Election

Quick recap:
Amendment 1 - Failed (No new riverboat in Rockaway Beach.)
Amendment 2 - Passed (A marriage shall exist only between a man and a woman.)
Voter turnout - Incredibly high (most likely a state record for a primary election.)

Resulting attitudes:
There are a lot of pissed off people wandering around Missouri today. Whether they wanted a new casino boat or to not define marriage in the constitution determines where the attitude stems from, but the thought process would appear to be the same.

An overwhelming majority of votes were cast in favor of Amendment 2. Despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of the voting populace embraced this issue, as opposed to the slimmer margin of defeat of the casino, there are many people agitated by what they perceive as being a slap in the face to modern society acceptance standards.

Some of these people are also quick to point out that although a large majority of voters chose to favor this amendment, it was still less than half of all eligible voters in the state and therefore isn't a true representation of the opinion of the residents of this state. Their argument is valid, but it still changes nothing.

If people were not motivated enough to go out and vote yesterday, I'm pretty sure they might never be motivated to do so. With such lightning rod issues on the ballot and incredibly close (and hostile) races being held across the state, there has been no more enticing time to step out and vote. And yet, these people did not choose to do so. So call it an unfair representation of the state or whatever, the point is that the people who chose to vote have spoken. And they have done so quite loudly.

Perhaps in the future more people will see the importance of voting and decide to participate. Perhaps in the future people will accept that although the system isn't a perfect reflection of the communities we live in, it does provide people with the ability to impact their government in a big way. Perhaps in the future this issue will be overturned. Perhaps in the future the opposing side will be able to motivate enough people to vote their way. Perhaps.

But in the meantime, the mass of voters have spoken. Like it or not, more people turned out to vote for the amendment than against it. It wasn't even close. So until the masses show up to vote to reject such an issue, it must be accepted as the majority opinion of the state. Why? Because the majority of the people who cared enough to vote, stated overwhelmingly that they wanted the constitution to be changed.

If you aren't pleased with what has happened, there are several things you can do in the future:
1)Make sure you continue to vote or start voting if you haven't been.
2)Make sure you do everything you can to support the candidates/issues you believe in.
3)Motivate others who believe what you do to come out and vote.

Until then, you have several options:
1)Accept that fact that the amendment passed.
2)Begin to work on ways to change the amendment.
3)Move to another state.

I don't think people will do option #1. They might try to accomplish option #2, but that might prove to be difficult. Unfortunately, I think I am going to have to listen to a lot of griping, moaning and groaning, because I don't think many people will do option #3.

Guess what? November elections are right around the corner!
And for those of you stating that you will expatriate if Bush wins, please note the similarity to option #3. If you talk it, let's see you walk it.