Election Day

[jeriendhal]

Went home from work early and voted. It was a dead time at the polling station, nearly empty, which didn't encourage me, even though I know Maryland is a deep blue state and the reports from other, more contested areas was that there was an incredible turnout.

I started watching the results on BBC America. The idiot with the "touchscreen" was distracting, but... I cheered when Obama got PA. From there I knew it was going to be all right.

Obama won, more to the point, Obama won handily. There's no question about whether he has a mandate, except from the lunatic fringe who will always hate him because He Is Not One of Us. I'm disappointed for my gay friends that Prop 8 was passed (not that any of them live in CA) but there's always a chance to change that, I hope.

Obama is going to be president. A black man, a sane Democrat with a plan, not a set of rabid ideologies, is going to be president in my lifetime. I have no doubt the shine is going to wear off once he runs headlong into his first official crisis or scandal, but damn I feel good right now.

It's morning in America

Comments

[tamhavik.livejournal.com]

So the prop 8 was passed? I read about it today for the first time and looking at the voting percentages on wikipedia I thought it looked close... Poor gay people in California. I can't imagine having a law that states you can't marry the person you love...

Though here there are plenty of couples, even different sex couples, who just don't marry at all. It's not always neccessarry to marry to prove to eachother that you love eachother.

Why do they have a law like that anyway? I don't understand.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

There's still a very slim chance of it being defeated, but that doesn't seem very likely at this point.

I don't understand it either. Two men or two women loving each other does not invalidate the love I feel for my wife. Enshrining prejudice in a state's constitution is right up there with miscegenation laws from the 19th century.

[lennan.livejournal.com]

A lot of it I think is tied to religion, this is what I've heard in polling lines, and people not understanding that the government isn't asking the church to marry gays. The other thing is that people are thinking they're "saving" marriage when the history of marriage shows that what we think of it has in fact changed drastically in the last 100 years. Or do we have to play the semantics game to allow certain couples rights considered unalienable by straights?

I just hate the inequality of it, why do straights get more rights under the gov than gays or nonmarried people? Are they somehow less than family? It baffles and depressed me. =/

[tamhavik.livejournal.com]

Oh btw ^^ Congratulations on having Abama elected! I hope his first official crisis or scandal will be a long time from now.

[lennan.livejournal.com]

We tried, we tried. But rest assured it will be kicked to the curb by the courts like the unconstitutional law it is...only to return like a sequel to a bad horror film the next cycle, because we don't have limits on the bugger. >_>