Well...
Well, that was a let down…but not terribly surprising. While full of hope, there hadn’t been much polling data to support a Kerry victory. The early returns showing incredibly strong turnout amongst young voters and their support for the dems was heartening, but Rove’s “get out the evangelicals” strategy paid off. Here’s to four more years of open disdain for “reality-based” viewpoints. Whee!
While I hate to see the minority leader lose his job, I’m not that disappointed by Daschle’s defeat. But the thing that’s really killing me this morning is Colorado’s electoral college reform going down the tubes. Sure, we now have a president who won both the popular vote and the electoral college vote, but the campaign process will continue to suffer from the focus on disproportionately “important” states like Ohio. My brother Jason, who’s an expat living in Mexico City, was quoted in the Mexican edition of the Herald today…
“The United States has been preaching to the world that freedom is the result of democracy, and look at us,” said Jason Sippey, an executive working in Mexico originally from Chicago. “The electoral college has let a lot of people down, the focus on swing states has kept a lot of important issues like infrastructure, immigration and the environment out of the debate.”
Bingo.
At least locally there was some sanity. California will fund stem cell research, Alameda approved a small increase to property taxes to fund public transit, and Berkeley won’t provide public financing for mayoral campaigns (but will switch them to coincide with US general elections every four years).