Digging Down Ballot-- Beyond Obama And Even Beyond Prop 8

I always try to make sure I'll be in town for election day; I like to participate in the shared renewal of our democratic compact with my neighbors. An absentee ballot doesn't do it for me. I don't have to tell any DWT readers that this blog has been more concerned with Senate and House races around the country-- and with Obama's struggle to wrest control of the executive branch from the grip of reactionaries determined to hold onto it-- than with the immediate concerns of my Los Angeles neighbors. Every morning I walk around the hill I live on, a two mile trek that brings me past scores of houses with Obama signs and No on 8 signs. There is not a single McCain-Palin sign in this neighborhood and not a single Yes on 8 sign.

Lately I've been driving through lots of neighborhoods I don't normally go to. I'm helping my friend Roland find a house. We always seem to be driving around Frog Town, Silverlake, Echo Park, Atwater, Mount Washington, Glassell Park, East Hollywood... and, until yesterday, I had never seen a Yes on 8 sign on anyone's home (just one on a church door). I was marveling how a street in Atwater we were passing for the first time seemed to have a No on 8 sign on every single lawn, some shared with Obama-Biden signs. It almost seemed aggressive. And then I saw why. In the middle of the block was a small, neat yellow house with a Yes on 8 sign far from the sidewalk and close to the door.

It seemed so strange and out of place. Are they Mormons? Is it some guy with 4 wives and a big brood of barefoot children living in that little house? Do they hate all their neighbors? Do all the neighbors hate them? What kind of interactions must there be? Why put a sign like that-- advertising bigotry and hatred-- on your lawn? I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I suppose all those ominous-sounding Yes on 8 ads the Mormons are running on TV stations make it seem ok to advertise one's own prejudice and narrow-mindedness for all the neighbors to see. The latest polls show that the Yes on 8 bigots are losing, albeit very narrowly, 44-49% in the Field Poll and 47-50% in the SUSA poll. Today's L.A. Times ran a compelling editorial on why voting for the hateful Prop 8 is just plain wrong. It answers every bogus argument the Mormons and their allies have put up in their mania to legislate discrimination against one group of Californians.

The campaign promoting Proposition 8, which proposes to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, has masterfully misdirected its audience, California voters. Look at the first-graders in San Francisco, attending their lesbian teacher's wedding! Look at Catholic Charities, halting its adoption services in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal! Look at the church that lost its tax exemption over gay marriage! Look at anything except what Proposition 8 is actually about: a group of people who are trying to impose on the state their belief that homosexuality is immoral and that gays and lesbians are not entitled to be treated equally under the law.

That truth would never sell in tolerant, live-and-let-live California, and so it has been hidden behind a series of misleading half-truths. Once the sleight of hand is revealed, though, the campaign's illusions fall away.

...Californians must cast a clear eye on Proposition 8's real intentions. It seeks to change the state Constitution in a rare and terrible way, to impose a single moral belief on everyone and to deprive a targeted group of people of civil rights that are now guaranteed. This is something that no Californian, of any religious belief, should accept. Vote no to the bigotry of Proposition 8.

My friend Dante Atkins did a short video about Prop 8 that I've appended to this post. Please take a look at it. But I want to remind everyone that Tuesday's election isn't just about Obama or about Prop 8. Californians-- even those without hot congressional and legislative races-- have lots to think about before getting into the voting booth. It's tragic that so few will.

Fortunately, our friends at the Courage campaign have put together a printable list of all the state propositions that include the positions on each one from reliable progressive organizations from Calitics, the Sierra Club and the Democratic Party to SEIU and the California Nurses Association. Short version:
Prop 1A- High Speed Rail- YES
Prop 2- Humane farms- YES
Prop 3- Children's Hospitals- YES
Prop 4- Threat To Teen Safety and Choice- NO
Prop 5- Rehab & Treatment- YES
Prop 6- Prison Expansion- NO
Prop 7- Fake Renewable Energy Bill- NO
Prop 8- Eliminates Marriage Rights- NO
Prop 9- More prison spending- NO
Prop 10- T. Boone bailout- NO
Prop 11- Biased redistricting- NO
Prop 12- Veterans Home Loans- YES

The important California congressional races we've been covering include there 6:

CA-02- Jeff Morris
CA-03- Bill Durston
CA-04- Charlie Brown
CA-08- Cindy Sheehan
CA-26- Russ Warner
CA-45- Julie Bornstein
CA-46- Debbie Cook
CA-48- Steve Young
CA-50- Nick Leibham
CA-52- Mike Lumpkin

Now, for L.A. County judges:
Office #72 Hilleri Grossman Merritt 
#82 Cynthia Loo 
#84 Lori-Ann Jones 
#94 C. Edward Mack
#154 Rocky Crabb

And if you live in L.A., vote YES on all 5 ballot measures. Now Dante's video:




UPDATE: SAN FRANCISCO VOTERS ONLY

If you're reading DWT, I probably don't have to remind you to vote for Prop R. Every city in the country should have one and you guys are leading the way!


UPDATE: MORMONS WHINING ABOUT BEING CALLED ON THEIR BIGOTRY

The rotten, stinking nest of ignorance and bigotry that calls itself the Mormon "Church" but is well known as an extremely dangerous and anti-social cult is unhappy that people whose rights they are trying to take away with a $20 million campaign of lies and slander, are not being courteous. I haven't heard anyone advocating violence against Mormons or taking away their rights. I haven't heard anyone even advocating burning down their cult centers. I haven't heard anyone demanding the police enforce the laws and break up the filthy polygamous pigsties they live in like prehistoric savages. But their feelings are hurt because families whose lives they are trying to destroy are telling the truth about them.