Don’t get me wrong – I’m very glad Obama was elected – but an election always seems to be far more important than it really is. Congress is still the same weird inefficient mess, lobby interests are still far too important, the voice of the people still ignored. People are still stupid and ignorant and biased. Obama likely won’t be able to pass most of the legislation that he really wants to, and four years from now, the US will still be in about the same place it is now. I hope it will be better, but that remains to be seen.

It’s just another election.

A couple of important things happened, though. One is very bad, and the other very good. Hopefully, the good outweighs the bad:

The bad: California’s Proposition 8. It failed. The effects from this will last far, far longer than almost anything else in this election. It’s just incredibly depressing. I still can’t believe it passed – in fact, my conservative parents were surprised it passed! The message is clear. If California can’t defeat a marriage amendment, nobody can. I’m guessing Massachusetts and Connecticut will both pass amendments as soon as they can. (Side note: I have this theory on ballot measures. It seems like it is much easier to pass them than to defeat them, almost as if a certain number of people just vote ‘yes’ without actually reading it first! I think that some LGBT rights organization should get an amendment started somewhere that allows gay marriage – it just might work! I have no real evidence to support this, though…)

The good: We just elected the first Black president! Irrespective of any policies, legislation, judiciary appointments, or other actions that Obama and the new Congress might make, this fact alone will have a wonderful effect. I can’t count the number of times that I heard someone say how “terrified” they were of Obama being President. When pressed, they would always say that they thought that Obama was a socialist. That wasn’t it, of course. Most people don’t have an irrational fear of socialists – and Obama isn’t any more socialist than other Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter!) anyway. Heck, Teddy Roosevelt was a socialist! No, people are scared of Obama because he’s Black, pure and simple. And I’m excited about the effect that having a Black president will have on the country, on rights for people of color, for women, for any marginalized group.

Bigoted people will see that they were fools. People with latent and subconscious racism or sexism will be pushed toward a better viewpoint. Everyone will realize that the country is better when it’s not just being run by White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestants. And most importantly, when people say, “In America, anyone can try to accomplish whatever they want. Anyone can be elected President.”, it will not just be an expression, a legal technicality.

It is now the truth.

(Crossposted at Fourth Wave Feminism)

Voting is a funny thing. As it turns out, it is impossible that a vote for more than two candidates be fair. (Consult any political science text for an explanation of this, if you are curious). In the case of our system, where the candidate with the most votes wins, the unfairness is, that a candidate could be elected of whom the majority actually disapproves of! So we rectify this by voting for the candidate for one of the tow big parties that is closest to are views. And, thus our two party system continues, without even a minor challenge to it’s dominance.

I really don’t like this. I feel bad about not supporting the candidate that I really like the most, but I don’t know what else to do! I think the situation might improve if we had runoff elections. (A runoff is a second vote for only the two most popular candidates). I know, I know, runoff elections have their own problems – particularly when one group votes for a candidate that everybody hates in order to ensure their victory, but I feel that it takes more thought, more of a conspiracy to cause unfair results in a runoff election.

Perhaps the best solution would be to change voting systems every other year, but I guess that would just confuse people.

In any case, I’ll be glad when I’m done with the candidate portion of the ballot tomorrow – and voting for the amendments and propositions and questions is fun! It’s just YES or NO. No chance for dishonesty there.

Everybody VOTE!

Here’s a fun blog game that’s actually worth while! Write to marry day.

Now, I believe that I’ve already given my opinion on marriage in general – I think that the government should stay out of it, and leave it as a personal or religious statement. But here’s the thing – if the government is going to define and regulate marriage, it must be available for gay people.

It’s not a moral issue.

It’s not an ethics issue.

It’s not going to ‘undermine the family and hurt the children’ – even if gay marriage were somehow magically detrimental to the family, around half of all people are divorced! The family is already dead.

Now, I’m sure that those of us who are gay, gay-friendly, etc. already know this; we’re already voting no on the appropriate issue. So here’s something for anyone who might read this who might think that being gay is unnatural or morally wrong:

If you think that being gay is wrong, you probably think that adultery and fornication is morally wrong. Are those illegal? (Adultery is grounds for divorce – but little else) Should they be? No, they shouldn’t – we don’t like it when the government legislates morality! How is gay marriage different? Nobody is forcing you to marry someone of your own sex. Your life will not be affected. But think about this: There are thousands of people out there who aren’t allowed to receive benefits on their partner’s medical plans, who should. They are denied the right to be a part of a dying loved one’s care. They are denied tax benefits that others receive. The list could go on and on.

By not allowing gay marriage, the government is saying, “Look, there is something wrong with that group of people!” The government is telling people what is right and wrong. There is not obvious consensus, like there is with, say, murder. Do you want the government doing this. Next, it will be saying that something you do is wrong. Go ahead and believe, preach, try to convince people whatever you want to about gay marriage. But please don’t vote to have the government force people to behave a certain way.

Vote no on 8, 102, and whatever other amendments!