Michigan ballot proposals
November 4, 2008 – 10:51 pm by JohnI broke down and went to my polling location this morning to vote for one ballot proposal and vote against four of them, and write in “NOBODY” for president, Senate, House of Representatives, state legislature positions, mayor, etc.
The ballot proposal I voted Yes on was to legalize medical marijuana in Michigan. It is sad how many caveats and regulations would/will be attached to this legalization, but I have a feeling it will pass and it’s one small step for bodily freedom in this state.
There were two tax increases and a proposal related to park land that I voted against.
The controversial “no” vote that I cast was against public funding of human embryonic stem cell research. That position isn’t controversial as libertarianism goes, because regardless of how much tax money it might have cost (some advocates said zero, which I found unlikely), and regardless of who it might benefit or harm, I oppose the expansion of any and all government activity. My vote would be controversial amongst my friends and colleagues, who are scientific researchers like myself. I think human embryonic stem cell research holds quite a bit of promise for curing degenerative and developmental diseases, and possibly for understanding some biological processes better than we currently do. (I wish I could be more specific, but I don’t study stem cells and I really don’t know how much promise they really hold. I tend to be skeptical.) I also hope research on stem cells proceeds well-funded and can be applied to many degenerative and incurable diseases in the near future.
However, some people don’t want their tax money to fund it. I heartily agree with Thomas Jefferson’s statement, “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” My “no” vote was sticking up for the people who, for whatever enlightened or unenlightened reasons, don’t support research on human embryonic stem cells and don’t want to contribute to it. They clearly should not be forced to contribute to it. Another quotation comes to mind, from Heinlein: “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
My Obama-worshiping friends might find that position stubborn or unenlightened. But I would ask them whether they’d want their tax money to fund the Iraq invasion, torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, or CIA wiretaps, if they had the option. They would surely say no, if they were being honest. Similarly, people who don’t want their money to fund failed artists, public park land that they don’t use, abortion clinics, or human embryonic stem cell research shouldn’t be forced to pay for them.
The logical extension of that position is anarchism.
I hope I helped defend some people against having their money taken from them to pay for things they don’t want merely because scientists, politicians, and others think it would be good for them. Unfortunately, a lot of people see mob-rule elections as a contest to out-vote their political rivals for control of the violent, deadly police power of the State, to see who gets the power to point the guns at whom and for what reasons. That is the very antithesis of civilization.
I feel like I wasted a lot of time waiting in line just to write in my protest vote of “NOBODY” for president, mayor, and other positions. I stopped filling in the “other” bubble and writing “NOBODY” on the line after a while. There were too many judges and attorneys that I didn’t feel like voting against because my vote is meaningless anyway. I don’t anticipate waiting nearly that long in line to write in “NOBODY” next time. Abstaining completely is probably a better protest-vote. I don’t have a problem with voting against government predations in ballot proposals, though. In contrast to, for instance, this presidential election, when all candidates were undeserving of my vote and would violate my moral code in many ways, there was a clear yes-or-no position for the ballot proposals, the way I saw it.
3 Responses to “Michigan ballot proposals”
I tried to take my wife to the polls at 7am, there was a line about a mile deep, wrapping through the hallways of the high school.
We didn’t even see the end of the line before we turned around and left. She had to catch a flight for business in the afternoon and didn’t make it to the polls. I returned at about 7pm, and there was nobody there.
I went to the polls at 7pm in 2004, too. No lines.
By David Z on Nov 5, 2008
Yeah, one thing I forgot to mention in my post was that I got there at 6:53 a.m., 7 minutes before they opened, and I turned in my ballot at about 8:25, so it took me almost exactly an hour and a half. The crowds were crazy at 7:00.
One of my co-workers went at about 5:30 or 6 p.m. and took about 2 hours in all, and another co-worker went at 7:00 p.m. and didn’t wait behind a single person. We all had different voting locations.
By John on Nov 5, 2008