint this election as vital to the survival of the nation.
"If $CANDIDATE is elected the country will become a $IDEOLOGY state and be doomed. The founding fathers would roll over in their graves."
And yet this never happens.
But history was made with the election of the first non-white man the office of President. It is a big step for this nation and will, I hope, go a long way towards combating racism. My kids will never know an America that didn't have a black man in the highest office and that makes me proud. I sincerely hope that President-Elect Obama will succeed big enough to shame his criticsm, but he inherits an aweful mess. It is going to be a big job and I hope he is up to the task.
His critics have gone to great lengths to diminish his success. They claim that he slandered Hillary and Palin with sexist and unfair attacks. They claim that he has a shady past and that the Liberal Media have been covering up for him buy not reporting on his dirty dealings. The tired refrain that they were "in the tank" for him throughout the election. That he stole the election through ACORN or other nefarious means. It is my belief that he won because optimism was more appealing than fear. Near the end fear seemed to be all the McCain had to offer. I only rarely heard him speak of himself, instead using his air time to try and cast fear, uncertainty and doubt upon his opponent. I found this tactic unsavory to say the least. I once held Senator McCain in high regard, but his conduct in this election actually made me sad. It was beneath him (and his campaign) to question Obama's patriotism and associations. To add insult to injury, it didn't work.
If indeed there is evidence of a shady past or dirty dealings, then report them. Stop complaining that the Liberal Media are not doing their job and do it yourself. The internet makes it possible for anyone to report their findings and send them to Right leaning news organizations, they do exist. To be taken seriously you need more than rumor and supposition. Simply saying that we still don't know all about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers does not make it so. If he is being truthful then there is nothing left for him to say about it, if he is not being truthful, find the pictures of them on ski holiday together or copies of their correspondence. Anything less is conjecture. I truly am incredulous that people could be so deluded as to honestly believe that no news organization would run the story because of their bias. Apparently the video of Rev Wright, the Flag Pin controversy and the National Anthem brouhaha have all been forgotten.
You will still find the conspiracy theories swirling at any right wing website just as they have continued on the left for the past 8 years. To my eye there is no real difference between the two extremes. They are both populated by cranks who are compelled to loudly voice their ill informed opinions and are believed by their extremist opposition to represent the mainstream instead of the fringe. No amount of reason will pry such people from their position because they did not reason themselves into it. It is an unfortunate truth that reasoned discourse does not sell papers which is why people who should be shouting their rant on some street corner are given time on TV or in print. This lends much more weight to their arguments than they deserve.
I will likely have to devote and entire rant to this in the future as it is a giant issue that deserves some attention.
Post election drinking game:
1) Go to Daily Kos or a similar site and retrieve a vanity post from 2004 whining about Bush stealing the election
2) Replace Bush with Obama, and post to FreeRepublic or Pajamas Media
3) Drink a shot every time someone replies positively
4) Die of alcohol poisoning
