The Bookish Girl

Post election day ramblings ~ 2006-11-08

Posted in Girl, You are Crazy by Bookish Wendy at 10:28 am.
19

You all know that I’m a total whore for a good graphic.  The New York Times is an excellent source of graphic information.  For a look at election results check out this link.  Fabulous use of technology and information.  If you click the tabs on top you can see the House and Governor races as well.

I love watching election results come in, I love discussing them, thinking about the meaning, and generally analyzing how they are or are not a barometer for the public will.  The lack of red on each of these maps (indicating a Republican gain) is really, really interesting and, frankly, lightens my step today.  I hate the two party system, I hate generalizations and labels.  However, this is how we play and if them theres the rules than so be it.  Democracy is led by the will of the people (when it works anyway).  The moderate nature of some of the Democrats who turned over a seat is also interesting.  A Massachusetts Democrat is most certainly NOT the same things as a Utah Democrat.  This holds true for the Republican candidates as well.  I think these close races really are especially interesting.  Our votes do matter.  Now, if we can just get everyone to count right….
I hope that our New Speaker (first woman in history!) rises to this occasion and bridges the gap in her party as well as between parties.  I also hope for a more transparent government and an increased level of accountability in the Executive Branch.  However, I will likely have to wait a few more years for that.

Furthermore, not only was history made with Ms. Pelosi…but in Massachusetts we elected the second black governor in history, it has taken this long for women and blacks to penetrate the higher levels of government.  Change is fickle beast.

Lastly, the MA ballot question addressing the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores in was strongly defeated.  Many of you echoed surprise that these kinds of sales were not already allowed.  It’s a weird State (well, technically it’s a Commonwealth but that’s a story for another day), what can I say?  We allow gay marriage but won’t let you buy alcoholic beverages in the grocery.  In fact, the sale of alcohol on Sundays was prohibited up until a few years ago.

You have to remember that Massachusetts was founded by Puritans and some of these silly laws are simply old laws that just have yet to be turned over.  I would also venture to guess that for some voters the beer issue may be a “big business” backlash type of thing.  We have gotten to know our local liquor store peeps and are quite fond of the them.  I wonder if others feel the same way and fear that these people will loose out?

Alright – enough of the political ramblings of a brain shrunk, relatively uninformed bookish girl.  I just got really excited about that damn graphic and couldn’t stop!

Related posts:

  1. Finding the Humor
  2. Random Post #1
  3. Following the Road of Life

19 Comments

  1. Kathy says:

    The question #1 thing is interesting. I have lived in places where you could buy beer/wine at the gas station and charge it on your gas company credit card (along with lottery tickets.) And then I’ve lived here. I thought about #1 a lot and voted “no” for a couple of reasons. First, although I have beer/wine/alcohol in my house (not Puritans!) and we don’t make a big deal out of it with our kids, I am okay with it not being everywhere — supermakets, convenience stores, gas stations. Second, although there’s no evidence or statistical proof, I’m just more comforatable with ID checks that go on at liquor stores versus supermarkets. I worked at a market when I was a teen, so I can recall how cigarettes were bought among friends and I would not want that extended to wine. That said, I do shop at several markets that sell beer/wine and I do find it convenient. In the end, it’s a balancing act, and that’s how I came out.

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 11:04 am

  2. Carole says:

    Today is a happy day. And now Rumsfeld is gone. Woot. Oh, and both my local grocery stores sell beer and wine already. Yeah, I’m bragging.

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 12:31 pm

  3. Laura says:

    You know it’s a good election when you hear spouses having heated conversations including questions like, “YOU voted for THEM????” I love hearing those.

    There are still dry counties in Tennessee (where I grew up). Alcohol can be a polarizing issue, too, I guess.

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 1:41 pm

  4. maryse says:

    i voted yes on the wine in grocery stores after waffling a bit. because you see, i have a big ass supermarket in the same plaza as a little local liquor store and i thought, “self, is it worth potentially taking this guy out of business just so i don’t have to cross the plaza to buy wine.” and then, i thought about the police chief of somerville WHO WAS TOTALLY USING SCARE TACTICS TO GET US NOT TO VOTE YES AND THAT TOTALLY PISSES ME OFF, HEAR THAT KERRY HEALEY? BUSH? DICK CHENEY? anyway. then i read the question on the ballot and it just mentions making more licenses available per town. it’s not a given that a store would get a license. so i ended up voting yes. but eh. i lost. but that’s ok. it’s been a good election so far. now if that crazy racist in VA would just concede.

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 1:42 pm

  5. meg says:

    Yay! No more Rumsfeld and a hopefully fresh change. Thanks for that link, I’ve been checking on the results as moften as possible.

    I was up there a couple of years ago to cheer my Dad on in the Boston Marathon and we went to purchase some beer at the grocery store and were shocked to find we couldn’t get it there.

    I understand the positives and negatives but am glad I have the opportunity to get my vino while at the grocer. Still in Texas you can’t buy liquor past nine or on Sundays and beer and wine you can get until midnight Sun-Friday and 1am on Saturdays but not until noon on Sunday. If you order booze in a restaurant before noon on Sunday you have to have your food order in first! Nuts huh?

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 3:09 pm

  6. Susan says:

    Uh.. here in OK we had a liquor question on the ballot too…. (you think the purtitans were a little uptight?)

    Our state question was to allow the sale of liquor on ELECTION DAYS. Seriously, no liquor could be sold on election days. Until yesterday, and the vote was close.

    We still can’t buy liquor or beer (other than 3.2) anywhere but a liquor store and never on a Sunday.

    Love to hear about other places crazy laws…!

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 9:33 pm

  7. cyn says:

    Bookish, what’s the diff btw a commonwealth and a state? I suppose I should google it and find out, since I live in MA now.

