Jill Rants and Raves: so, who voted for Obama AND for Prop 8?

Ok, ho hum, it was anticlimactic on the night. That's Ok. This election is full of symbolism and I'll let real political pundits analyse away - oh, by the way, why is it that many American politicians, most radio talkers and callers and quite a few well educated Americans say 'pundiNts'. It is PUNDITS. The most notable use of the word pundiNt was during the Veep speech by lipstick bullydog Sarah Palin, which should have been a clue that she gets her talking points from right wing radio. Maybe the Obama Presidency can shepherd in a new era where pundits are called just that and tenets are not called 'teneNts'. What is with the extra 'N'? Huh?

I'm as happy as the next person that America swung as dramatically as it could. And aside from making some facile comment about what kind of puppy the kids might get to take to the White House, I can't think of a single thing that hasn't been said or is going to be said. It won't be a pitbull. Or a bichon. I'm thinking yellow lab.

Locally, the candidate I volunteered for, Jesse Arreguin, has become the youngest Berkeley Council Member in recent memory and aside from his support of Norman LaForce, who was elected yesterday to fill the vacant board seat of a woman who despised him, on the East Bay Regional Parks Board, I am totally stoked about Jesse's victory. Norman is a strange man who hates people using parks almost as much as he hates dogs using them.

And then there's Prop 8. What to say? There were a whole bunch of people who voted for Obama in California and who also voted 'Yes' on 8. I guess the concept of equal rights for ALL is just not quite clear in some minds. I think marriage is problematic (no shit), in spite of my sentimental 'I wanna get married' blog the other day. And I feel much more comfortable with the idea of a civil ceremony carrying the same rights and responsibilities as traditional marriage. But look - marriage exists for one part of the community, it should exist for the other, it's sort of simple. And that there are people who voted for the 'hope' 'change' and 'audacity' program of Obama's campaign, but couldn't bring themselves to see gays as their equal - well, it's a problem dude.

The breakdown of the voting will tell us more - about who and why they voted out of fear. Next time. Next time.

Meanwhile, I still think the American election system is broken. I still believe in radically reducing the number of propositions and initiatives on the ballots, I think Ralph Nader has finally become as irrelevant as Ross Perot, and personally, I don't think Sarah Palin has any future at all in American politics.