Some Good News From The Election

Not much changed in DC thanks to the elections yesterday. Maybe I'll feel like commenting more on that later, but for now, I'll just say that if you liked the last twelve years, you're in for at least two more of them.

In some states, however, some exciting things happened. Maine, Maryland, and Washington appear to have passed referendums approving gay marriage.

Just as exciting is the passage in Washington of the initiative legalizing marijuana use and possession in small amounts:

Washington voters on Tuesday passed Initiative 502 to legalize, regulate and tax sales of small amounts of marijuana to adults, a measure that flies in the face of federal law and policy that still treats possession of cannabis as a crime.

A similar measure in Colorado was ahead, and Massachusetts became the 18th state to approve use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Washington Votes To Legalize, Tax Sales Of Marijuana

When I was in college back in the late 1970s, there were organizations dedicated to legalizing marijuana. It's taken that long for what was always a frivolous use of taxpayer money, and an expensive way to ruin the lives of citizens who have done nothing wrong, to be repealed to even this small degree. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer article I quoted goes on to point out that this state has been a locus for anti-marijuana law activity ever since. The campaign this time was endorsed by former state and city attorneys, and by the former head of the Seattle FBI office. Without their endorsement, I wonder if this would have passed even so.

Hopefully, this is the start of a trend.

One other interesting development is that Elizabeth Warren has won the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, after what has been described as one of the most expensive Senate races in history. I don't get all that excited about Democrats being elected anymore, but she's an honest one. Let's hope she stays that way.

So, some good news in among all the bad. What's the bad news, you ask? Nothing has really changed. The Democrats had bigger majorities in 2008, and did nothing useful with them.

Afterword: I should mention that the Real Clear Politics House page indicates that the U.S. House of Representatives will likely remain in Republican hands. Not that it matters, really, because the House never stood up for progressive legislation back in 2008, when it clearly had the mandate. Democrats won't do that until their supporters show them they're willing to go elsewhere.