Monday, November 03, 2008

The Tsunami of Early Voting



The lines to vote early at San Francisco's City Hall only grew larger over the weekend...



...snaking around the block...



...as if the original "Star Wars" had just been released.



According to an article by Bill Hare at "Smirking Chimp" (click here), the phenomenon has been occurring all over the country and presages a literal tsunami of voters coming out of the woodwork for Obama.



Jan Adams of the "Happening Here" blog has an account of the same thing occurring in Colorado where she is volunteering for the Obama/Biden campaign (click here).



In California, there is an additional get-out-the-vote inducer between religious bigots and equal gay rights advocates. The Mormon church has been pouring in most of the money and human resources to ban "gay marriage," which gives rise to a whole legion of ironies, since it wasn't very long ago that their religion was being persecuted for polygamy. Another irony is that the gays and lesbians most passionate on the subject of gay marriage tend to be rather conservative in the rest of their politics, and the church is thereby radicalizing them.



I have a sister in her fifties who would pick up a new religion with each of her marriages and/or serious sexual relationships, from East Indian gurus to Christian cults. She ended up as a Mormon, and her second marriage was annulled because the religion doesn't recognize divorce if you've been joined in a temple. She stayed a Mormon however, and converted her third husband, and now has the gall to display "Yes on 8" signage on her front lawn while her newly married daughter is driving around with a "Yes on 8" bumpersticker after having an openly gay uncle all her life.



The only question now is if my partner Tony and myself will ever forgive them for their public bigotry.



Much of that decision will depend on how the election turns out, and let's pray that the wave of early voting will tip the balance.

7 comments:

affinity said...

I love your blog. I love the public commentary, and the art but I especially love it when you show who you are.

Thank you.

zoo said...

dear sf mike, that sounds like the time my dad came her to visit and (now that he's getting old, i guess) didn't think that anyone other then heteros should get married, i told him that was exactly what the current tenant in oval office thought. he was very offended but didn't change his mind!some people can't see past their belly buttons.

Nancy Ewart said...

I am so sorry to read about your sister and niece. I think there are schisms like this in every family but in the unenlightened past, those who were "different" just kept quiet about it. I know that my brother is the poster child for racist and homophobic bigotry and when he started sending me all the internet crap on Obama, I fought back with facts and figures. I guess I was effective because he hasn't sent me anything for ages. However, while I remain polite for the sake of family peace, I disinherited him from any share of my IRA and have no intention of spending any time with him longer than necessary. I can't stand the way the right has shoved their hate in our face. I don't know about you but I find it easier to "forgive" if I don't have to see, hear or read anything that the bigot has to say.

Matthew Hubbard said...

Good post, mike. I'm off to go for two hours phone banking in Oakland. When I was out shopping this morning, there were lots and lots of "I Voted" stickers. Having voted by mail, I don't have one, but I am wearing the "One Nation" button on my "I Hella (Heart) Oakland" t-shirt.

Sam said...

You can't choose your family but you can choose your friends. You have many friends who will keep rooting for equal civil rights for all human beings.

love sam xxx

whabbear said...

Michael: LOL! You are so correct. I got married, am pretty moderate/left on the political spectrum, but this whole experience HAS radicalized me.

In fact, I'm downright furious. Plain and simple. My thoughts are filled with visions, not of reconciliation and tolerance, but of retaliation and revenge.

I want to mount a grassroots campaign to put a "Preserve Traditional Marriage" on a California ballot. My proposition would simply eliminate the right of married Californians to divorce.

That way, WE'd get a chance to vote on THEIR marriage, and trample one of THEIR rights.

I wonder what your sister would think about that.

zoo said...

whabbear, I'll support that!