"No" is a powerful word
Today was election day and around the country voters said a loud and ringing "No!" to a lot of pet Republican initiatives.
The vote which gives me personally the most satisfaction is the one in my birthplace of Mississippi which rejected the Republican proposition that a fertilized egg is a person deserving of all the rights and protections of personhood. They had previously tried to sneak this abomination of a law by the voters of Colorado - twice! - and been rejected. Now the voters of Mississippi have rejected them, too, and if they can't get approval for this idea in the ultra-conservative state of Mississippi, it is unlikely that they can get it passed anywhere. That won't stop them from trying though. They are already trying to get the initiative on the ballots in several states for next year.
In Ohio, the voters rejected the idea that public employees do not have any collective bargaining rights and they did so by a very unambiguous margin. Good for the voters of Ohio!
And let us not forget Maine where the Republicans were trying to overturn four decades of voting practices by doing away with the right of citizens to register and vote on the same day. The reason that they gave for doing this was to stop voter fraud, even though there was zero evidence of voter fraud in Maine. The voters of Maine told the Republicans that they like being able to register and vote on the same day and so they will keep their voting laws just the way they have been. Good for the voters of Maine!
Sometimes it seems that an epidemic of common sense sweeps across the nation and voters act more rationally than we've had any right to expect. It's always a surprise when that happens. A very happy surprise. There's a lot to be happy about on this election day.
The vote which gives me personally the most satisfaction is the one in my birthplace of Mississippi which rejected the Republican proposition that a fertilized egg is a person deserving of all the rights and protections of personhood. They had previously tried to sneak this abomination of a law by the voters of Colorado - twice! - and been rejected. Now the voters of Mississippi have rejected them, too, and if they can't get approval for this idea in the ultra-conservative state of Mississippi, it is unlikely that they can get it passed anywhere. That won't stop them from trying though. They are already trying to get the initiative on the ballots in several states for next year.
In Ohio, the voters rejected the idea that public employees do not have any collective bargaining rights and they did so by a very unambiguous margin. Good for the voters of Ohio!
And let us not forget Maine where the Republicans were trying to overturn four decades of voting practices by doing away with the right of citizens to register and vote on the same day. The reason that they gave for doing this was to stop voter fraud, even though there was zero evidence of voter fraud in Maine. The voters of Maine told the Republicans that they like being able to register and vote on the same day and so they will keep their voting laws just the way they have been. Good for the voters of Maine!
Sometimes it seems that an epidemic of common sense sweeps across the nation and voters act more rationally than we've had any right to expect. It's always a surprise when that happens. A very happy surprise. There's a lot to be happy about on this election day.
I too felt a surge of hope upon hearing these results!
ReplyDeleteLet us hope that this epidemic of common sense can be sustained through the 2012 election, Anonymous.
ReplyDelete