The measure was defeated and life went on. It matters not which side I was on, I was ok with the result I of course went and cast my vote as I vote in all manner of elections. I consider it the highest privilege to vote. If you don't vote, don't complain has always been a compelling reason to vote, it insures the right to complain. If you do not vote, your complaints are at least marginally your own fault. The outcome of elections have always required those of us on the losing side to accept the will of our fellow citizens regardless of how pig headedly stupid they were. (sometimes you will find yourself in the pigheaded stupid majority or minority, PIGHEADED IS DEFINED AS
THAT IS THE POSITION OF PEOPLE WHOSE THOUGHTS ARE NOT THE SAME AS YOURS)
We are a country that abides the principal of majority rule for the good and wishes of the largest constituency . It gave us order and those of us on the losing side would reconcile with the winners and we would all move forward.
We would have to come to the realization that our ideas were not in the majority and we would need to come to understand the view, concerns and point of our neighbors. Compromise of our position, not our ideas was needed for the order of the land.
Very few of us go out and vote anymore, in some elections as few as 20% of the electorate will take the time to get out and vote. People say it makes no difference, sadly I think they are correct, or at least it would appear so as this body simply ignored the result. Their power was absolute and we all know the downside of absolute power.
Politicians excoriate the electorate for becoming cynical, we should flog the bastards for thinking us stupid. And when they ignore the vote that was taken two months ago they have the balls to call us stupid and cynical.. And through guile and artifice they would craft some excuse to ignore the electorate. We are on the slippery slope ,moving fast to the slimy bottom of the abyss.
Guile and artifice are the new political skills. Answering to the wishes of the majority are so old school as to be laughable. Our collective educational institution has again failed to educate our officials as to majoritarian principles. The Yale University Law School constitutional model has taken hold, that is the one that says the acts and objectives of the individual outweigh the desires of the majority. This same model is stressed in many Law Schools throughout the nation, it is the model used to upend historic societal norms to further things like marriage equality. Regretfully, there is no limit to which administrators or executives will apply to any given situation.
So from every government office from Pennsylvania Avenue to the State House to Town Hall we have politicians doing whatever the hell they think they can get away with and using their office to twist thing to the snapping point.
So in my little town drama, we have the board ignoring the electorate and doing just what they want to do without any moral reflection. Arrogance of power needs to study the words of Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln before they charge off on their own.
I am heartened by the fact that my small town politicos think themselves the better of Abraham Lincoln.
