On Tuesday, the American electorate exchanged the “soft bigotry of low expectations” for the hard bigotry of low intelligence and lower morals.
Florida is a mosaic of communities that, each on its own, is an insular political minority: snowbird Jewish retirees, Cuban-Americans (and other Hispanics), undereducated and underachieiving beach bums, panhandle hillbillies, etc. Yet their shared hatred of gays turned them into a political majority, indeed a supermajority, with a depressingly myopic approach to politics.
Arkansas is a gaggle of illiterate shitkickers who are so desperate to hate gays that they, like a mob of hungry Molochs, sacrificed their own children upon the altar of bigotry, by passing an adoption ban that bars children from being adopted by any unmarried person — even the child’s own blood relatives.
And then there’s California.
According to exit polls, Proposition 8 failed in almost every demographic, with one exception: African-Americans, and especially African-American women.
The same demographic so eager to put one form of irrational discrimination behind us chose, 70%-30%, to put another form of irrational discrimination ahead of us.
Congratulations, Black America: You got the moment you have waited generations for — and promptly pissed on it.
And we all know that the funding for Prop. 8 came overwhelmingly from another infamous insular minority, the Mormons — who shrewdly saw an opportunity to purchase a multi-million indulgence from their fellow theocrats by showing just how much they too can hate gays. Welcome to the club — I hope it was worth the price of admission.
(And no discussion of the culture wars would be complete without a mention of Sarah Palin –the ditzy, curiosity-deficient clunkhead who could barely graduate from college and who was embraced by the ignoranti precisely for her celebration of anti-intellectualism, including her overt anti-gay bigotry. For the first time in living memory, a major-party candidate for high office ran on the notion that a total lack of qualification can itself be a qualification. Now can we please put her and her trailer trash family on an ice floe and push them out to sea?)
—
Sorting through the rubble:
–The Democrats took control of the New York State Senate. That should mean legislatively enacted same-sex marriage fairly quickly in this state.
–As I’ve mentioned before, my understanding is that there is still litigation likely in California, on the grounds that the petitions, which described Proposition 8 as not repealing any rights, became invalid after In Re Marriage Cases, and that the entire vote was therefore invalid before it even began. If the California Supreme Court were to invalidate the amendment post hoc on those grounds, then the debate would get very ugly, very fast. Stay tuned.
–Marilyn Musgrave, the rabid bigot House member from Colorado who was the principal sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, was ousted. So that’s something.
11 responses so far ↓
Link Downtown Lad // Nov 5, 2008 at 11:57 am
Spot on.
Link dolphin // Nov 5, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Question, if Prop 8 passes (I'm not yet totally giving up on it's defeat), and the Supreme Court declares that it was invalid to even have been put on the ballot in the first place. What happens to the married gays and lesbians in the state? The passage of Prop 8 would have invalidated their marriages but if the Court then decides that Prop 8 was invalid to begin with would their marriages be automatically "revalidated"?
Link Chris Berez // Nov 5, 2008 at 12:12 pm
An absolutely perfect post. I've been pretty much at a loss for words all morning. What can I even say in this situation? "I'm sorry"? That just seems sickeningly patronizing to me. I guess the best I can say is I've been waiting for your reaction and your anger; and while I love this blog for all of its fantastic content, this post this morning exemplifies for me perfectly why I'm so grateful that this blog is here.
I'm not sure if you regularly read Positive Liberty, but just in case, you might appreciate Jason Kuznicki's short but painful reaction.
Link Doug Mataconis // Nov 5, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Kip,
I'm on your side on this issue, but the apparent outcome in California brings a question to mind —
Doesn't this stand as confirmation that the idea of trying to bring about marriage equality through the Court system isn't going to work so long as a majority of the electorate doesn't support it ?
I know asking people to wait is somewhat cruel to say the least, but if you look at the demographics on this issue, it's pretty clear that the anti-gay bigotry behind things like Prop 8 will seem as old fashioned as Jim Crow within a generation, if not sooner.
