A Sense of History
Nov 6th, 2008 | By Robin Zhang | Category: FeatureMeet your new president -
Tuesday was a truly historic day. Not only did America elect its first African-American president, but it also decided to reject the policies of perhaps the worst US president in history and also the fear-baiting, irrelavent fringe-issue politics of John McCain and Sarah Palin. And while racism certainly isn’t dead in America, the election of Barack Obama at the very least sends a powerful symbol to the rest of the world that we have begun to move past the old race and culture wars of the 1960s. And while Obama may be far from perfect and we don’t necessarily agree with all his policies, there is no doubt that he is extraordinarily intelligent and curious - and given the far-right stoicism and domination of religious conservatives in government of the past 8 years that have run the country into the ground, there is no place to go but up.
Obviously the election of a black man is a huge unprecidented milestone, but other milestones were reached today for the nation and the Democratic Party. I will attempt to list them below:
- Barack Obama has won more votes than any other candidate for president in history. He also has won a greater percent of the popular vote than any other Democrat since 1964 and a greater percent of the popular vote than any candidate since 1988.
- The Obama-Biden ticket is the first Democratic ticket without a southerner on the ticket to win since 1944.
- Obama (or McCain for that matter) is the first president to have spent much of their childhood outside the country.
- Obama won Virginia and Indiana. The former is of course the capitol of the old Confederacy. The latter is the 7th most conservative state in the nation. Neither state has gone for a Democrat since 1964.
- Obama won North Carolina, a state that hasn’t gone for a Democrat since 1976.
- Obama won the greatest number of electoral votes of any candidate since 1996.
- Perhaps most importantly for Edger readers… Obama probably isn’t an atheist. But he has a multicultural as well as an interfaith family. His mother and father are atheists. He and Michelle are Christians (unless you ask Roy). His half-sister Maya is Buddhist. And his stepfather is Muslim. Hopefully this diversity will give us a President who is more inclusive of people of all beliefs rather than just someone who panders to the Religious Right.
Also, Obama won the popular vote by 53% to 46%, just as I had predicted. Furthermore, there is a good indication that the right-wing culture warriors are losing on the so-called “pro-life” issues -
- South Dakota defeated a draconian abortion bill 55% to 45%
- Colorado defeated a measure to define life as “the point of conception” 72% to 28%
- California rejected Proposition 4, a parental notification measure, 52% to 48%
- Michigan approved embryonic stem cell research 52% to 48%. They also approved medical marijuana by double digits.
- Washington approved a measure to allow euthanasia of terminally ill patients 57% to 42%
But not everything went well on November 4th. While all the anti-abortion measures were defeated, anti-gay marriage measures were also defeated across the nation. We still have a long way to go -
- Proposition 8 was passed 52% to 48%. Gay marriages are now banned in California according to its constitution, although homosexuals who have already married still are legally married… for now.
- A constitutional ban on gay marriage was passed in Arizona 56% to 44%
- A constitutional ban on gay marriage was passed in Florida 62% to 38%
- A measure to ban gay adoption was passed in Arkansas 57% to 41%
Proposition 8 Post-Mortem
Proposition 8 was the only aforementioned measure that had a good chance of failing. In fact, it was trailing by 17% in the polls at one point. However, there were several factors that helped get it passed -
- The Mormon Church. Say what you will about them, but they do have military-like precision, and they pumped enough money into the campaign to outspend the No on 8 people by a 2-to-1 margin. They also knew how to press peoples’ buttons. Rather than trying the measure as a civil rights issue, they falsely claimed that schools would be forced to impose the notion of homosexual marriage on young schoolchildren. They also falsely claimed that both Barack Obama and John McCain support Prop 8 (Obama opposes it)… but if you repeat a lie enough if becomes true.
- Ineptitude of the No on 8 Campaign. The No on 8 Campaign blew a 17 point lead and endorsements by Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Arnold Schwarzenegger by a lack of funds and a lack of organization. They only really got off the ground one week before the election when they finally decided to take money from the teachers’ and the nurses’ unions. And by then it was too late. They also did not exploit endorsements by the aforementioned - all of whom are popular politicians in CA - until the very end either.
- Old People. Young voters (those aged 18-29) overwhelmingly rejected Prop 8 62% to 38%. However, the 30-44 voting bloc split evenly on Prop 8, and those 45 years of age and older all voted for Prop 8 by significant margins.
- San Bernadino and Fresno Counties. They voted for Prop 8 by almost 40% margins. Can we kick them out? The 51 state can be called Dumbifornia.
All in all, I was very pleased with Tuesday’s results. I would trade 20 Proposition 8s for an Obama administration, perhaps even more.
Last 5 posts by Robin Zhang
- Al Franken to Win Senate Seat? - December 22nd, 2008
- Triangulation FTL: Right Wing Pastor Rick Warren to Lead Invocation - December 20th, 2008
- Steven Baldwin Gets Punk’d By Two Local Radio Hosts - November 16th, 2008
- My Election Predictions - November 3rd, 2008
- Fundamentalist Theatre 3000 BC - The Omega Code - November 2nd, 2008
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I was doing good reading this article - shows the promise of Obama, and recognizes the loss of Prop. 8, but then I read the last sentence: “I would trade 20 Proposition 8s for an Obama administration, perhaps even more.”
