Don't say I didn't warn you- or, a brief look at the election

I only want to bring up two examples of, "Why is this so hard for you to grasp?" I heard while eating dinner tonight.

For you out-o-towners, our county ballot included a referendum asking whether to change from a three-person County Council to a single County Executive.  The yes group (for the one exec) had the money, ran the commercials- including a claim that voters would have "more representation" with a single exec.  3 < 1 these days, I guess.  Must be that Common Core math.

The No side, on the other hand, never were on TV, but had booths at all the summer street fairs, and handed out leaflets and sat there to explain the issue to everyone.  Just because Indianapolis does it doesn't mean WE have to do it became the message.  And quite frankly, if I had been a fence sitter on the issue, the insulting "logic" of the yes group would have had me on the no side.

And I wasn't alone.  The Yes crowd got whopped 71% and change to 27% and change.

But our friend Mark Mellinger, the unconflicted Christian news anchor, had a handful of those involved on an interview.  To the one lady who was one of the Yes leaders, he asked, "What happened?"  Her answer, you ask?

"Well, I think that a lot of people didn't know what it was about, it was just a yes or no question on the ballot and it was easier to say no."

In other words, there were 19,480 people intelligent enough to agree with her, and 46,773 stupid voters.

Ma'am, I beg to differ.  I knew what I was voting- I don't see the point of a dictator in a democracy, and I didn't like your group's condescension.   It would have been just as easy to vote yes- the no button was the same size, just as accessible, and ABOVE the no button.  It isn't I that doesn't get the benefits of your plan, it is you that doesn't get that NOBODY WANTED IT.

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Another facet to the "I don't get it" of the liberals here in Allen County I just tumbled onto.  WANE, in an amazing bout of prescience, noticed that about 75% of our ballot had Republicans running unopposed (including, unfortunately, prosecutor Karen Richards, whom I would have gladly wrote in Mickey Mouse against had I the opportunity).  They asked, "Why is that?"  Here's the amusing answer they got:

We caught up with the head of our local democratic party to uncover why.  John Court, Chairman of the Allen County Democratic party, says some candidate hopefuls get discouraged when they see how county voters vote.  That may sound strange; however, he says more vote straight ticket compared to those in the city.  To put things into perspective, Tuesday 15,000 Republicans voted straight-ticket compared to only 5,000 Democrats.  Court says that alone discourages some candidates from running.

Can I ask WHAT DIFFERENCE it makes if I hit the "straight ticket" button or not?  If I hit that, I wasn't planning on voting Democrat in the first place, right?  And what good would voting straight Democrat do for the nine offices I would have cast a vote for "No candidate filed"?  If John Court would re-read his statement, he would realize that what he REALLY said was, "Nobody wants to get beat by 10k votes in a 20k electorate."

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Finally, I was glad I was down to cleaning up when the CBS Evening News came on and- in the aftermath of an election that saw ONE party gain control of BOTH houses of Congress, Scott Pelley's opening bit included, "... a country more divided than ever..."    NO, Scott, that's what we had BEFORE...


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Oh, and I did want to make a statistical note.  The State of Indiana now has only ten seats out of 50 in the Senate occupied by Democrats, and only 29 out of one hundred in the House.  Which is good for the Democrats, in case they want to do again like they did a couple years ago.  In a teacher's union battle that they could not win, the dems led by local horse's patoots Win Moses and Mark GiaQuinta, ran off to Illinois in an effort to effect legislation by denying quorum.  Well, if they would like to do that again this session, their Motel 6 bill should be a LOT cheaper!  Rotsa Ruck, cowards!