Last night there was a protest in Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard in response to the passage of Yes on 8, the anti-gay marriage bill. The proposition squeaked by with a separation of a few hundred thousand votes, and today, the No On 8 leadership conceded defeat.
But last night in Hollywood, literally thousands of people marched along Sunset Boulevard for hours. There were arrests, helicopters swirled overhead for hours, but the protesters we saw were spirited, friendly, and fierce.
The Yellow Cab Co. driver, Vlad, who conveyed Sindy Hawke from her home at the Santa Monica Motel to Barbara Bouer’s polling place garage was happy to help Sindy perform what he called “her civic duty.”
Vlad left Kiev in 1989 (the Wall fell and he was out) and became a citizen in the ’90s. He’s enjoyed the enfranchising privilege every year since then. Remembering that voter participation was “encouraged” (i.e. required) in the USSR, he never questioned his decision to take part in each election, but he also used that memory to guide his candidate choice.
“I voted absentee. It’s hard doing anything during the day because cab drivers have long hours.”
“I saw Communism and the soldiers’ badges, and I felt their hands on my shoulders. So i would never want to see anything close to that here.”
Here’s the brief vid Gaille Chua shot of my conversation with him:
Vlad the Cab Driver Speaks Voting from Gaille Chua on Vimeo.
Be careful what you ask for: Barack Obama won the US presidency in convincing fashion, taking 53% of the popular vote and snagging the lion’s share of the electoral college (349 with North Carolina and Missouri still hanging out there, according to CNN). With plenty of “this is breaking down racial barriers” stories already on tap for the immediate news of his win, the media is turning to the “now what?” question. The answer is a resounding “this man has a lot of work to do and an uphill battle to get it done,” despite Democrats having almost total control over both houses of Congress (they just missed the filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the Senate). What is clear is that Obama has the support of his country and his planet like no one this generation has ever seen.
Bittersweet Victory: Californians (as well as Floridians and Arizon…ians?) elated with the symbolic progress their country made last night by electing the first African-American president had a short honeymoon when they awoke to discover Proposition 8, which writes a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution, passed by a narrow margin. The nation appears to have moved beyond the racism that suppressed Black America just 50 short years ago, but has replaced it with a church-sanctioned form of bigotry. Between the vast financial support of the Mormon Church (you know, the people exiled to their own state because of intolerance) and the supposed “Obama Effect” of socially conservative minority voters showing up in droves for Barack and voting for Prop 8, I think we can all agree that gay is the new black in this country.
Oh yeah, those guys: So what is on tap for the GOP? For starters, the real John McCain finally made an appearance last night during a magnificent concession speech where booing at the mention of Obama’s name epitomized everything wrong with his party. Conservative writers lament Obama’s electoral landslide as a referendum on Republican economic policy, but as Elizabeth Dole would probably tell you, it was more a definitive death-blow to the Atwater/Rovian/Schmidt style of smear tactics and voter-intimidation by fear.
Oh yeah, her: The real enigma of the GOP is Sarah Palin. McCain gave her a full-throated endorsement for 2012 in his speech last night, even though she apologized for costing him votes. But Steve Schmidt equivocated when asked early on Election Day if Palin was to blame for his campaign’s eventual loss. Not exactly the unified front we are used to seeing from a party that had won seven of the past 10 national elections. She tickled the base, but the Moral Majority might be no more and one has to think that Republican strategists are already concocting ways of replacing the requisite pandering to the Religious Right with a broader appeal. Whether or not she studies up in the next four years will determine if she is her party’s savior, or its John Edwards.
And the award for the most shamless election night technological gimmick goes to: CNN. No shocker here, coming from the network with more giant flatscreens than a Cribs marathon. After several teases by a purple-tie-wearing Wolf Blitzer as “something you have never seen on television before,” Jessica Yellin was beamed into the election center as a hologram for conversation with the political reindeer himself. Why have we never seen this on live TV before? Because it’s absolutely f***ing worthless. “Help me Ander-San Cooper, you’re this network’s only hope.”
Award for most interesting, non-racial, non-freak-out at the uphill battle, post-election slant: McClatchy’s story on how Obama plans to utilize his 3 million strong volunteer database as president.
Sindy Hawkes, a 65-year-old resident of the Santa Monica motel was a “guest” visiting a vote-abode yesterday. Anxious to leave the house and take part in the election, Sindy called a taxi to drive her over to her polling place, Barbara Bouer’s home, where she would lean on her walker in order to cast her vote.
Here’s the brief video Gaille filmed of my conversation with her:
Sindy speaks to P+P’s Deborah Stokol from gail chua on Vimeo.
