A few postelection thoughts

As I write this, I've just returned from casting a vote in the advisory election about whether the Legislature ought to pass a resolution putting before the voters the option of amending the Alaska Constitution.

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I voted no for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I don't support a constitutional amendment that bars same-sex partners of public employees from receiving benefits, so I don't want busy legislators wasting their time debating the resolution.

A dispassionate analysis of the advisory vote, if one is possible, shows some value-neutral reasons to vote in the negative. I was particularly taken by the analysis of the League of Women Voters, which pointed out that when we elect legislators, we empower them to introduce the resolutions necessary to bring constitutional amendments before voters. It is not the ordinary course of business to conduct costly statewide elections to get a legislator to muster the courage to drop a bill or resolution in the hopper.

As it turns out, one of the legislators who wanted you to vote yes on the advisory question has already introduced a resolution of the type described on Tuesday's ballot. So, regardless of the outcome, Rep. John Coghill, R-North Pole, is pursuing his goal.

Although I am diametrically opposed to Coghill on this issue, I respect him as an elected official and believe in his right to have introduced House Joint Resolution 9. That's his job, and those Alaskans who agree with him can testify and write letters in support of this legislation. They can urge other legislators to pass it and thus place an actual amendatory question on the ballot.

But it flies in the face of fiscal conservatism to spend more than $1 million of scarce public funds for an ancillary exercise in gauging public opinion. I am quite certain a far more exact picture of public sentiment on the underlying issue would result if Dave Dittman or another reputable pollster were given a fraction of the money and allowed to conduct a scientific survey.

The other thought I have as Tuesday ends (other than wondering how Anchorage voters will steer the municipality's course for the next few years) is what would happen if we had universal health care?

I know we'll never get to such a place from where we are by implementing a single-payer system because doing so would lock in the massive inefficiencies of our current system, which, although producing the highest quality care in the world, does not do such a great job at distributing access to that care. Most Americans are going to have to accept a lower quality health-care product if they want to extend coverage to those who have none now.

That's a tough sacrifice to ask people to make, and it will take highly skilled political leadership to get people to even entertain such a thought. I am grateful that Gov. Sarah Palin has chosen to revisit the issue of health care when there's so much other good work she's trying to do.

My question is, what if health care were already available as a public good? Would those voting yes in Tuesday's advisory election seek to deny access to that good only to homosexuals? I don't think most of them would, because the vast majority of opponents of same-sex benefits are not the least bit proactively mean or unkind or inhumane. The contrived artificiality of employment-based health care benefits is one reason the issue has led to this advisory vote. I think it's another example of how we're not really looking at the big picture.

Of course I hope the vote results in a "No" but even if the majority of the small number of Alaskans voting statewide say "Yes" that's hardly the end of the debate. Neither is it any real new beginning, because the debate was already underway. I remain hopeful that all Alaskans will continue to focus on issues actually determinative of our future individual and collective well-being. That which unifies us is far greater than that which divides us, and most of us aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

• Benjamin Brown is a lifelong Alaskan who lives in Juneau.