07 November 2007

[or_politik] Got Some Good News, Got Some Bad News

1099. Since we were out rubbing shoulders with the local eilite, we didn't do what I usually love doing – staying home and keeping up with election returns.

It ain't no thing, though – since we got mail balloting, the coverage is over so fast I almost don't know what's happening. Presidential elections are still pretty exciting.

Anyhow, I was half-encouraged my the electoral behavior of my fellow Oregonians yesterday. The result on Measure 49 – passing by as big a margin as Measure 37. A little buyer's remorse goes an awful long way, and this should stand as a reminder that those who wish for something fervently enough might just well get it, and good and hard too.

The result on Measure 50 was as discouraging as Measure 49's was encouraging. Jack Bogdanski has the right of it, saying better than anyone else we've seen so far; the way we see it, Big Tobacco bought and paid for an electoral result they wanted to have. I didn't want to believe those commercials worked; they were as condescending as they were slick.

And, to speak of condescension, real disdain for people, one need look no farther than Dave Hunnicutt, of Resentful Oregonians In Action to Get Ours and Keep It (And To Hell With Our Neighbors), promising in print and on air that he and his group plans on taking it to the courts. If they can't bankrupt and completely break state government one way, I guess they'll do it the other. You've spoken, people; he thinks you're teh suck because you don't agree with him.

Kind of strange. Hunnicutt and OIA love to invoke the Will of The Voter™ when it's the result they like. Faced with a similar Wlll going the other way – for some reason, it just doesn't matter as much.

I don't think it's about land use "reform" as it is about breaking government so it doesn't work anymore. But that's kind of a digression.

Measure 37 was a mistake. Measure 49 was Oregonians saying that it went too far. What's the problem with respecting the Will of the Voters here?

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