Making choices

Haven't felt much like writing lately. I'd like to say it's because there's nothing going on, but that certainly isn't the case. I mentioned going to vote that morning, but didn't write anything that evening, or the next morning. A side note that I implied in that post, but didn't say explicitly: I think everyone should vote, whether they agree with my views or not. One thing that really torques me about current debate. Why is this a partisan issue? Everyone should want as many people as possible to vote.  Isn't that the whole point of a democracy?

I actually didn't stay up that night to get the results (having gotten up so early to vote, I was rather tired, and the interim results I was seeing when I was debating going to sleep weren't encouraging), so I saw them in the morning paper.

It was kind of weird, in a way. When I went to bed, the news was showing Virginia (my home state) at 65-35 (roughly) for Romney. I forget what percentage of polls had closed then, but it wasn't a small number. That blew my mind. Hearing that it ended up going for Obama was certainly reassuring, but felt a bit bizarre.

The final results were a huge relief; I certainly don't think Obama is a terrific president (well, in some contexts, but his civil liberties positions are awful.  Which is especially disappointing as he campaigned on improvements there, but they've actually gotten slightly worse), but I am certain that Romney would have been an unmitigated disaster.

The referenda I heard about were very encouraging as well. Hearing the voters explicitly approve gay marriage in two states, and fail to disapprove it in two more, was very encouraging for the future. And having Colorado approve pot use is also encouraging. Far too many people have been killed and imprisoned for something that's far less dangerous than alcohol.

So let's keep moving this country forward, starting with not getting suckered into continuing the Bush tax cuts. If it takes letting them all expire, that's much better than keeping them all.  I guess we'll see what happens.