Or as I like to say; why things shape up the way they do in the present. Amendent One passed - I am very sad for North Carolina. Living in Texas I have great sympathy for y'all. Years ago, Houston City Council voted in some domestic partner benefits. The Religious Right (I want to say Reich, but it might be in bad taste) forced it onto the ballot and it happened to be during a runnoff for some seat in the most conversative parts of the City. Needless to say, the referundum passed and the benefits were removed.
All too often of late, the ballot box has been used to define "other people" and to strip away equal protections as though the Constitution didn't have that Clause it in.
If I may digress for just a bit. Dr. Stephen Klinberg of the Rice University Kinder Institute has been conducting the Houston Area Survey for 30 years. In that period of time the demographic changes of Houston have been dramatic. Consider that in 1960 Harris County (Houston sits in Harris County) was 73.9% Anglo and the population was a little over 1.2 million. By 1980 the population was 2.4 million and Anglos comprised 69.2% of the County. 2000 - 3.4 million and Anglo population was now 42.5%. As of the 2010 Census, Harris County is a little over 4 million people and Anglos are only 33% of the population.
A lot changed since the 1960's; there was a Civil Rights movement and a sexual revolution. There is a quote from Dune that I feel exemplifies that period of time, A place for every man and every man in his place. Sound familiar?
Changes that have happened have occured in such rapid succession that for many people it has been fear inducing. Thus in hindsite many people wish to push back time to a period when things were "better" for them. Was it true? Does it matter?
The simple fact is that the old guard that wants to return to an era that exists only in their minds is OLD. The Demographics in Texas spell doom for the conservatives who wish to impose their world view on each person.
I feel the pain of those in North Carolina. I cried for those in California when Prop 8 passed. I've seen it up close when people are simply spiteful at the ballot box. And yet, Houston has twice elected a lesbian to be Mayor - imagine that. Things change, people change, attitudes changes, and most importantly demographics change.
And it is those demographic changes that I think drive so much of the fear right now. Fear of the future because of the past. If no one is in his place then who has control? And if there is no control? I think those questions haunt many of our fellow citizens and thus they vote the way they do.
Things will change. THAT is the only constant. The more you fight change the worse it will hurt.