Happy/Sad

It's a few days after the election and I think my calves are no longer sore from all the jumping up and down in glee. Obama is our president-elect, Prop 4 (restricting abortion rights for minors in CA) was voted down, but unfortunately Prop 8 passed. From what I can tell there are some uncounted absentee ballots (mine? I voted no on 8) that have yet to be counted. Somewhere around 1-2 million, which could make a difference considering that prop 8 only won by less than half a million votes. In some ways I'm horrified this happened, but in others I'm not (any Californian's remember prop 20 or prop 13?) Although our legislature tends to be liberal, the propositions we pass can be incredibly discriminatory. I understand and admire the idea behind the proposition system (get the vote to the people, aim for something populist), but I think the system has failed. At this point, the propositions serve to allow special interest groups to "put to the voters" those acts of legislation they can't get passed in the legislature. They buy pass the legislative branch and then point to their "mandate". The problem is that voters, myself included, are idiots and not prepared in any way to make some of these decisions. Voters decide on the most persuasive commercial? We, as the busy working public, don't get all the information regarding the measures, how they will work with the system (and money) we have, and what things are projected to look like in the future. There are people with that knowledge, they are called my elected officials, who I, as a tax payer, pay a full time salary to so that they can spend their time getting themselves informed and making decisions. This is one of the reasons for a representative republic with an independent judiciary, to be more future-thinking than the unwashed masses who have a difficult time looking beyond their own insulated bubble and worries regarding whether to eat chicken or pasta for dinner (and how to afford that chicken or pasta). And, as I said, I completely include myself in this. I am working on a PhD and I am certainly not trained or informed enough to make some of these decisions; especially discriminatory decisions that undermine our independent judiciary and legislate unequal rights, or sell billions of dollars in bonds, or try to re-work the criminal justice system in a way that removes an individuals right to an independent and fair trial (prop 9). As much as I'd like to rule the world in a benign dictatorship, I don't. Running the state is not my job: I pay my representatives to do that. The propositions have the potential to allow for some really progressive legislation that the state government can't/won't pass to get through, but increasingly is seems like a venue for special interests groups (the prison industry, the religious right, energy companies hoping to make a $$ off of a pseudo-green revolution, environmentalists) to be able to push through laws. I'm not sure I'm willing to say it needs to go, but I'm close.

end rant.

In good news, I'm 1/2 done with my last Cherie Amour sweater and while L is living it up at a CfAO conference at Lake Arrowhead, my mom will be visiting for a few days.