Monday, November 12, 2012

Observations on the 2012 Election 11.12

Gloat: to exhibit a conspicuous sense of self-satisfaction, often at an adversary's misfortune ....

I started to gloat but as we know I never finished, than I was reading an article about the movie Lincoln and saw a quote from Daniel Day-Lewis that changed my mind about gloating. "There’s a tendency now to deconstruct and analyze everything and I think that’s a self-defeating part of the enterprise." Although it was about his acting style, and not politics, I decided to trash what I had started to just sit back and enjoy the moment. Instead of gloating I thought I'd just share some results.

President Obama was elected with 51% of the popular vote making him the first Democratic President to win two Presidential elections with over 50% of the vote since FDR. I have been reminded that Bill Clinton is the only other Democrat who has even won two elections since FDR, it still sounds good. Obama also won the electoral vote by a wide margin (332-206) so the wingnuts have no possible argument on the results. By the way, have you noticed that a Democrat has won four of the last six presidential elections?

Until now a marriage equality referendum had never passed by a popular vote but this year it did in three states (Maine, Maryland, and Washington) and in Minnesota a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was defeated.

Some firsts; Tammy Baldwin will be the first openly gay person to serve in the Senate, Mazie Hirono the first Asian American woman to serve in the Senate, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth the first disabled woman to serve in the house, Tulsi Gabbard the first Hindu American to serve in Congress, and Kyrsten Sinema the first openly bisexual woman to serve in the House. As I have mentioned before there will be a record twenty women Senators in the next Congress, only four will be Republicans.

In another first the state of New Hampshire's entire Congressional delegation (2 Senators and 3 Representatives) is made up of women and as a bonus the state elected Maggie Hassan as its Governor. Also in New Hampshire Stacie Laughton was elected to the State House, the highest office ever held by an out transgender person.

In something not totally related to the election MSNBC beat Fox News in the ratings game each of the three nights following the election. Who knows the reason, maybe the Fox News meldown on election night or a Fox anchor calling Rachel Maddow "an angry young man" that same night. As with the election results and the failure of every member of the GOP's rape caucus results sometimes speak louder than words.

I never even got to Karl Christian Rove and his millions of lost dollars.

Finally all too sweet quote from Speaker of the House John Boehner. When asked if, given the election's result, his goal was still the repeal of President Obama's healthcare reforms he answered simply;
"Obamacare is the law of the land."

No, I have no possible reason to gloat.