I too was very disappointed to see that this failed, although it is not difficult to see why. Ever take a look at the Route 1 bus, or any bus for that matter, anywhere near the suburbs? No one rides the damn thing. Sure, it fills up as you get closer to town, but I'd bet that a lot of people think that they are not getting enough bang for their buck with the current system. Why then, would they fork out more money for another bus line that will two-thirds empty most of the time?
The Rapid's ads have been horrible for a long time. They have a great chance in their advertisements to really talk about benefits of mass transit. This time around, they could have talked about how the Silverline would have addressed some of the problems people have with the regular bus system (i.e. it takes too long, etc), but instead we got whiz-bang cartoons for a fleet of shiny new buses that can somehow control stop lights.
I agree with others here that people need to stop getting pissed off about this. The sustainability/urbanism proponents are already viewed by many as a bunch of elitists looking to ram one-sided public policy down everyone's throats, acting like they know what is best and unwilling to listen to other points of view. Getting all indignant over the rejection of BRT in a community that, generally, has widely supported mass transit until now, is only going to enhance that opinion.