well, it's a start
Nov. 5th, 2008 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbI find I'm ambivalent about the election - maybe more than I should be.
Obviously Obama's victory is great news for the country. More about that in a future post, I hope.
I'm most disappointed that California's gay marriage ban passed, writing a new form of discrimination into the state constitution. I plan to write about that one separately too.
And everything in between. I'm glad the Democrats picked up about 20 House seats, and at least five in the Senate, although it's too bad we couldn't make 60. Of the candidates I was really following, a few won (Kay Hagan, at least), more lost (Madia, Tinklenberg, Cook), and others are still too close to call (Franken, Merkley, Burner, Martin, Begich). Maybe this just means I tend to be interested in races that are hard to win.
Californians voted for high-speed rail, but my county voted against extending the regional rail system to San Jose. We voted for more humane treatment of livestock, which I like. Anti-abortion measures failed in California, South Dakota, and Colorado. Michigan and Massachusetts passed marijuana reform. Washington will allow terminally ill patients to choose how to end their lives. Connecticut decided not to hold a constitutional convention, which means same-sex marriages will probably be legal there by the end of the month. But not in Arizona, Florida, or California, where new bans were passed. And Arkansas banned adoption by unmarried cohabitants, mostly because some unmarried couples are gay.
There's plenty of good in there along with some bad. Partly I'm disappointed because this amazing event, the election of Barack Obama, doesn't seem to have swept other needed changes in along with it. But I think mostly what's getting to me is that so many of the losses came from the two states where I've lived most of my life. What happened, California and Minnesota? I thought we were pals!
Obviously Obama's victory is great news for the country. More about that in a future post, I hope.
I'm most disappointed that California's gay marriage ban passed, writing a new form of discrimination into the state constitution. I plan to write about that one separately too.
And everything in between. I'm glad the Democrats picked up about 20 House seats, and at least five in the Senate, although it's too bad we couldn't make 60. Of the candidates I was really following, a few won (Kay Hagan, at least), more lost (Madia, Tinklenberg, Cook), and others are still too close to call (Franken, Merkley, Burner, Martin, Begich). Maybe this just means I tend to be interested in races that are hard to win.
Californians voted for high-speed rail, but my county voted against extending the regional rail system to San Jose. We voted for more humane treatment of livestock, which I like. Anti-abortion measures failed in California, South Dakota, and Colorado. Michigan and Massachusetts passed marijuana reform. Washington will allow terminally ill patients to choose how to end their lives. Connecticut decided not to hold a constitutional convention, which means same-sex marriages will probably be legal there by the end of the month. But not in Arizona, Florida, or California, where new bans were passed. And Arkansas banned adoption by unmarried cohabitants, mostly because some unmarried couples are gay.
There's plenty of good in there along with some bad. Partly I'm disappointed because this amazing event, the election of Barack Obama, doesn't seem to have swept other needed changes in along with it. But I think mostly what's getting to me is that so many of the losses came from the two states where I've lived most of my life. What happened, California and Minnesota? I thought we were pals!
