After a hospital patient dies the doctors all get together and talk about why they died and what could have been done (a conference on "oopsies"). At least this is what happens on medical TV shows, where I gather much of my medical know-how.
So let's have a conference on the political oopsies.
Starting at the top. President Elect Obama. I'm starting to like the sound of that. His name is just fun to say, especially "Obama, Obama, banana-fana-fo-fama." Say it. Out loud.
But... I'm an Independent and voted for Bob Barr (while silently weeping for not writing in Ronnie Paul). I like voting third party because no matter which of the two major party candidates wins, I can still complain about all of you people who elected either a D or R. Because in the next 4 years no matter who won the election, some supporters will turn against him, and I can claim no responsibility. But unlike the "oh I didn't vote because (insert stupid excuse here)" crowd, you can't tell me not to complain. Take that! But really, I'm coming around to this guy. There were strong detractors I won't get into which meant I didn't vote for him, but since Cali was going blue anyway it wasn't a big deal. I want to go off on a rant about the electoral college right now, but I think blogger has a word limit.
Next item, Prop 2, or the Be Nice to Claustrophobic Animals bill. I was glad this passed, but didn't know that it won't even take effect until 2015. 20 effing 15. Another presidential election will have come and gone by then. We probably won't even remember what we voted for back in the previous decade. The planet will be an average of 20 degrees warmer by then anyway, so it won't matter what chicken farms look like because they'll all be fried to a crisp.
OK so I made the last part up. Maybe.
The other one people actually remember after tossing their voter pamphlet was Prop 8. I don't want to get on a soapbox, but I happen to support equal rights, have a deep personal bias on the issue of gay rights, and had to control my feelings of rage when my hometown was a sea of cheery yellow plastic Yes signs. Props to my sister for her hand-made NO signs posted around the Yes signs on the streetposts on Commonwealth. Unfortunately the money spent on the Yes campaign won out. Or it was the rain that destroyed her signs which swayed the vote. I don't know for sure. I do know that there are protests across the nation for a California proposition, and I find that remarkable.
I'm still upset about this, so I'm going to a rally this Sunday at the OC LDS temple to make a statement about the meddling with politics by a religious institution. I don't understand how $22,000,000 spent by one religious sect on a ballot proposition is a separation of church and state. As a Christian I worry that people assume that I'm small minded, but it's just the opposite. I'm very open minded. If I wasn't I'd still be an atheist. If I wasn't open minded I may have believed the lies that the Yes campaign spread.
Now I'm taking to the streets, which I should have done before the election, but I really thought this would go down in flames. It hurts my heart that it passed. It also hurts that it "passed" even with millions of uncounted absentee ballots (one of those is mine!! Hello?) sitting in boxes somewhere. According to the Secretary of State herself a few days ago, there were almost 2 million uncounted. My lonely little paper dude is waiting in the dark to be read. Waiting with millions of other ballots that we owe a voice.
The rest of the props were about spending more money on something. One was about abortion. I don't want to go there...
So, with that, I'm done. I haven't discovered the real post-mortem answers, namely what could have been done to have saved us from certain outcomes. But who can really say?
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