Thursday, November 8, 2012

Observations on the 2012 Election 11.8

It's about time to retire the Election 2012 headline but I said I would get back to how historic the day was. Maybe we need to wait a couple years to really say but there are some simple facts that made the day historic and some not so simple ideas. I think I'm going to break this into two parts though. First a few thoughts on the Republican Party, which I may have sent to the dustbin of history a bit early, and than some outright gloating about the winners on Tuesday.

I heard something yesterday that is just dead on, the right wing media runs the Republican Party and not the other way around. They set the tone and the wingnuts run with it and enforce what the talking idiots say. On top of that they get all their news from the same place, Fox News, so it's gotten to the point that they believe everything they say to each other and really can't comprehend that maybe their stands on issues are just way out of line with where the country is going. Tuesday night they were collectively stunned by the results because they do believe all their own bull shit.

The Republican Party itself has to realize this country isn't just changing, it has already changed in many ways. Every month 50,000 Hispanic children turn 18 and they vote. As much as I hate to say it Dubya, because he was Governor of Texas, actually thought out an immigration policy and got almost half the Hispanic vote while Willard got just a quarter of it. Simply trotting out Mark Rubio as the token Hispanic VP candidate would't have mattered even though Bill O'Reilly seems to think that's all it would have taken to win. Another interesting thing is this, have you ever noticed how the wingnuts always talk in code about Hispanics and African-Americans? They like to say that all blacks are on welfare and want free things while all Mexicans are illegals. Now the percentage of Asian Americans who voted for Obama was higher than the percentage of Hispanics but the talking heads never mentioned this fact. Maybe because it doesn't fit their code as they like to say all Asians are hard working and probably don't want to acknowledge that this group is largely turned off by the Republicans too.

But there are so many other problems for the wingnuts and Republicans. Seventy percent of unmarried women voted for Obama and as high as ninety percent of gays voted for him. They may still make the most noise on the subject but it does seem EWS (Evangelical Wingnut Conservatism) is beginning to lose its own culture war. Enough said.

This is just too funny to leave out. Paul Ryan lost his home state of Wisconsin and Romney not only lost his home state of Massachusetts but every state in which he currently owns a home. There are just too many of those to list here.

So could the Republicans have defeated President Obama? Honestly I don't think so but I do think there were two candidates that might have have had a chance. Jeb Bush, the Bush who should have been president before and was smart enough not to run this time, and John Huntsman, a conservative on economic issues but a moderate on social ones he was devoured early in the GOP primary season. Huntsman was the only candidate that actually scared me early in the campaign, the wingnuts took care of that.

Maybe the best and shortest description of the election result came from Charles M. Blow in "Picket Fence Apocalypse" a New York Times opinion on Wednesday. "No, you cannot have your country back. America is moving forward," he began. And than finished with this line; "Republicans are trying to hold back a storm surge of demographic change with a white picket fence. Good luck with that."

Before I finish I need to say this. I hope you saw some of the Fox News election coverage Tuesday night. The epic on air meltdown when their own people called the election for Obama was nutjob theatre at its awesome best, it just had to be seen.

Next up, and my final election post, let the gloating begin.