There were a few bright spots as a result of Tuesday’s General Election. Joe Fitzgibbon, an astute young man with a progressive agenda, will be heading to Olympia to represent Vashon residents. And Joe McDermott, who has strong ties to the Island and a keen grasp of our issues, will serve on the King County Council, again representing Vashon interests.

But both men will enter governmental jurisdictions facing mind-boggling financial difficulties.

While voters saw fit to elect them, they failed — on a larger stage — to do anything to address Washington’s sorry financial mess and deeply flawed tax structure. In one of the most absurd set of results from Tuesday’s election, voters repealed the Legislature’s recent tax on candy, soda and bottled water — as if our pesky lawmakers had overstepped their bounds last year by placing a modest tax on these non-essential items to fund education, health care and other critical services.

The defeat of Initiative 1098, a measure to impose a very limited income tax on the very wealthiest among us, was another result that spoke to our collective inability to see the big picture.

Some pundits — such as those who staff the increasingly conservative Seattle Times’ editorial page — are viewing this election as some kind of informed commentary by the people: They’re sick and tired of taxes, and they’re letting their elected officials know. That’s a charitable analysis, at best. It’s much more likely that voters were snookered by a barrage of outrageously deceptive advertising and beguiled by their own short-term interests.

Last week, in a move independent of the election results, the state ferry system announced that another round of budget cuts would likely spell service reductions on Vashon’s north and south ends and several other routes. This comes after two years of tough budget reductions for the ferry division — ones where, as planning director Ray Deardorf put it, they plucked any and all low-hanging fruit.

Cuts now will affect what many of us value: Our ability to get on and off the Island when we want and need to.

Vashon’s ferry-service advocates are, understandably, upset about this decision and are urging Islanders to fight for our continued service. Of course. We need to advocate for the Island’s needs.

At the same time, even as we work hard to save our service, we need to recognize the sorry plight of state government — a government that many voters seem to view as separate and other, rather than an expression of our highest values and aspirations, a reflection of who we are as a people.