The 10 Greatest Things About the 2012 Election

After a long, historically expensive campaign, this election season is officially over and our 44th President has been reelected.   There were lots of great things and some really sucky moments in this campaign.  Here are 10 of my favorites.

1.  Obama Won:  By giving Barack Obama a decisive victory in the Electoral College and a respectable majority of the popular vote, voters showed Mitt Romney that they are not impressed with one of the most secretive and dishonest candidates in recent memory.  President Obama can now move forward with his vision of an America in which we care for the most vulnerable among us and ask those who have benefited most of our systems of government, infrastructure, and education to pay a little more into the coffers to pay for it.  It’s an America in which we invest in our education system, rather than dismantling it and allowing the private sector to take over.  An America that doesn’t rattle sabres and call for more wars, but instead utilizes all diplomatic options before dropping bombs.  It’s an America where we believe that our kids should not be hungry, homeless, or destined to die because they get sick.  A country believes that after we ask our military personnel to serve overseas, we have an obligation to serve and take care of them when they get home.  That’s the America I want to live in.

2.  Nate Silver Was Right:  Data guru extraordinaire Nate Silver, who runs the New York Times Five Thirty-Eight Blog predicted the results of the 2008 presidential race with unprecedented accuracy, missing the mark in only one state.  This time, as his model began to show a high probability of an Obama win, including a sweep of all swing states except North Carolina, the right wing talking heads began to decry his results and accuse him of being biased.   Silver uses a model which eliminates human biases by determining long before campaign season how to weight various polls and which other non-polling conditions should be included and to what extent (economic factors, etc.).  Simply put, he uses math.  That’s right folks, math.  And on Tuesday math won when Mr. Silver correctly predicted the results of every state election, much to the chagrin of those who worship the likes of Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh and bought the line of biased polls and oversampling bullshit that they were fed.   It is a victory for math.  Pay attention conservatives!  Math and science are non-partisan.

3.  The Rape Gang Legitimately Lost:  Todd Legitimate-Rape Akin, Richard God’s-Rape-Baby Murdoch, Roger Some-Girls-Rape-Easy Rivard, John The-Rape-Thing Koster, Joe No-Woman-Dies-From-Pregnancy Walsh, and Tom Having-A-Baby-Out-Of-Wedlock-Is-Like-Rape Smith were all defeated.  Paul Rape-Is-Just-Another-Method-Of-Conception Ryan, while hanging on to his House seat was defeated at the top of the ticket.

4.  Marriage Equality.  And Weed!:  Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for recreational use.  Maine, Maryland and Washington all voted to legalize same-sex marriage, and Wisconsin (Paul Ryan’s state – how great is that!), by electing Tammy Baldwin, is sending the nation’s first openly gay person to the U.S. Senate.  There’s work to do, but the tide is definitely changing on these two issues. FORWARD!

5.  2012 – Year of the woman:  President Obama won the women’s vote by 18 points.  We’re sending a record number of women – 20 – to the U.S. Senate, one of whom is that body’s first openly gay member.  Several of those women defeated members of the Rape Gang.  The entire New Hampshire state delegation is female.  We’re sending the first Hindu woman to congress.  Two words – Elizabeth Warren.  Binders full of women went to the polls on Tuesday and sent a message to the old, white political establishment – stay out of our bodies, or face our wrath in the voting booth.  Power to the vagina.

6. Super PAC’s Lost:  Despite a record amount of money spent by Super PAC’s on the right, funded by billionaires like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers, the voters of this country showed them that the substance and character of candidates matter.  We told them that our votes are not for sale and that the White House is not simply some piece of real estate they can purchase to expand their influence.  Every single candidate Crossroads GPS backed lost.  They didn’t win a single of the 7 Senate races they put money into.  The people won.  We can only hope that Karl Rove and his billionaire backers realize that their money was wasted and reconsider trying to buy our votes.