Link Windypundit // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I'm staying positive about the Obama victory for today—it's a very cool thing to have a black president considering our nation's history—but yeah, the anti-gay votes sucked a lot.
I find the African-American anti-gay vote especially depressing. I guess there really is no unity among the oppressed.
Link Dustin // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:28 pm
What we need is for some politicians, more importantly the people, to stand up and say "When has it ever been okay to vote on another person's rights, especially a minority?" That or have someone in some red state have the balls to introduce a vote for slavery, segregation or taking away a woman's right to vote. Maybe that will bring it home a lot quicker! Because until that happens, the majority will continue to take the right away in most places sadly.
I'm disheartened that so many states can go liberal yet still ban gay marriage. Like a post you referenced, both votes were probably something done because it served themselves.
New Jersey will probably have gay marriage whenever it is the state reconvenes after winter break. Corzinne all but said if it passed, he'd sign it, just not in an election year.
Perhaps all the gays should come to the Northeast
Soon we'll have lots of gay marriage states. NEw York can be the new Hollywood. Hell it has the village and Broadway, what more do you need 
Come to the Northeast, we have cookies and Tasteycakes (if they float your boat).
Also in the past 12 hours, I've learned the following from Facebook and Myspace: When a democrat or liberal questions the president, the country, the people; they are unpatriotic. When a republican or conservative does it, they do so casting doubt on the patriotism of everyone else and with God on their side.
Link Jason // Nov 5, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I have heard, on good authority, that the first prong of the attack on Prop 8 will be in state court will be a challenge to the initiative process itself– that is a persuasive argument that amending the state constitution to eliminate "state guaranteed fundamental rights" via the initiative procedure is improper.
Link Chuck // Nov 5, 2008 at 7:54 pm
At least two lawsuits along the lines discussed by Jason are reportedly in play. The San Francisco City Attorney has announced his intention to file as soon as the vote totals are certified, and the ACLU, Lambda Legal and NCLR went ahead and filed on those grounds today. [via SF Gate] I've also seen news reports that Gloria Allred has been retained by a lesbian couple in Los Angeles to file suit on their behalf – grounds unknown.
Link Chris // Nov 5, 2008 at 9:52 pm
College performance isn't indicative or intelligence or capability – Palin may be a moron, but that doesn't have anything to do with her ability to finish college.
Link J. Philip Faranda // Nov 6, 2008 at 11:34 am
It is bitterly ironic that so many voters who voted for a president with such an oppressed ethnicity would then vote to withhold rights from other deserving people. And I say this as a straight white Catholic who has every reason to oppose gay marriage but doesn't. A few of my own hasty stitches:
1. Barriers will fall. When I was 6, I was intimidated by the black kids at school. They were different, they were bigger, they played dodgeball in the schoolyard (terrified me), and I avoided them. I wanted no part of them as a 6 -year old out of fear. My 6 year old sees black people and says "president." The same generational change will occur, and we see it now. The very fact that there is even discussion of, and support for gay marriage is progress over how things were when you and I were 6.
2. Minds will change. At age 11 I joined an intergrated boy scout troop and my fear of being hit in the face by a dodgeball was replaced by friendships I enjoy to this day. At age 38, due to two main factors, my feeling that marriage required a husband and wife was shed. Those factors were the growing number of gay people I did business with (as an aside, another reason why capitalism is the best system going) and the well thought out, reasoned writing of Kip Esquire. So keep doing what you are (mostly) doing.
3. It is the illiterate shitkickers whose minds have to be changed. And if not them, their children. So while I understand your frustration and even anger (as much as I can, that is. I'm not in your shoes so I can only imagine), You'll win more hearts and minds by returning to your 2004 and 2005 self who influenced me so much and less by lobbing grenades. I understand the therapeutic side of it though.
Link On the Petition to Overturn Proposition 8 // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:32 pm
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