Congratulations
to all of us who rooted, worked, contributed, and / or voted for his
re-election.
We
watched the returns come in until after Midnight, East Coast Time. We made
popcorn. [Note to self: If I am going to
keep mentioning popcorn in these blogposts, I really should see about getting a
popcorn manufacturer as a sponsor.] I have to confess, I was a little bit
worried, watching the early returns. That blue line was shorter and was growing
more slowly than the red line. Not to worry, we were told by the people on TV,
this was the early reports from the red states coming in early
Florida
remained grey (or yellow or white, depending on which network you watched) until
Saturday. I am so very happy that the election did not depend on Florida for the
final result. The 2000 convention earned us the nickname Florida-Duh and may be one of the reasons
Florida residents are called Floridiots,
Actually, I think both names were earned once again when we allowed Rick Scott
to buy the governorship a couple of years ago. Even without Florida’s 29
electoral votes, Barack Obama was re-elected president, and that suits me just
fine. In the final count, including Florida voters, Obama won by 332 electoral
votes to Romney’s 206.
Mitt
Romney was the first Mormon nominee. I thought that might trigger a backlash
from some anti-Mormon fundamentalist Christians. I am suppose there were some
snake-handlers that thought considered Mitt to be the spawn of Satan, but most
of them might have kept quiet because they considered Obama to be the devil
himself! I thought Romney would have basically tied up the Mormon vote. But, as
it turned out, a smaller percentage of Mormons voted for Mitt Romney than had voted
for George W. Bush in 2008.
This
was not a pretty presidential campaign. Lies were told. There were those who
insisted that Obama was not born in the US. The sellers of bumper stickers that
said “Don’t Re-Nig in 2012” tried to bring political discourse down to a new,
disgusting, low.
There
is a lot of political talk going around now about how Romney and his GOP
cronies didn’t appeal to Hispanics or to African Americans, or even to younger
voters. All of these things may be true, but I don’t think it suits anyone for
any candidate to focus primarily on playing to factions of the population or to
complain that they didn’t get their support afterwards.
The
president, once duly and legally elected, is the president of all the people. For
the GOP to be licking its wounds and comforting itself with thoughts such as, Obama won just because of the Latinos or
—just because of the poor really
doesn’t help anybody’s cause.
I
believe that the GOP and Romney failed, not because they appeared not to be
benefiting any one slice of the American voting population pie chart, but
because they did appear to be primarily benefiting an even tinier sliver of that
same pie chart — the one percent of Americans that control an ever-increasing
share of the nation’s wealth, currently about 40 per cent. Because of the
Citizens United Supreme Court ruling (something I am hoping that an Obama
Supreme Court appointment will someday undue) these wealthiest of all Americans
can funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into the race for president and into
races across the country.
This
tine it did not work. We, as an electorate, did not allow Mitt Romney or Sheldon Adelson or the Koch Brothers to buy
the election.
And that is one of the greatest things about
our country.
I
am sure the Romney’s are disappointed. But, Anne Romney can be can console
herself with the knowledge that she doesn’t have to move into a smaller house,
in public housing no less.
But, I still wonder, if Tagg Romney wanted to take a
swing at the president before the election, what’s he fantasizing about now?
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