KPCC Election 2008
Time to discuss the election
How are you feeling today? It was a huge election, and it’s finally over. We want your comments.
Obama won with at least 349 electoral votes and 52% of the popular vote
Democrats made gains in Congress, but didn’t get a get filibuster-proof 60 in the Senate
California narrowly passed Prop 8’s gay marriage ban
Post your comments on all this and more!
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- November 5, 2008 9:43 AM
- Comments (13)
- Categories: 2008 Elections
13 Comments
While I am overjoyed about the election of President-elect Obama, I am terribly saddened by the passage of Prop 8.
I heard this morning on this station that exit polls revealed that 7 out of 10 black voters were voting Yes on 8.
I find it tragically ironic that a voting block that is helping our country take a historic step forward is also playing a central role in denying human rights to their fellow Americans.
Now that the election has passed, I am mostly filled with joy and optimism.
I have a new respect for John McCain. I have never believed that McCain was a bad man. I have tentatively trusted that somewhere he was still the well-intentioned man who was willing to break with his party in the name of progress and genuine concern for the good of our nation and its people. Granted, I disagree with him on many issues, and the prospect of having such a hawk in the White House scared me, but I am grateful to him tonight for the sincere respect for democracy he displayed in his concession speech. I look forward to having the real John McCain back in the Senate, not the extreme and unbending conservative he became to try and win votes. I look forward to his unifying voice and I hope it dominates the sentiment coming out of the Republican Party.
Obama's speech was the most moving political speech I have ever heard. I am breathing a sigh of relief today. Finally, a president we can be proud of. A president for all of us. I don't know about you, but I am ready to roll up my sleeves and help him bring about the change he has promised. In the last few years, while corruption, unjust wars, and the loss of civil liberties have made the situation in American seem dismal and hopeless and even shameful at times, I have tried to maintain faith in our generation (I am 26 years old). I have wanted to believe that we would be the generation to turn things around before it was too late. Now I feel like we have made the first step in that direction. It is going to take a lot of work on all of our parts, but I believe we finally have a leader who can take us there. I am excited for our future, and for the first time I can say that I am truly proud to be an American.
Wow... it feels really good to say that.
On a sad note... proposition 8 has passed in California. We still have some work to do. It saddens me that our constitution will include such a blatantly discriminatory amendment, and I look forward to the day we will remove it and guarantee equal protection under the law for EVERYONE.
Wow. I am absolutely uplifted. This is the first time I've actually cared about a candidate. I actually found myself out there campaigning volunteering at the phonebanks.... and it was not because the guy is black or even a democrat. It is because the guy actually seems to mean what he says.
You began getting a sense about how much of an ass whooping mclame was going to get when obama was drawing crowds of 90,000 and mcsame was getting maybe 2000. This election got so many people out to vote it really was good for america.
Hey larry. Start with yourself. Stop talking about growing government as though its a bad thing. Socialism is not a bad word. People need to get involved in goverment. We need to get as many people as we can out there to get involved in THEIR government.
As a heterosexual, homosexuality does not appeal to me. In fact, the thought of it is somewhat disturbing.
Having said that, i'm profoundly troubled that but onpeople don't seem to understand the larger implications of prop 8. It not only is blatant discrimination against a group of people, but is a step towards the larger issue of government interference in our private lives.
Do the people who voted yes on prop 8 really understand the implications of their vote? Do we really want government to become a "nosy neighbor" telling us what we can and can't do in our private lives?
All these yuppie white liberals blaming minorities for the defeat of Prop 8 show me that racism is still live and well. Instead of looking your nose down on these minorities, why don't you realize that the No side ran one of the worst campaigns in history. They blew it because they were too ashamed to show a gay couple in their ads. Also all that ad that compares minorities' stuggles to gay struggles just alienated people who find that notion insulting. The No side should never be allowed to run a campaign again.
I worked as a volunteer for No on 8 yesterday. My husband and I are straight married but were horrified by this need to legislate on private matters. While working, I spoke to one "Yes on 8" voter who said it was okay with him if gays had all legal rights as a marriage as long as they didn't call it "marriage." According to him, the term "union," with all of the legal rights of marriage would be acceptable to him. If this is true and it is only the use of the term "marriage" that upsets people, then for now, I think it's important that gays do anything they can to get complete equality and give up that symbolic language. I'm hoping that with a sympathetic government and Supreme Court gays might even have the same federal rights that married heterosexuals enjoy, such as being able to get legal residency for a partner/spouse who is from another country. One day gays will no longer have to feel like second-class citizens, but for now they may have to test whether biased people in this country truly can see beyond language.
The Republican party needs to be more libertarian and less Jesus-oriented to get back the voters.
I used to be proud of my first American ancestor coming over to fight against slavery.
No longer. This was voted on for religious reasons. Were fighting a war in Afghanistan for religious freedom. Why bother when we don't have it here.
I agree with the caller who said that the pronouncement from the Catholic pulpit was a hate crime.
Yes, he was a bit over the top -- but not much!!!
For me, the most poignant moment on election night came after the polls closed.
It takes a lot of time to take apart the booths, gather up the paperwork, and organize the ballots. I pulled my car into the parking lot behind the church kitchen and cranked up the radio. When Obama made his speech, all of us pollworkers gathered around the car - six African American women of all ages and me - to listen in the dark. And one by one, each woman went back inside to finish the job of the election. A moving moment of democracy in action.
I'm absolutely ecstatic to have participated in such a historic election in US history. I believe Obama will bring progressive change to our country. However, it's very hard for me to listen to California voters who said that we've come so far from the civil rights movement to elect the first African American President, yet Californians spoke and voted for Prop 8. It looks like we have some ways to go.
I am absolutely thrilled that Obama will be our next president. I think he will help to restore our nation's status in the world, and help us to think about others and gaze beyond our own navels. I do, however, also think it is a bittersweet moment for our state in that while we're finally making a leap beyond the bigotry of racism, we've institutionalized the bigotry of homophobia. My wife (yes, we are still married... at least for the moment) and I are having a hard time explaining to our son why people are so afraid of the idea of our family that they're willing to take away our hard-won rights.
I cannot wrap my mind around the comparisons of gay marriage with giving people the rights to marry animals, especially when these statements come from people who in the next sentence will say 'Now I have nothing against gay people...'. Saying 'I am not a bigot' does not mean you are not. If you think that some human beings have the same worth of animals then you are a bigot, it does not matter if you lay your hand on whatever book you consider holy and swear that you're not. The ONLY way that comparison is apt is if you think gay people are not truly human and not deserving of human rights, OR if you believe our dogs and cats are our equals and should be treated as such. Strangely I have not heard any Yes on 8 people demanding the vote for their pets, or demanding that worker's in slaughterhouses be tried for the murder of so many innocent cows.
BTW Dan I am not sure how you can call everybody white yuppies when we're leaving comments on a blog and listening to the radio. You have no knowledge of my race, income, or age, and you cannot know everyone elses. Was the black gentleman on the news last night who was in charge of organizing the African American community to support 8 also a racist? Why is it racist to acknowledge that the black community is, as a whole, more socially conservative and tied more tightly to church organizations who were predominately against gay marriage?