Post Election Musings
Nov. 9th, 2012 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkMaybe it's just wishful thinking, but this election feels like a turning point to me. Not a drastic reversal of our nation's screaming descent into incivility and extremism, but just maybe the upper end of the pendulum swing.
As a good Minnesota DFL-er, I was of course thrilled to see both of those mean-spirited amendments fail, the DFL recapture both houses of the legislature, and the Iron Range return to its rightful hue of deep blue. The horrid Michele did manage to win reelection, but by the narrowest of margin (in a district that went overwhelmingly Republican for president). I wonder how long it will take her to realize that she is now yesterday's news instead of a rising star. *snicker*
Nationally, there was all sorts of surprising news. Not one but TWO states voted to decriminalize marijuana! Three states voted to recognize gay marriage! And are there really 20 women in the Senate now? Including not only the liberal darling Elizabeth Warren, but Tammy Baldwin - who not only overcame the electoral challenges of being openly lesbian and openly from Madison, she beat the legendary Tommy Thompson? Wow.
Romney's concession speech was exceedingly gracious and supportive (honestly, I expected no less of him, but good to hear). And it was nice to see headlines like this one: Obama, GOP Call for Compromise, even if they only last for a day or two. I suppose they must have said something similar 4 years ago right after the election, but all I remember was the Republicans declaring that their top priority for the next 4 years was to "make Obama a one-term president." Could it be that they have realized that they will need something better than wall-to-wall obstructionism to win back the support of the American people?
Listening to the constant voter bloc analysis during election night, the one fact that stood out in neon was that the Republicans are never going to win another national election if they don't stop alienating Latinos and threatening middle-class women's reproductive rights. Romney really would have been a winning GOP candidate if the electorate was still limited mostly to white males. And he still might have won if he could have stopped his fellow party members from yammering on and on about abortion, birth control and "self-deportation" while he was trying to choreograph his own midsummer shift from "severely conservative" primary candidate to centrist national candidate. But it's going to be pretty hard to win an election going forward when 54% of the women and 75% of Hispanic voters don't trust you.
As the Republicans move into their own season of recrimination, there are two opposing explanations that could emerge to explain their presidential loss. A) Romney lost because he was too moderate or B) Romney lost because the rest of the Republican party was too far to the right. Since I think the actual answer is B, I suppose I should be rooting for the Republicans to go for A and field an even more ridiculously right-wing set of candidates for the next election. But I hope they settle on B, and give the nation a chance to actually get something done.
One final note. Yesterday I listened to a really disturbing episode of This American Life called "Red State, Blue State." Act Two is a chilling story about how the state legislature of New Hampshire, possibly the most well-behaved and civic-minded state in the union, was transformed (and not in a good way) by a wave of Tea Party candidates that swept to a 3:1 majority in 2010. Their leader, Bill O'Brien, became speaker and instituted sort of a reign of terror. No beheadings, fortunately, but the same take-no-prisoners attitude that led to the unfortunate demise of the French Revolutionary government. Listen to the podcast - both acts are pretty gripping. After I finished the podcast I desperately looked up the election results for the New Hampshire legislature, and discovered that Bill O'Brien's moment in the sun was over. He had actually won reelection from his own tiny district (all the House districts in New Hampshire are tiny) but the Republicans lost so resoundingly that they are now in the minority, so he is no longer eligible to be Speaker. I hope this is a harbinger of things to come - a continuing wave of buyers' remorse on the part of voters that bought what the Tea Party was selling.
As a good Minnesota DFL-er, I was of course thrilled to see both of those mean-spirited amendments fail, the DFL recapture both houses of the legislature, and the Iron Range return to its rightful hue of deep blue. The horrid Michele did manage to win reelection, but by the narrowest of margin (in a district that went overwhelmingly Republican for president). I wonder how long it will take her to realize that she is now yesterday's news instead of a rising star. *snicker*
Nationally, there was all sorts of surprising news. Not one but TWO states voted to decriminalize marijuana! Three states voted to recognize gay marriage! And are there really 20 women in the Senate now? Including not only the liberal darling Elizabeth Warren, but Tammy Baldwin - who not only overcame the electoral challenges of being openly lesbian and openly from Madison, she beat the legendary Tommy Thompson? Wow.
Romney's concession speech was exceedingly gracious and supportive (honestly, I expected no less of him, but good to hear). And it was nice to see headlines like this one: Obama, GOP Call for Compromise, even if they only last for a day or two. I suppose they must have said something similar 4 years ago right after the election, but all I remember was the Republicans declaring that their top priority for the next 4 years was to "make Obama a one-term president." Could it be that they have realized that they will need something better than wall-to-wall obstructionism to win back the support of the American people?
Listening to the constant voter bloc analysis during election night, the one fact that stood out in neon was that the Republicans are never going to win another national election if they don't stop alienating Latinos and threatening middle-class women's reproductive rights. Romney really would have been a winning GOP candidate if the electorate was still limited mostly to white males. And he still might have won if he could have stopped his fellow party members from yammering on and on about abortion, birth control and "self-deportation" while he was trying to choreograph his own midsummer shift from "severely conservative" primary candidate to centrist national candidate. But it's going to be pretty hard to win an election going forward when 54% of the women and 75% of Hispanic voters don't trust you.
As the Republicans move into their own season of recrimination, there are two opposing explanations that could emerge to explain their presidential loss. A) Romney lost because he was too moderate or B) Romney lost because the rest of the Republican party was too far to the right. Since I think the actual answer is B, I suppose I should be rooting for the Republicans to go for A and field an even more ridiculously right-wing set of candidates for the next election. But I hope they settle on B, and give the nation a chance to actually get something done.
One final note. Yesterday I listened to a really disturbing episode of This American Life called "Red State, Blue State." Act Two is a chilling story about how the state legislature of New Hampshire, possibly the most well-behaved and civic-minded state in the union, was transformed (and not in a good way) by a wave of Tea Party candidates that swept to a 3:1 majority in 2010. Their leader, Bill O'Brien, became speaker and instituted sort of a reign of terror. No beheadings, fortunately, but the same take-no-prisoners attitude that led to the unfortunate demise of the French Revolutionary government. Listen to the podcast - both acts are pretty gripping. After I finished the podcast I desperately looked up the election results for the New Hampshire legislature, and discovered that Bill O'Brien's moment in the sun was over. He had actually won reelection from his own tiny district (all the House districts in New Hampshire are tiny) but the Republicans lost so resoundingly that they are now in the minority, so he is no longer eligible to be Speaker. I hope this is a harbinger of things to come - a continuing wave of buyers' remorse on the part of voters that bought what the Tea Party was selling.
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no subject
Date: 2012-11-09 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-09 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-10 07:53 am (UTC)Obama tried to change the tone of politics from the red-faced hyperbole of the previous decades. It seemed to have worked. He's forged a coalition of not-too-disgruntled liberals, moderates and former Republicans. Not yet a firm coalition, but more than a plurality.
There are pockets of extremism on the right, and I fear more violence like the shooting of the Sikh temple. Swaths of the country believe in demonic possession and don't believe in evolution much less global warming. But the fringe elements are, slowly, being marginalized.
I agree with you. I've been saying for a while that things will get worse before they get better. If we survive the onslaught of the fringe elements, we may have turned a tide. We shall see if the Republicans in Congress have twigged to just how unpopular their obstructionism and whining have been. We shall see if the newly fired-up Democrats can get their act together and stand up to bullies. We shall see if the calls for a third party take root, leaving the once-proud GOP to the former Dixiecrats.