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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

 
3:09 PM: election partAY [#] [4]

a week after the election and most of the close contested races have been decided. we had a small party to watch the results w/ michaelmas, sven & cecelia, which gave us a chance to celebrate obama's acceptance speech w/ freshly baked apple pie.

but i wanted to be happier about the election results than i am. nationally, i'm hugely relieved we aren't facing a mccain/palin presidency, but some of the states really passed some bad stuff.

the good:

* obama won! and remarkably early, too. i'm a little unfcomfortable with the republican framing of this as a "historical moment" for blacks everywhere, as if they didn't play his race as something to fear during the rest of the campaign.

* colorado failed the "personhood" amendment! resoundingly! not one county passed it, even el paso! colorado also (barely) rejected an affirmative action ban. maybe i can go visit again. :)

* south dakota failed the abortion ban, even with exceptions for rape or the life of the mother. i thought after last time they would add the exceptions and it would pass -- so what a big, wonderful surprise that it failed! way to go, south dakota!

* california narrowly defeated the parental notification measure. this is the third attempt. i wish they'd give it a break. thank you, california!

* jeff merkley won the oregon senate by the skin of multnomah county's teeth. gordon smith was pretty gracious about it and yet emotional about the loss. i almost felt bad. he seems like a nice enough guy, but i'm still glad merkley won.

the bad:

* arizona, florida, california all voted to ban gay marriage. wtf people? why do you CARE? though i guess it helps if the mormon church pours over $30 million into a campaign (so much for separation of church & state). and one of my disappointments about obama is that he doesn't support gay marriage, either. i hope california successfully challenges the decision.

* i can't believe arkansas took that one step further and banned gay couples adopting children. not only is this initiative anti-gay, but it also denies adoption rights to unmarried straight couples -- and could affect single people as well. wtf, arkansas? why don't people who don't support birth control or abortion support adoption? are you saying it's better for children to remain in abused situations or in foster homes than with a gay couple? are you kidding me?

* nebraska ended affirmative action. ergh. electing a black president doesn't mean racial prejudice is over, folks!

Comments:

You may already know this, but California banned affirmative action in 1997, and Washington State did in 1998. My guess is that minority hiring and student enrollment has decreased since then. A quick Google search didn't turn up anything, but the data is probably out there somewhere.

# posted by  Anonymous : Wed Nov 12, 09:13:00 PM PST

 

yeah, i knew that. same guy who pushed those pushed it on nevada & colorado this year, too. feh.

# posted by  gl. : Wed Nov 12, 11:05:00 PM PST

 

Yay for the yays!

...And feh on that other crap. :P

# posted by  Sven Bonnichsen : Thu Nov 13, 12:41:00 AM PST

 

Technically, AZ didn't vote to ban gay marriage as it was already banned. Voted ourselves further into the hole by redefining marriage, yes, but allowing gay marriage wasn't on the ballot.

# posted by  Unknown : Tue Nov 18, 05:30:00 AM PST

 

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