7.  Fox Is Imploding:  As election results were pouring in and it became clear that the President would win Ohio, in what was perhaps the most stubborn disregard for facts we’ve seen so far, Karl Rove sat on the Fox News set and decried the fact that Fox’s own Decision Desk had called the race for Obama.  Of course, no Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio, so it was a critical swing state.   Fox has spent the past month claiming that all the poll were biased to Obama (despite the fact that even Fox’s own polls showed him leading at times), claiming that the Bureau of Labor Statistics made up numbers, and making wild predictions of a Romney landslide.   When they realized they were not only wrong, but dreadfully so, heads nearly exploded.  I give you video evidence.  You have to wonder how the network will even continue to exist and if this will open the eyes of anyone who watches it.  You can see it below, and then you should totally go watch Jon Stewart’s take.  BTW, his guest was Nate Silver last night.  Greatness.

8.  The Minority Voice Was Strong:  The portion of the electorate made up of white folks was down, while blacks and Hispanics made up a larger portion than in 2008.  Those minorities, along with women, voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama and the Democrats.  This is, of course, not surprising.  A party that talks about women as if they can’t make decisions for their own bodies, encourages immigrants to self-deport, and actively engages in efforts to suppress the vote of minorities can hardly expect those people to come running to its side.  Now would be a good time to wake up to the fact that the old, white vote is not enough to win national elections in 21st century America.

9.  OH Proved Lying Doesn’t Work:  While the Romney campaign spit some really good whoppers over the past few months (think Obama robbing Medicare to pay for Obamacare, or getting rid of the work requirement for welfare recipients, claiming that the Administration was trying to eliminate early voting for veterans, and a nearly endless list of other provably false statements), perhaps the single biggest and most damaging to the candidate was running an ad in Ohio claiming that Chrysler was moving it’s Jeep manufacturing to China.  Besides being so unbelievably wrong that the CEO of Chrysler came out publicly to set the record straight, it is pretty much a new low to try to win votes by scaring people into believing they’re going to lose their jobs.  What a schmucky thing to do.   It’s also a pretty stupid way to lie.  If you’re going to do it, don’t do it to the folks who know you’re lying.  Fortunately for all of us, the people of OH made an emphatic statement when they cast their votes for the President.  It was a good day for truth, and puts future candidate on notice that most folks are smart enough to know bullshit when they smell it.

10.  Obamacare is Here To Stay:  Barack Obama’s signature policy initiative, one that his predecessors tried to implement for nearly a century will remain the law of the land.  The millions of children with preexisting conditions who can no longer be denied coverage because of them, do not have to worry about being dropped.  Women will continue to receive contraception without co-pays.  Seniors will continue to be able to retire with some amount of dignity.  In 2014, adults will no longer be able to be denied for preexisting conditions.  Millions of people will have healthcare who did not before and healthcare costs will continue to increase at smaller rates, and eventually go down.

Bonus – Campaigning Is Fun:  I’ve never been involved in a political campaign.  I’ve always voted, but never been any more active than that.   This election was important enough that I jumped in up to my neck and I think I might have found my calling.  I have had more fun organizing in my community than I ever thought I would.  I’ve met a strong group of like-minded progressives/Dems/liberals here in my red county in my red state and it’s been absolutely fantastic.   People are willing to work hard for a cause they believe in but they’ve got to be aware that opportunities to do so exist.  I’ve talked to hundreds of people here who have been hiding in the woodwork for fear that they were alone.  They’re not. There are a lot of us here and we’re going to keep organizing, keep working, and keep planning to make this state blue.   Good times, my friends.  Good times.

It’s Not Just A Right – It’s A Responsibility

The day has come.  It’s Election day in America and (hopefully) tonight we will know who will lead our country for the next four years.  Have you voted?  Will you?

Now, if you’re not planning to, I bet I can guess the argument you use to justify not participating in our government.  You don’t like either candidate, right?  You think the system is broken.  You believe you’re protesting a corrupt system by not participating in it.  You feel like your vote doesn’t count because you’re a Blue in a red state or a Red in a blue state.  Maybe you feel like your vote doesn’t matter because of this thing we have called the Electoral College.  Perhaps you’re sitting this one out because you’re busy, or because you think the candidates are the same.

