Burnt Orange Report

If you delve into the demographics too much, you will become politically incorrect very quickly. I watched as several did last night. Which is why I had too many martinis. If nothing else, Proposition 2 certainly has people talking.

Suffice it to say the more rural the voter, the more likely they will vote according to what some minister or priest or rabbi or rector tells them.

Or in other words, maybe among the data collected should be the IQ of the voters. That of course is where you become politically incorrect very quickly.

"Suffice it to say the more rural the voter, the more likely they will vote according to what some minister or priest or rabbi or rector tells them."

Please do not lump the Jewish community ("some rabbi telling rural voters") into the religious right movement. The Jewish community by and large voted AGAINST Prop 2, because of firsthand knowledge of discrimination. Besides, do you really think there is much rural, Jewish vote? To the Jewish community, the "Bubba vote" consists of little old grandmothers (Get a Yiddish dictionary).

Dude, great map. I'd adjust the projection though to a Texas specific, Lambert or maybe UCC, you're current projection is too elongated.

i'd also use a darker county line.

Just remember, this has much less to do with homophobia than power. Sure the homophobes are the foot soldiers, but the masterminds are simply using the issue to differentiate between the two major parties. For the Democrats to move to the next level as a party and return to its normal majority, we will have to not be hung up on demographics the way we have been. We are all humans inside with similar values and beliefs. Tolerance is the watchword. People of all ethnicities and backgrounds are basically good caring. This vote is proof of an unclear message from those who are tolerant. Just saying no, isn't the next best strategy.

"The Jewish community by and large voted AGAINST Prop 2, because of firsthand knowledge of discrimination."

According to what statistical data beyond an assumption that they did?

There's no such thing as a "rural voter" - not when 92% of the state's population is urban.

Brewster voted well because its low population is disproportionately located in Marfa and Alpine with their large number of hippy-dippy migrants.

Great map by the way. If nothing else it shows us "hippy dippy" migrants which counties to avoid while migrating around.

One interesting thing I noticed is that the Dallas area seems to be less conservative on this issue than the Houston area. Most would have expected the opposite to have been the case.

Loving County, the little island of blue east of Midland/Odessa, is such a great place - its county seat is Mentone. I've always wanted to phone bank it on election day so I can say that I actually phoned an ENTIRE COUNTY!

A whopping 25% turnout from 5 precincts - total of 28 votes cast, 20 for and 8 against.

Loving County - where everybody's either an elected official, has been or will be! Of the 28 votes cast:

1 - County Judge
4 - Commissioners
1 - District/County Clerk
1 - County Treasurer
1 - Sheriff/Tax Assessor
1 - Deputy Sheriff
1 - County Auditor
1 - County Appraiser
1 - J.P.
1 - Constable
1 - Demo County Chair
1 - Repub. County Chair
1 - Election Judge
1 - Alternate Election Judge
1 - Election Clerk
1 - Convenience Store/gas station/cafe owner
1 - Convenience Store/gas station/cafe owner's wife who cooks the burgers & does most of the work
1 - Courthouse Janitor/guy who has the key
1 - Courthouse clerical employee / 911 dispatcher (M-F 10am - 5pm only)
1 - Town Fairy
1 - Evangelical Wacko
4 - actual ordinary voters

The revolution starts in Loving County!

Actually I was wrong: Marfa is in Presidio County right next to Brewster - both are dark blue.

I suggest 50 of us move to Marfa and we'll take over the County.

Either that or 1,000 move to North Dakota and we'll elect a Senator!

Have you ever been to Marfa in the summer? Mentone might be a better choice. There's already one of us there. And just one evangelical wacko. Wonder if his wife has pink hair?

Well, maybe five of us. Depends on how ordinary those ordinary voters are. Or how hippy dippy they are.

That urban population statistic is nonsense. People in Lubbock, Amarillo, and most East Texas towns (like Tyler) are basically rural votes. There's a big difference between cities like Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas and other, smaller "urban" cities.

That is one ugly damned map. I'm sorry, but shades of color don't obscure the fact that the whole state except for Travis County is either stupid or evil, or possibly both.

Stupidity is often the worst evil because you cannot deal with it. All many have is just blind belief in things. And without that, they have nothing. That's why so many televangelists get so wealthy. Quite a few people in those red sections in Texas sit glued to the television and call the 800 number to donate to the salvation of mankind.

Pat Robertson probably made a killing in Pennsylvania after warning the people in Dover that God would strike them dead after voters removed the school board members who tried to have "intelligent design" taught in the schools.

Always this little "send in a check and God will protect you" intimation, you know.

'People who condemn homosexuality do so not because the Bible tells them to, but, ultimately, because they want to. People who condemn others should first examine the morality of their own judgments.'

Legislated discrimination is the message we want to send, because we ALL remember separate but equal proved to be constitutional.

Jesus Christ, you people are bigots.

