I admit that I was intially and naively impressed with Rick Warren, believing that he was some sort of moderate who was trying to shift the focus of evangelicals away from the culture wars and towards more universal goals such as climate change and alleviating poverty. But after looking more closely at Warren’s ideology and the political initiatives he supports (most recently Prop 8), I have to conclude that Warren is little better than the Falwells and Robertsons – only with a much better PR machine to make him look like a moderate and much less ‘angry’. The video below pretty much sums everything up:

[youtube]Xz4O8j8MIhs[/youtube]

It’s pretty clear what Barack Obama is doing; evangelicals make up about 25% of the country (and supported McCain overwhelmingly), while gay people make up less than 10% (and supported Obama overwhelmingly). Thus it would make sense to try to gain votes with a larger section of the electorate… but then you would have to take into account Warren’s likening of abortion to the holocaust and being against stem cell research (60% of the country considers themselves ‘pro-choice’ and only 18% of the country believes that abortion right should be banned under all circumstances) and his right-wing foreign policy views. All three of these issues are central to the voting patterns of right-wing evangelicals, who are also notorious for being inflexible and exceedingly intolerant of dissenting opinions.

This is not even taking into account that we are dealing with a fundamental human rights issue (that Mr. Obama should be especially sensitive to, being an African-American…) and that if this were happening 40 years ago, Pastor Warren would be arguing for the separation of races based on biblical infallibility. If I were to try to woo the evangelical vote – not that I would even have to at this point after getting 7.5% more of the popular vote than John McCain and having a 68% popularity rating – I would get liberal evangelical Jim Wallis or former NAE president Richard Cizik to do the invocation, not some pseudo-moderate wolf in sheep’s clothing. That, and I would wait for the younger generation – who are generally more tolerant of alternative lifestyles – to take over the electorate.

Another possibility is that this could be just some sort of ploy where Obama tries to look more moderate while adopting left-wing policies (a reverse Rick Warren?); George W. Bush after all had left-wing Rev. Louis Leon during his 2005 invocation despite tacking hard to the right. But either way, it’s a bad day for the transition.

To appeal to young people who are increasingly falling away from hardcore religion, Stephen has created the “Livin’ It” Skate “Ministry” to tie something cool in with something… not so much. Not surprisingly, he’s also a complete idiot, which makes me wonder if his character in Biodome wasn’t just an act. To promote “Livin’ It”, two irreverent local radio hosts who most surely are going to hell decided to provide the Ministry with a theme song -

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fyi, the person who posted this video is Dr. Tae Kim of Northwestern University, who apparently is also really good at skateboarding. Where were physics professors like that in my school?

Barack Obama is looking to reverse executive orders on oil drilling and stem cell research implemented by President George W. Bush, the president-elect’s transition team said Sunday.

Here’s an interesting bit from a recent interview with president-elect Barack Obama:

JIM ANGLE: He was asked what he’s been doing to get ready for office and whether he talked to any previous Presidents.

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: I have spoken to all of them, that are living, obviously, President Clinton — I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances. [emphasis added]

Obama later apologized for apparently mocking the supernatural belief system, but that doesn’t remove two facts:

1. It was Hilary Clinton who did séances, Reagan used astrology, either way, superstition. (I imagine Laura and George just used good ol’ fashioned prayers).
2. Obama is willing to make fun of superstitions. People who generally buy this stuff don’t do that. This means there is potentially a sceptic in the White House. Imagine the ratifications of that – a president who consults knowledgeable advisers before acting. It’s the most promising thing I’ve heard about him so far.

Exciting times.

Bitter ol’ PZ Myers (I know the man’s not truly bitter) wrote a couple of posts since the election of Barack Obama, which “pissed in peoples corn flakes.” He’s written (emphasis mine):

Obama is a conservative/centrist Democrat who will at best implement a small shift in American policies — he hasn’t promised any strong change in Iraq, and his health care plans are an incremental improvement over the existing situation.

…

We’re still afflicted with the curse of religiosity as a political prerequisite, and Obama has strengthened it. That is a poison that will harm us over the long term; we may have made the more rational choice in this one election, but reinforcing the potency of irrationality will come back to bite us over and over again.

I dread the possibility that jubilation will lead to complacency, that moderation will produce stasis, and that what will follow an Obama presidency could be something far, far worse than we can imagine.