Whatever your reason, it sucks.   I understand if you don’t like Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, but have you looked at your ballot?  Most of us have more than those two candidates to choose from.  Is your vote ‘wasted’ if you vote for Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, Rocky Anderson, or Virgil Goode?  Hell no.  Your vote is your voice and power to change things.  You don’t protest this system by not participating.  You protest by telling both major party candidates to screw off in the voting booth.  You don’t make things better by being silent.  Nothing has ever, ever changed by people remaining on the sidelines.  Get involved.   Work for the change you want to see.

Does living in a red state and voting blue make your vote any less valuable?  No, it doesn’t!  If you’re a Democrat who wants to change your state’s politics, how do you expect to get the DNC to fund candidates, or for those candidates to be able to raise money in your state if no one votes for them?  How do you expect good candidates to want to run as part of the minority party if that party’s base doesn’t get out to support them?   Numbers matter.  Math matters.  Sending a message to the majority party matters.  Turning a red state blue, or a blue state red, doesn’t happen over night.  It takes a concerted effort by the party base to support qualified candidates, raise money for them and, most importantly vote for them.  It takes letting other like-minded folks know they’re not alone, and it takes making it worth a candidate’s effort to run for office.

People have died for your right to vote and it is your responsibility as a citizen of this country to exercise it.  It is the ultimate display of hubris to simply abstain from voting out of some supposedly lofty ideal of being ‘above it all’ or some such nonsense.  It is a slap in the face to everyone who has fought and died for you to be able to participate in our government.  We, as women, have been allowed to vote for less than 100 years.   African Americans, while technically able to vote for decades before, were not fully included in this process until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which eliminated many barriers to voting that population faced.   Don’t let the sacrifices of those who made that right possible for you be in vain.

I’ve lived in third world countries where people do not have the right to vote.  They understand how precious this right is.  They are still dying and fighting for that right.  THEY get it.  The idea that people would willing sit out of an election to select the people who lead them is stunning to those who still do not have the right to do so.

Do you have any opinion about this election at all?  You need to vote that opinion.  Do you hate the two major party candidates?  Go vote 3rd party or write in.  Are you offended how much money has been pumped into this system and election by corporations?  Guess what?  Corporations really aren’t people and don’t get to vote, and the people who run them have the same number of votes you do – ONE.  Despise the electoral college?  Start a movement to end it.  Go do your part to make sure that the popular vote matches the Electoral vote.   Don’t sit out.  By not participating you appear to be apathetic, and no one is forced to take your opinion seriously.  You seem to not care at all.  Well, folks, hating something is caring.  Not liking the system is caring.  Now, get your butt out there and SPEAK.

Hey, Do You Know This Guy?

Here’s the guy who stole my Obama yard sign.  Do you know him?  We don’t know if this is who vandalized it…only that he took it.

Why Mitt?

Here’s my honest question to those who are voting for Mitt Romney:  Why?  Why is he your choice?  Now, before you answer me, you have to accept the fact that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen and deserves to be President of the U.S. because he won a free and fair election in this, our democratic republic.  Are you there?  Good.  So now that we’ve established that the current President is legitimate, let’s also agree on the following points.  1)  He is not a socialist.  He’s just not, and there’s not a socialist in the world who would disagree with me.   His health care plan is not a government take over of healthcare.  It’s a conservative plan developed originally by the Heritage Institute designed to keep ‘freeloaders’ from mooching off the system by not buying insurance but still consuming healthcare services.  2)  He is not a Muslim Kenyan Communist either.  Not that it would matter if he were Muslim, since “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”  See:  Article VI of the Constitution.  If you have not been able to agree with everything you’ve read above, please stop reading because there’s absolutely no point in talking to you if you can’t stand and argue your point from that very provable plane of truth.

Now, if you have acknowledged that this President is legitimate, let’s talk about why you would vote for his Republican opponent.  Mitt Romney is virtually incapable of telling the truth.  During his performance (that’s really all it was) at the debate this past week, he said that Obama had given $90 million for clean energy and that most of the recipients of those funds filed bankruptcy -  lie. He said Obama has doubled the deficit – another  lie.  Romney threw out that 20 million people will lose their health care if Obamacare is fully implemented – one more lie.  He lied so boldly about whether his health care plan would cover those with pre-existing conditions that his own campaign came out corrected him.

