Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

"I think the people are believing he's going to be some anti-politician. He's a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, being guided by the Republican Party. So the only thing California is going to get is a Republican governor."
-- Jesse Ventura

Here's a sample from my overnight email of what people thought of yesterday's post:

From: scott.wu@------.com) on Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at 22:40:54
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>
> fuck you

Scott, could you be a little more specific? It's hard to respond to such a general comment. However, I'm going to take a guess and say you must be a fan of our new governor.

In many conversations with co-workers and associates yesterday I found that many of them were scared of the governator, and for the future of our state. For my part in those conversations, I just kept saying, at least he can't start any wars or kill anybody. I'm considered a moderate around here.

Today, I'll update my stance and say, I'm less afraid of our new governor than I am of his core supporters. These are the people who attacked, verbally and physically, candidates Georgy Russell and Dan Feinstein at various rallies over the last 75 days.

Anybody who's read my ramblings over the years knows that my top priority politically is the opening up of the process, involving more citizen candidates, and increasing the number of active voters. I'm thrilled that when the dust settles, and all the abentee ballots are counted, we could possibly top 70% participation in Tuesday's election. But now I'm also a little nervous at what this participation has wrought.

First time voters who think it's perfectly acceptible to bully other voters for their views; not a good sign for continued democracy. H.L. Menkin wrote that "the masses are asses." Was he right?