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 9:41 pm

  8. frecklegirl jess says:

    I am feeling much more optimistic today also… It does seem to be a step in the right direction anyway. (Please don’t screw this up!)

    I ended up voting ‘no’ on Question 1 because I thought about who would benefit from it passing… Big grocery/ convenient store chains, right? I’d rather give my money to the family owned store down the street.

    Boy am I glad we can buy booze on Sunday though. ;)

    Comment - November 8, 2006 : 10:47 pm

  9. Allison says:

    I was definitely glad to see the shift in power for the US but South Carolina voters really let me down. We re-elected our republican governor (the one that Time Magazine referred to as one of the worst governors in the US) and our republican lt. governor who has been pulled for speeding (at speeds of over 100 mph) several times (even had an officer pull a gun on him) and each time used his position to get out of a ticket. Grrrrrrrrrr…

    But you did give me one thing to be happy about here in SC – that I can buy my beer and wine at “the Pig” along with my milk and bread. Still no Sunday sales though. :(

    Comment - November 9, 2006 : 9:19 am

  10. Martha says:

    I taped “House” for my hubby on Tuesday night, and last night we played the tape back. I felt really bad, because I had to explain to him that he was missing parts of “House” because I kept flipping back to CNN to see whether the Dems had taken the Senate.

    Comment - November 9, 2006 : 11:26 am

  11. Kristina says:

    Interesting… Colorado does not allow liquor stores to be open on Sundays either. And the beer that is sold in grocery stores has a lower alcohol content. However my husband is from California, where you could walk into a grocery store on Sunday and pick up a bottle of Absolute (or whatever is your pleasure). This election makes me even more excited to see what will happen in 2008…

    Comment - November 9, 2006 : 2:10 pm

  12. Brenda says:

    I had to help my husband find the “map with the red and blue” on election night and we finally found them all at the NY Times. We got such a kick out of looking at the blue and red and how it filled in on each state.

    Yeah for your new governor! I didn’t know you could buy beer in Mass on Sundays now, I moved to Maine a number of years ago….

    Comment - November 9, 2006 : 5:43 pm

  13. colleen says:

    Those NYT graphics are a’makin’ my head spin. All I know is that the Dems are back, baby, the Dems are back!

    Comment - November 9, 2006 : 8:07 pm

  14. Erin says:

    I’m very happy with the outcome of the election. Time will tell if this has truly changed the tide. Nice, balanced discussion, though, Bookish Girl!

    I thought Question 1 was in response to a problem that didn’t really exist. If that makes sense. I kept thinking, “This is a major issue because… grocery stores are going to go out of business soon?” I honestly think that people don’t want the “Wal-Mart”-ization of liquor. But I think there are certainly more pressing issues that should have made the ballot.

    Comment - November 10, 2006 : 9:02 am

  15. Kat with a K says:

    Definitely a happy week. I’m very proud of being an NH voter. :-)

    Comment - November 10, 2006 : 12:17 pm

  16. Bev Watts says:

    Mass is not the only state with weird laws. In Oklahoma, beer can be sold in the grocery store– but only if it is 3.2% alcohol. Such a fluid is defined by our state as “non-intoxicating,” although it is not a defense to a DUI charge that you only drank non-intoxicating beer. I think that all the beer companies have to produce a special line just for Oklahoma. Similarly, nothing can be sold in a liqour store unless it contains alcohol– no extra charge can be made for gift sets (trinkets or glasses cannot be sold) and no mixers or other drinking accessories are allowed. Again, some companies make special mixers with .1% alcohol to allow the sale in our stores. Our state question re liquor this year was whether to allow the sale of high point alcohol on election day. I believe the measure failed.

    Comment - November 10, 2006 : 6:32 pm

  17. kmkat says:

    I’ll trade you Wisconsin’s beer-and-wine available in grocery stores for your gay marriage. An abominable amendment to our state constitution passed by 70%-30%: *we* (not me, not my husband, not my son who voted by absentee ballot, but apparently by a large majority of other WI residents) defined marriage in a narrow, fear- and hate-filled way that outlaws gay marriage and removed pretty much all legal protections from any unsanctioned union. Nationally, Tuesdays results were thrilling and encouraging, but I’m still very, very bothered by our state’s approving this amendment.

    Comment - November 11, 2006 : 1:21 pm

  18. KnittingPainterWoman says:

    I think the nation as a whole did well by itself. Most of the fear mongers were rousted out. Some racists, some crooks, some pedophiles and creeps will have to slink off to some other place. Regrettably Texas was not a place where Democrats won. It was, surprisingly, a place where it was a better-than-usual contest. The Dem’s won the urban centers. Perhaps we could have city laws and rural laws… you think?
    And we have alcohol sales determined by voting precinct, gerrymandered though they be. So at one grocery store they have beer and wine, another, none… perhaps only blocks apart. The no sales on Sunday laws were repealed a while back because they banned all “non essentials”… which, annoyingly included pantyhose and can openers. Oh, and diapers. If you’ve ever needed one of those things, you know that it is a pain to “wait til Monday.” Hard liquor is ONLY in liquor stores so far as I can tell. Don’t know why.

    Comment - November 11, 2006 : 6:57 pm

  19. Cathi says:

    You know, when I first had Junior Pink I told myself that there were two places that I would not push a stroller- Hot Topic and a liquor store. So now that the kiddos are a little older, they come with me when I get my booze and you know what’s so great? They give lollipops to the little ones! So not only do I get my positive reinforcement, they do too (aside from that whole ‘Oh no, is Mommy going to be drunk again?’ feeling in the bottom of their stomachs). I figure you can start practicing this with Crinella when she is around 6 months.

    Comment - November 19, 2006 : 2:44 am

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