He stood on that stage and outright denied multiple times that he plans to lower taxes on the wealthiest Americans, a claim that directly contradicts Primary Romney, who said unequivocally that he would lower taxes on everyone, including the top 1%.  Mitt Romney has been for abortion and against it, and even made money off of a company who deposed of aborted fetuses.  He’s been for self-deportation and for parts of the DREAM Act.  He’s been for universal healthcare and against it.  He’s been for and against gun control.  He’s going to repeal and replace all of Obamacare, and then is going to keep parts of it.  Romney has held both positions on gay rights and marriage equality too.  He has held nearly every position on every issue.  You can see a huge collection of his flip flops in this video.

Video credit: channel4truth202

Romney has a nearly $5 trillion tax plan (essentially cut the tax rate across the board by 20%, and close loopholes to pay for it), which he also denied in the debate.  He and Paul Ryan have both refused to give any specifics about what they would cut in order to offset the tax cut.  Ryan has gone from saying he hasn’t done the math, to saying that it would take too long to explain it.  Romney has said he wants to sit down with Congress and discuss which loopholes he will close.  Bottom line?  They’re not going to tell us before the election what they’re going to do.

It honestly confuses me to think about people actually voting for this man. I get it if you don’t like Obama. But there are 3 or 4 other candidates besides him on the ballot in most states. Vote for one of the 3rd party candidates. At least you know where they stand. Pick one that is closest to your set of values, and vote for that person. But to vote for this guy, simply because he’s not Obama, even though it is impossible to tell how he will govern based on his statements (though that becomes pretty crystal clear when you look at his running mate)? Insane.  To vote for a man who runs from his only legislative accomplishment in his health care plan, a plan that he once said should be blueprint for our national health care system?  Crazy.  To vote for a man whose business record consisted, not of creating jobs, but of saddling companies with debt, then shutting them down or shipping those jobs overseas over the guy under whose leadership we’ve added 5 million jobs in the last 43 months?  I don’t get it.  To vote for the guy whose record on job creation when he governed was the 3rd worst in the country?  My head is starting to spin.  To vote for a guy who won’t even tell you what he wants to do with your taxes and won’t show you his?  I don’t even know what to say to that.

Besides that, he’s a Mormon. Really? I mean, I don’t give a shit who you worship or what your religion is as long as you don’t force it on me. But these are the same people who think Mormonism is a cult, but will vote for Romney anyway, despite the fact the the man already in the White House is a Christian.I know it might seem like a rhetorical question, but why?  Why is Mitt Romney an acceptable alternative to not only Obama, but also Stein, Johnson and Goode?

I leave you with one more video to ponder this evening.  Here’s what Republicans really think of Romney, and their supposed to be his ‘friends’.

This is Texas. What Did I Expect?

That’s actually the reaction I’ve gotten from some folks about what was written on my sign.  What did I expect?  I expected my neighbors to not write “N*gger Lover” on my Obama yard sign.  That’s what I expected.

The thing that is so troublesome about this is not that they called us names. I do love black people. I also love brown people and white people, Christian, Muslim, atheist and Jewish, gay and straight people. I do not love, homophobic, racist, bigoted ones.  What bothers me most is that there are 4 or 5 African American families on our street, all with kids, who may have walked past this sign on the way to the bus stop. It’s just beyond the pale of what should be acceptable in a civilized society.  How is that okay?  How does whoever did this, who lives among to our African American friends, sleep at night, knowing that they’re exposing our kids to such hate and filth?  Can you imagine walking past that sign as an 11-year-old girl on the way to the bus?  It breaks my heart to think about being her.

This is the handwriting of a grown ass woman.  A woman who very likely has kids who go to school with mine and who I probably even get behind in the carpool line.  This is someone who should know better (and who should have learned to spell the religion she professes).

What do I expect?  Simply put, I expect better.  I expect better from Democrats and Republicans.  I expect better from Christians and those of all faiths.  I expect better from white Americans and non-white Americans.  I expect better of straight and gay Americans.  I expect civility and respect and decency.  I expect you to stay off of and refrain from defacing my property.  Is that too much to ask of my neighbors in 21st century America?  Aren’t we bigger and better than this?