I should also add, before everyone condemns this as simply the act of a primitive society, that the same impulse is at work right here in America. Those people who voted yes on Proposition 8 in California were simply performing a slightly more civilized version of casting a stone at those who offend their moral and religious sense of propriety.

Honestly, I can say I fully agree.

When I look at Obama versus McCain (pre-election, not tied to Palin), I didn’t see progressive leftism versus regressive conservatism. I saw a right to center-right candidate and a right-wing candidate.

I would not vote for either candidate if they were running here in Canada.

The problem, as I see it, is that American democracy has been stolen, not just by the Republicans, but by the Democrats and the Republicans.

By some major scam, the two main parties in the USA have convinced nearly everyone in the country (including the third parties) that “a vote for a third party is a wasted vote.” The Democrats blame Nader for costing Gore the election in 2000 (think about the rationality of chastising someone for trying to represent another voice on the stage, and try to reconcile that with the ideals of “rule by the people”) and the Republicans are such a mixed bag of Christian fundamentalists, big businesses, and libertarians that I’m surprised they haven’t killed each other yet.

Yet, despite their disdain for each other, neither party would admit that the American electoral system is deeply flawed.

Why would anyone want more than two choices for government, one might ask? Doesn’t having two parties make it as simple as a governing party and an opposition, and when one doesn’t work, you can vote for the other? (I have actually heard these questions from Conservative Albertans).

This of course makes as much sense as on the Simpsons when Kang and Kodos take control of the US and put each other as the nominees, or Futurama when John Jackson and Jack Johnson run against each other. The essence of the satire is that with only two choices, they tend to become nearly the same politically in order to appeal to the widest demographic. Why do you think American landslides occur when one party gets more than 55% of the popular vote?

So how do you fix this problem?

First, with the Democrats in power, Obama needs to prove his commitment to democracy by capping all election spending, and not at the ridiculous amount he raised and spent, but at something that’s reasonable for a popular (but as of yet unelectable) third party can have an equal chance of getting it’s message out. Election ads can then also be given equal time on the major networks (for all parties, not just the two main ones). This won’t happen, of course, because he’s got power now and won it through raising ridiculous amounts of money. I’d like to be wrong here, but I’m not holding my breath.

Second, strong third party candidates should be included in the televised debates. Canada put Elizabeth May, Green Party leader, on the federal leaders debate (bringing the number of leaders present at the debate to five), and America could follow suit. Having Nader and Barr at the leader’s debate would definitely have rallied their respective supporters and given them realistic chances at least a few college votes.

Third, stop letting partisan companies put electronic voting machines in. Create a federal election overseeing board and ensure some standard. Make sure that this standard can’t be violated by Republicans, Democrats, or anyone. It’s not hard, but it stops things like 2000 in Florida. I think the issue is Americans need to learn that sometimes government isn’t bad.

Finally, although I’m not familiar enough with it, the electoral college system likely needs to be revamped. I’m not sure if this system is still valuable to American democracy, and perhaps change would be for the better.

So in conlcusion, I’m not saying that Canada has a great electoral system (we don’t), but I feel sorry for American voters who had to choose between two candidates who are forced to pander to get as many votes as possible. Take the momentum you have, America, and push for some electoral reform.

But then again, I’m not American, so you don’t have to take my advice.

Tuesday was a truly historic day. Not only did America elect its first African-American president, but it also decided to reject the policies of perhaps the worst US president in history and also the fear-baiting, irrelavent fringe-issue politics of John McCain and Sarah Palin. And while racism certainly isn’t dead in America, the election of Barack Obama at the very least sends a powerful symbol to the rest of the world that we have begun to move past the old race and culture wars of the 1960s. And while Obama may be far from perfect and we don’t necessarily agree with all his policies, there is no doubt that he is extraordinarily intelligent and curious – and given the far-right stoicism and domination of religious conservatives in government of the past 8 years that have run the country into the ground, there is no place to go but up.