You're making too many assumptions. Turnout, who turned out would be a better way of targeting. That's what you're attempting to do, target peoples living in Texas. You want to be able to slander them with their vote. Looking at Austin, I'd say all the people of Austin have been Austinized (new word maybe), I'd discount anything coming out of Austin. Isn't that College Station light Blue and Lufkin light red? What's the difference between Lufkin and Tyler?

Show me more statistices, there's a chance Blacks and Latinos didn't turnout much, may have been working or too busy for just propositions. Look west to California's turnout, half of last years presidential, and their Props were more interesting. This is more of a case, your Democrats didn't turnout very well. What was it, a 17.84% turnout? This easily could have been defeated had you turned out your base. Look there first, your Democrats failed you. Just as the California GOP is finding out, their base didn't turnout for the Props there.

California had that type of map provided by the state, you could click on each county for the local vote talleys. The DMN usually prints that type of map on Wednesday or Thursday after election day.

Baby Snooks,

If you are going to state that the Jewish community voted more or less for Prop 2 (Rabbis telling people to vote for it), then you have the burden to support your assertion.

Based on everything I have heard from members of the community, the sentiment was OVERWHELMING to vote No. In fact, every Rabbi I know has taken a position against it.

As far as empirical data, this is much harder to come by, because Jews do not constitute a majority in any given precinct, or it least it is not easy to identify them as such. However, before labeling a community as narrowminded, please make sure you have at least some information to back it up.

Have you heard of ANY instances where ANY Rabbis have urged voters to vote Yes on Prop 2? Have you spoken to any members of the Jewish community who have said that they intended to note Yes?

"If you delve into the demographics too much, you will become politically incorrect very quickly."

I have no idea how many rabbis spoke out for or against the proposition apart from what the media reported. Or how many merely sat silent. Do you? I suspect some Orthodox rabbis took the same position that Archbishop Fiorenza took which was that the church teaching about marriage was very clear. That is not a quote. That is from recollection of what he said. His comments were published. I'm not aware of any comments by Orthodox rabbis being published. The Reform rabbis spoke out against the proposition. But they do not represent all Jews.

"Have you spoken to any members of the Jewish community who have said that they intended to note Yes?"

Do you really believe that Florence Shapiro voted "no" on Proposition 2? And what about Elliot Naishat? Who apparently is not on the list of who supported and opposed the proposition in the house. As listed here in another post. Did he just remain silent and not vote on the bill in the House? How did he vote at the polls?

Florence Shapiro isn't the only Jewish Republican in the state of Texas by the way. There are quite a few. The chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Fred Zeidman, is a Republican. Appointed by George W. Bush. A family friend. According to several people, when Minnesota state represenatative Arlon Lindner denied that homosexuals were victims of the Holocaust and intimated that in fact homosexuals were somehow responsible for the Holocaust and attempted to introduce legislation which would bar homosexuals and their survivors from any Holocaust survivor benefits or settlements, there was absolutely no condemnation of his comments by the Holocaust Memorial Council. It was up to the chair of the council to issue the condemnation. None was issued. Although he did issue a condemnation of PETA ads comparing animal abuse to the Holocaust.

And yes, I know Jews who voted for the proposition. They are no longer welcome in my home. Or my life. Bigots come in all shapes, sizes, and religions.

Harris County is in light blue area, which surprised me given the high number of gays and lesbians in Houston. Then I thought about how big Harris County is. It span to a lot of the suburbs, including Baytown, where I live, which is conservative. If you were to look at a precinct map, I think that the more central parts of Houston would look more like Travis. Dallas County covers less territory outside of the innercity, except south of Dallas, which is a largely black community.

I would like to see broken down precinct maps if anyone knows where to find them.

I was pretty sure that this Prop would pass and will confess that I didn't make much of a point, myself, to get out and vote. The reason being that I'm busy, but also, I didn't want to validate what was a rediculously bigoted proposition to make in the first place. The fact that it was on the ballot is redundant and I didn't feel the need to agknowledge it at all. If the Proposition didn't pass, gay marriage would still be illeagal. After the fact, I realized that I'd made a mistake. I think a stronger Democrat or "No" showing would have made a large impact. If the prop had been defeated it probably would have meant that leagalization wasn't far behind, so now, I'm wishing that the opposition would have made it a bigger deal.

It's frustrating many at BOR aren't attempting to understand why I voted for Prop #1 without resorting to name-calling and accusations of bigotry.

I know, it works both ways. Where's the common ground?

The common ground was the state law that banned same-sex marriage. The "typical" Republicans wanted a constitutional amendment to make it more difficult for the courts to overturn it. So why did you vote for it? To allow a constitutional basis for discrimination. Nothing more.

It amazes me how when the courts uphold the Republican manifesto, the Republicans claim they are upholding the Constition but when they uphold the Constitution, the Republicans claim they are "activist judges." It should work both ways. But it doesn't with Republicans. Who believe it's "my way or the highway."

You still have 19 states to go before you can add it to the US Constitution. And I bet you don't get them.

What a beautiful map! So much red! Gay marriage in Texas? Not any time soon.