Mom & Me Four Archive

...as local results are usually reactionary, but, I have to say, I'm surprised and pleased that Arizona rejected the attempt to codify a rejection of gay marriage by making it illegal to consider participants in any kind of social relationship other than "one man/one woman legally sanctioned marriage" eligible for any kind of dependent benefits. The state continues to refuse to recognize marriages of anyone but one man/one woman; but will continue to recognize alternate partnerships and dependents involved in those partnerships. There are some who consider that the defeat of this measure by a mere 2% of voters bodes ill for future similar attempts, but I say, 2% in Arizona on such a measure is like 20% in many other states. Arizona may be slow to move forward but, in my experience in this state, when Arizona finally moves forward it doesn't move back, much to the surprise of many ultra-conservatives who consider Arizona easy pickins.
    I am discouraged by the results for the propositions directly and indirectly involved in making life harder for immigrants. I also, though, consider that many of these propositions will lose even as they have been approved. English as our official language, for instance, is too late; all you have to do to realize this is drive through any city or major city-town in the state. There is no realistically durable way to enforce this, thank the gods. Mitchell's win over Hayworth (Hayworth, as far as I can tell, continues to refuse to concede) is yet another indication that all those immigrant propositions will have very loose teeth.
    I am annoyed that we are sending both John Kyl and Rick Renzi back to Washington, but, overall, thanks to the rest of the nation, enough of their power has been sucked out from beneath them so that I'm not downhearted. I am ecstatic that Napolitano was re-elected by a landslide that was called within minutes after the polls closed. Hope does, indeed, float.
    Although I voted, my mother did not. This was at my discretion and it is a discretion that my mother questioned beginning day before yesterday. I took off to deposit my early ballot in the 24-hour ballot repository on Monday night, telling Mom where I was going and that I'd be back in 15 minutes (I made it in 14; the repository is only about two miles from our house). She'd been bombarded for a week with the last minute ramping up of the extraordinarily intrusive election rhetoric on TV and in the newspapers and hadn't mentioned anything about being interested in voting. When I returned from posting my ballot, though, she asked when she would be voting. Uh-oh.
    "You know, Mom," I said, "I didn't sense that you were interested in voting this year. The last time you were eligible to vote, you decided against it (that was in 2000; I did ask her, then, thinking that, at the very least, she would have an opinion regarding who should be the U.S.'s next president). So, this time, I didn't even mention it. Your registration has expired because you didn't vote in 2000 and 2004. I didn't think to consider renewing it. It's too late, now, to register for this election. Did you want to vote?"
    "Well, I thought it would be a good idea."
    "My fault. I'm sorry."
    I reviewed some of the issues and races up for grabs this year and asked her opinions. Of course, she was completely unable to bring pertinent data to the fore, and said so, but, you know, she held her own when confronted about issues rather than people, even though "her own" was a little cock-eyed.
    As we talked, I thought about the national mention (small, but noticeable mention) during the last two elections regarding the advisability of allowing the elderly demented to vote (nothing was discussed about whether the demented of other ages should be allowed to vote). Although much of the discussion was centered on the possibility of people "stealing" the votes of the elderly demented, it was slanted in Arizona because people continued to remember an elderly, demented juror in a high profile trial here who was finally dismissed from the jury mid-trial because of her dementia. The more I thought about it, though, the more I considered the large number of "undemented" voters who were probably badly informed and liable to be swayed by purposely confusing proposition language and deceptive campaign rhetoric, the more I realized that Mom voting was probably not any more or less risky to democracy than anyone else voting.
    "Do you want to vote in the next major election, Mom, the presidential election in 2008?"
    "I think so," she said, very carefully.
    "Okay. In that case, we'll get you registered."
    And, we will. If she's alive and in approximately the same mental state as she is now, which is entirely likely, I'll see to it that both she and I receive early ballots. She'll probably need reminder help regarding candidates and issues but, all things being approximately equal to her current mental state, I will not need to "tell" her how to vote on anything. She'll make up her own mind and, I expect, in comparison with any other voters, the man-on-the-street will be hard pressed to consider her reasoning any more or less demented than that of any other voters.