Obviously the election of a black man is a huge unprecidented milestone, but other milestones were reached today for the nation and the Democratic Party. I will attempt to list them below:

• Barack Obama has won more votes than any other candidate for president in history. He also has won a greater percent of the popular vote than any other Democrat since 1964 and a greater percent of the popular vote than any candidate since 1988.
• The Obama-Biden ticket is the first Democratic ticket without a southerner on the ticket to win since 1944.
• Obama (or McCain for that matter) is the first president to have spent much of their childhood outside the country.
• Obama won Virginia and Indiana. The former is of course the capitol of the old Confederacy. The latter is the 7th most conservative state in the nation. Neither state has gone for a Democrat since 1964.
• Obama won North Carolina, a state that hasn’t gone for a Democrat since 1976.
• Obama won the greatest number of electoral votes of any candidate since 1996.
• Perhaps most importantly for Edger readers… Obama probably isn’t an atheist. But he has a multicultural as well as an interfaith family. His mother and father are atheists. He and Michelle are Christians (unless you ask Roy). His half-sister Maya is Buddhist. And his stepfather is Muslim. Hopefully this diversity will give us a President who is more inclusive of people of all beliefs rather than just someone who panders to the Religious Right.

Also, Obama won the popular vote by 53% to 46%, just as I had predicted. Furthermore, there is a good indication that the right-wing culture warriors are losing on the so-called “pro-life” issues -

• South Dakota defeated a draconian abortion bill 55% to 45%
• Colorado defeated a measure to define life as “the point of conception” 72% to 28%
• California rejected Proposition 4, a parental notification measure, 52% to 48%
• Michigan approved embryonic stem cell research 52% to 48%. They also approved medical marijuana by double digits.
• Washington approved a measure to allow euthanasia of terminally ill patients 57% to 42%

But not everything went well on November 4th. While all the anti-abortion measures were defeated, anti-gay marriage measures were also defeated across the nation. We still have a long way to go -

• Proposition 8 was passed 52% to 48%. Gay marriages are now banned in California according to its constitution, although homosexuals who have already married still are legally married… for now.
• A constitutional ban on gay marriage was passed in Arizona 56% to 44%
• A constitutional ban on gay marriage was passed in Florida 62% to 38%
• A measure to ban gay adoption was passed in Arkansas 57% to 41%

Proposition 8 Post-Mortem

Proposition 8 was the only aforementioned measure that had a good chance of failing. In fact, it was trailing by 17% in the polls at one point. However, there were several factors that helped get it passed -

• The Mormon Church. Say what you will about them, but they do have military-like precision, and they pumped enough money into the campaign to outspend the No on 8 people by a 2-to-1 margin. They also knew how to press peoples’ buttons. Rather than trying the measure as a civil rights issue, they falsely claimed that schools would be forced to impose the notion of homosexual marriage on young schoolchildren. They also falsely claimed that both Barack Obama and John McCain support Prop 8 (Obama opposes it)… but if you repeat a lie enough if becomes true.
• Ineptitude of the No on 8 Campaign. The No on 8 Campaign blew a 17 point lead and endorsements by Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Arnold Schwarzenegger by a lack of funds and a lack of organization. They only really got off the ground one week before the election when they finally decided to take money from the teachers’ and the nurses’ unions. And by then it was too late. They also did not exploit endorsements by the aforementioned – all of whom are popular politicians in CA – until the very end either.
• Old People. Young voters (those aged 18-29) overwhelmingly rejected Prop 8 62% to 38%. However, the 30-44 voting bloc split evenly on Prop 8, and those 45 years of age and older all voted for Prop 8 by significant margins.
• San Bernadino and Fresno Counties. They voted for Prop 8 by almost 40% margins. Can we kick them out? The 51 state can be called Dumbifornia.

All in all, I was very pleased with Tuesday’s results. I would trade 20 Proposition 8s for an Obama administration, perhaps even more.

Popular Vote

Barack Obama – 53% (353 EVs)

John McCain – 46% (185 EVs)

Ralph Nader’s Ego – 1% (0 EVs)

Swing States Obama Carries by > 10% Margin

Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine

Swing States Obama Carries by 5-10% Margin

Minnesota, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado

Swing States Obama Carries by 0-5% Margin

Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada

Swing States McCain Carries by 0-5% Margin

Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana, Georgia

Traditional Swing States Obama Carries by 5-10% Margin

Arkansas, Arizona, South Dakota, West Virginia, Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District

Traditional Swing States Obama Carries by >10% Margin

Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee

Also… Proposition 8 in California will fail 52% to 48%.