Election Day 2011

In a story receiving little coverage due to more important issues like the Republican presidential circus, Americans headed to the polls yesterday for "off-year" elections.  Yawn.  Some governors were elected I think, maybe a few judges, perhaps even a couple Congressional seats were filled through special elections.  Whatever...

This year's election day cannot be dismissed as easily as I just tried to make it seem.  In two states, including my home state of Mississippi, important referenda were on the ballots and - cheers America - I'm happy to say that in both Mississippi and Ohio, American voters showed up, cast their votes, and made the right choices.

Let's being in Ohio, one of those swing states that is always so important and prominent during presidential elections.  Last year, Ohio, along with Wisconsin, passed draconian anti-union laws designed to "cut costs." In reality, cutting costs was nothing more than a facade for dismantling unions.  In fairness, public sector unions do need to undertake serious reform, but the laws passed in Ohio and Wisconsin were designed to eliminate unions, not reform them.  In a referendum on Tuesday, Ohio voters overwhelmingly overturned the law, rejecting Republican attempts to make life even harder for working class people.  Perhaps next time Republicans want to enact meaningful policy - and I say again, there is much room for reforming public sector unions - they will focus solely on the meaningful policy rather than pursuing an anti-working class agenda under the guise of "cost control."

Meanwhile, in my home state of Mississippi, arguably one of the most conservative states in the nation, voters rejected the "personhood" amendment, an abomination of a bill that would have made abortion illegal and effectively turned birth control bills into murder weapons.  Unlike the anti-union laws, there is nothing positive to be said about Mississippi's initiative 26.  Although it would have surely been overturned in federal court since it is a direct violation of federal law, the bill was nothing short of an embarrassment that would have stripped Mississippi's women of their rights - the law went so far as to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

So sprinkled in with those judiciary elections there were important takeaways and important decisions made yesterday.  Regardless of what, if anything, these results portend for the 2012 elections, we should be happy that our countrymen made the right decisions on some key issues.  Good Day, USA.