Excuse me?
You would trade HUMAN RIGHTS for a centre-right president? Do you want to say that line to any of your gay friends?
He’s not likely to change too much. The Democrats and Republicans are more alike than different (try looking up political parties in other countries, they typically cover the spectrum more), and although Obama won’t be influenced by the Christian Right, he likely won’t change the world.
In fact, there wasn’t one Proposition 8 on Tuesday, there were 3 (California, Arizona, Florida), and another proposition against unmarried (read: gay) couples adopting. They all passed.
So go ahead and cheer for your populist leader while ignoring the real issue that human rights have just been trampled in four states.
[Reply]
Robin Zhang Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 3:28 am
Isn’t populism usually attributed with liberal politics? But I digress…
We all have our definitions of liberal and conservative, and certainly Barack Obama is more conservative than most if not all of us and would be considered center-right in Canada and Europe. However, compared to the overall voting population of the United States, which is much more conservative than Canada or Europe, Barack Obama is to the left of the general population and to the left of Hillary Clinton. We could have nominated a Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich to run as the standard-bearer of the American left, but eventually if one is to be successful in politics consensus (or an extreme dose of fear) must be achieved and such a candidate must have broad appeal to moderates and maybe even a few conservatives. So I’ll take what I can get.
As for the twenty Prop 8 comments, I stand by them. It was a hypothetical, and frankly you Canadians haven’t endured the WORST PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY (as agreed upon by most historians) for the past eight years, who destroyed all the investment banks, vetoed stem cell research, and bankrupted America on a foreign adventure. So yes, given that hypothetical I would trade in 20 Proposition 8s for a ticket that did not run on a platform of perpetuating the shitburger supreme that has been the past 8 years, even if the Democratic nominee were a conservative southern “Blue Dog” Democrat who believes in creationism.
[Reply]
Robin Zhang Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Also as an addendum to the Prop 8 comments, passage of gay marriage bans are more or less a given unless you’re living in New England, the West Coast, Hawaii, and maybe Minnesota and Nevada. What’s also a given is that the Religious Right is going to pass gay marriage bans to increase their voter turnout.
On the other hand, Loren (read below) makes a good point; the only reason a gay marriage ban was on the ballot was because the courts overturned Proposition 22, a previous gay marriage ban that was on the ballot in 2000 and won by a 16% margin. Today, that margin is down to 4%, compounded with the fact that the Mormon Church sunk tens of millions of dollars into the proposition and that the “No on 8″ people ran a disorganized campaign.
So I’m confident that Prop 8 can be overturned, either almost immediately by the courts, or by the voters of California in two or four years if this trend continues.
[Reply]
JakeS Reply:
November 8th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
The passage of Prop 8 and it’s friends is indeed depressing to human rights. But if they all passed and McCain-Palin won, how long until they are reversed? Five minutes after his first supreme court appointment? As soon as a constitutional ban can be pressed through? Even if we wouldn’t see legislation rolling back homosexual rights a couple decades, I don’t see him doing much to advance them.
Even if we don’t see marriage rights extended under an Obama administration, we know that at least things won’t get worse and will probably get better. There has already been improvement; he is the first president-elect who says he will not discriminate potential appointees by “gender identity”.
[Reply]
[...] a lot of hope and excitement in the (more progressive) USA right now. except of course at [...]
“Old People. Young voters (those aged 18-29) overwhelmingly rejected Prop 8 62% to 38%. However, the 30-44 voting bloc split evenly on Prop 8, and those 45 years of age and older all voted for Prop 8 by significant margins.”
…guess we’ll just have to wait
[Reply]
As to Proposition 8, there’s a nice article comparing it and a Proposition 22, a similar one back in 2000:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-2008election-prop8prop22,0,6153805.htmlstory
The antigay side won bigger back in 2000, and the then-and-now patterns are revealing. Select “margin of victory” to see which side won by how much in each county. Only some San Francisco Bay Area counties were pro-gay-marriage back in 2000; some of them rejected it along with the rest of the state. But from 2000 to 2008 is a big jump in the more urban areas: all of the SF Bay Area counties supported it this year, and opposition to it was reduced in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties. However, the Inland Empire, most of the Central Valley, and northernmost California stayed about the same.
Could having a prominent gay community make the difference?
And Proposition 4, mandating parental notification of teenage girls getting abortion, lost. Its biggest supporters were in the Central Valley and in the counties east and south of LA; most other urbanized areas opposed it. And McCain’s biggest supporters were Orange County, the Central Valley, and the north end.
The fetus worshippers also got defeated in Colorado (75%-25%) and South Dakota (55%-45%), and as in California, people in cities were less inclined to fetus worship than people in rural areas.
[Reply]
Robin Zhang Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Hopefully Prop 8 can be overturned in 2 to 4 years then if this trend continues. And hopefully the Yes on Prop X people this time will be more organized and anticipate a counterattack from the Mormon Church.
Also on the plus side I think that gay marriage managed to pass in Connecticut
[Reply]
[...] a lot of hope and excitement in the (more progressive) USA right now. Except of course at [...]