Act of faith
I do love voting in America. It's practically the only time I ever go to church. And this year, a Baptist church at that.
I voted against incumbent Republican U.S. Senator John Kyl (thanks for the Patriot Act, jerk), and against incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman J.D. Hayworth (thanks for the Patriot Act, jerk), and for incumbent Democrat governor Janet Napolitano.
I voted against a state constitutional amendment establishing English as our official language, against a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman (we already have anti-gay marriage laws on the books, so I see no need to up the ante on our already extant homophobia), for an increase in minimum wage, against the measure discouraging illegal immigrants from seeking higher education, against the "smoking ban" endorsed by RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris, and against the "conservation" bill sponsored by every bank, insurance company, and housing developer in the state.
I am a liberal with a big, pink, capital L, and it's time for change. And not change for the sake of change, or because I'm bored with the current powers. It's time for change because the presidential administration and those who support it have been very busy establishing a fundamentally anti-American regime, and today we get another chance to weaken their grip. Despite our recent history of electoral fraud and malfeasance, we still live in a republic, and today we get to exercise our rights. While we've still got 'em.
I really do love voting in America.
I voted against incumbent Republican U.S. Senator John Kyl (thanks for the Patriot Act, jerk), and against incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman J.D. Hayworth (thanks for the Patriot Act, jerk), and for incumbent Democrat governor Janet Napolitano.
I voted against a state constitutional amendment establishing English as our official language, against a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman (we already have anti-gay marriage laws on the books, so I see no need to up the ante on our already extant homophobia), for an increase in minimum wage, against the measure discouraging illegal immigrants from seeking higher education, against the "smoking ban" endorsed by RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris, and against the "conservation" bill sponsored by every bank, insurance company, and housing developer in the state.
I am a liberal with a big, pink, capital L, and it's time for change. And not change for the sake of change, or because I'm bored with the current powers. It's time for change because the presidential administration and those who support it have been very busy establishing a fundamentally anti-American regime, and today we get another chance to weaken their grip. Despite our recent history of electoral fraud and malfeasance, we still live in a republic, and today we get to exercise our rights. While we've still got 'em.
I really do love voting in America.
8 Comments:
Completely agnostic here, but I found myself clasping my hands together over the weekend any how.
Elections do that a guy, I guess. Hell (oops, a religous phrase), if the guys keep it up we will be living in a theocracy, anyway.
I made comments about early voting when I did it last week here.
By Anonymous, at Tue Nov 07, 11:16:00 AM MST
I love voting to, because it gives me the right to complain when jerks get into office instead of who I voted for, or stupid propositions pass.
However, when I arrived this morning at my polling place, the poll workers did not have the electronic vote checker functioning, and there was discussion over how to make it work, and what constituted a receipt to give to voters after voting.
Instead of my ballot going into the ballot box, it went into a large envelope, which already had numerous ballots in it, and I can only hope that it will be placed in the ballot box later.
So while I love to vote, it's turned out to be less fun to think my vote might not actually make it into the box.
I've spent the morning on the telephone and emailing whomever will listen to complain about it. Sadly, it wasn't treated as a freak event.
By Virtualbri, at Tue Nov 07, 11:39:00 AM MST
I'm cautiously optimistic that we've tossed out J.D. Hayworth, who is currently my congressman only through a typical bit of gerrymandering. And he's also a pro-Bush, pro-torture, anti-habeas-corpus blowhard, so I'm still chanting over my prayer beads.
By Greg van Eekhout, at Wed Nov 08, 07:25:00 AM MST
So, could it be true that AZ is going to be the only state of 8 voting not to ban same-sex marriage?
Don't raise my hopes for that state. I know you'll only crush them later....
By Virtualbri, at Wed Nov 08, 10:48:00 AM MST
Well, we already have a ban on same-sex marriage. What this new law would do is also ban civil unions, and (key here) possibly prevent cohabitating, non-married opposite-sex couples from receiving domestic partner benefits (it's unclear whether it would or not). Right now, Arizona is very concerned with continuing economic growth, and it looked like the law might be bad for business.
On the other hand, we did pass the increase in minimum wage, and we may have succeeded in throwing out our most prominent member of Congress, J.D. Hayworth. So, some encouraging signs ...
By Greg van Eekhout, at Wed Nov 08, 11:36:00 AM MST
Hey cousin,
So glad to read you're a liberal too!
I thought I was the only in the family with that pinko label. One of these days we'll have to get together and compare notes.
By Cousin Ellen, at Wed Nov 08, 10:08:00 PM MST
Congratulations on being part of the only electorate in the country to have defeated an anti-gay-marriage ban.
As a gay man, I thank you.
By aphrael, at Thu Nov 09, 01:18:00 PM MST
Aphrael, I'd like to be optimistic and say that Arizona voters are sane and tolerant, that cast our ballots to begin putting an end to blatant, shameful discrimination, but I think the reason the measure failed was that it overreached far enough to impact heterosexuals. Slate has a pretty good analysis of the issue here.
But still, you're very welcome. :-)
Viva la Revolución, Cousin!
By Greg van Eekhout, at Thu Nov 09, 10:36:00 PM MST
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