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Originally Posted by Sen
I've wrestled with how to post these thoughts because I know the audience on this board is traditionally more liberal than the population at large. In no way is this meant as disrespect or blatant flame-bait.
That being said, I have 2 thoughts about the rhetoric I've heard following the election.
1. There were 11 states that had laws banning gay marriage on the ballot last week. All of them passed overwhelmingly. In my state (MO) we passed a ban on gay marriage back in August with 73% of the population voting for it. Mississippi even had over 80% approve of their measure.(Please refrain from disrespecting the state of MS by reverting to jokes of rednecks and inter-marriage. The fact remains, even half or more of the Dems would have to vote for it to get those kind of numbers.) I hear this issue being discussed under the guise of dividing America. However, with such overwhelming opposition to gay marriage, my perspective is that it's uniting America instead of dividing it. In recent memory, there hasn't been any single issue that reached across all Party, racial and socio-economic lines to gain that kind of support. It seems to me that the talk of division comes from those in the minority who are in denile.
2. Traditional wisdom believed that if voter turnout was high, that the Dems would win. However, with record turnout Kerry still lost by 3.5 million popular votes. Furthermore, we all know that the Republicans picked up seats in both the House and Senate in addition to the White House. Rock the Vote and all of the other Democrat turnout tools failed to produce more votes than the Republicans and the so-called "value voters." Again, the talk of such a deeply divided country and discussions of how Bush needs to reach out by appointing Dems and moderates seems delusional considering that with the highest turnout in American history Republicans claimed victories and expanded majorities across the board. It seems to me that if there was ever a threshold for a mandate in American politics, this is it.
Am I the only one that feels like this or does anyone else share this perspective? Your thoughts...
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Your second point has been thoroughly rebuked, although I'd like to add that Bush was elected with the most votes AGAINST the winner in American history.
As for your first point:
Your logic seems to be that since these hate amendments passed overwhelmingly in 11 states, it is uniting the country. However, according to the exact same logic, the fact that 39 states DON'T have gay hate amendments means that the country is fairly united in opposition to them.
Just saying is all.