Those who make excuses for this kind of behavior, somehow justifying it because we live in a red state, are part of the problem.

Just for the record, I happened to be at an event this weekend where the Republican Party of Collin County had a table.  I walked up and asked them if I could show them a picture and showed them my phone with my sign on it.  They were, thankfully, offended by the sign.  The man who appeared to be the leader gave me his email address and asked that I send him the uncensored picture so that he could spread the word and condemn it among his Republican circles.  I did as he asked and received the nicest note in return.  He even apologized for not offering to replace my yard sign and offered me a camera to try to catch whoever this was if they come back.  He agreed that this is not acceptable and said, “Bottom line, we’re all Americans and this is not okay.”  I am so appreciative of his attitude, the attitude we should be able to expect from all decent members of our society.  He also said that whoever did this is clearly not involved with the Republican party in our county, because its elected chair is an African American.

By the way, if you’re the person responsible for having stolen our sign from the yard last night, we have a camera and we saw you do it.  The police now have the video and are going to throw the book at you – as they should.

Hatred Hits Home….Literally

I have really cool next door neighbors.  One of them rang my doorbell this morning at about 7:30 and told me he’d pulled up my Obama yard sign because it looked like this:

To the person who did this:

Firstly, I hope you don’t have children.  I’m no handwriting expert, but I’m thinking you are a grown woman.  In fact, you’re probably one of those ‘Christians’ who gets all of her news of FAUX and just can’t stomach the idea of anyone who’s other.

Well, here’s something for you…The police have been here and filed a report.  The HOA has been notified, and my sign is uncovered and back in my yard.  I’m not afraid of you and your bigotry.  Cameras are being installed and WHEN we catch you messing with our sign you will, quite appropriately be charged with the felony this is and smacked with the associated $2,000 fine.

Have a great day, hater.

P.S. I find it interesting that our little suburban city was just named the 2nd best place to live in America.  I suppose there should have been a caveat.  “Best Place to Live If You’re A Bigoted White, Christian, Anti-Gay Person Who Doesn’t Support Our First African-American President And Hates Everyone Who Does”.   That was probably too long a title, though.

It’s Not the Money, Ann

I find Ann Romney to be perplexing.  Today in an interview with David Gregory on Meet the Press, Mrs. Romney said that her husband has been “demonized as heartless”.  She went on to claim that they are perfectly capable of having empathy for someone who has had to struggle financially because she’s struggled with her health, MS specifically.  She calls it “her teacher” then states that she feels it is ridiculous for us to question her ability to be empathetic.

But here’s the thing.  I understand intellectually what MS does to a person.  I know a handful of people who suffer from it, and that disease just ravages a person.  I’m happy that Ann appears to not be suffering right now.  I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

But just because I have seen in people close to me what it is like to have MS, I don’t fully understand it.  I haven’t felt the physical pain and mental anguish that comes from having a disease.  I feel bad for my friends, but I can’t claim to understand, because I really don’t have a clue, and you’re not ‘ridiculous’ if you choose to remind me of that.  My friends do not have access to limitless financial resources to treat their illnesses, as Ann Romney did.  She never had to worry about whether or not she could afford treatments or medications like the people I know do.

Mrs. Romney doesn’t have a real clue what it’s like to struggle financially, but that’s not the problem.  The problem is that this woman, who last year got a $77,000 deduction on her taxes for her dancing horse – more than millions of people in this country GROSS in a year – thinks she can have any idea what it’s like to struggle financially.  She NEVER has, and she thinks you’re ridiculous if you don’t believe she can empathize with you.

There are a lot of wealthy Americans who don’t have to go around telling people how much they care about them, because they show it.  Being obscenely wealthy does not strip a person of her ability to genuinely care about have compassion for other people.  A person’s character determines whether or not she considers those who are less fortunate to be deserving of her time and money.  Look at the good Bill and Melinda Gates do through their foundation, or the countless celebrities, politicians, and athletes who donate their time and money to working with people who need their help.

And that’s the real difference.  All the Romney’s have done is tell people.  Their past actions don’t lend themselves to the belief that these two give a crap about people who are struggling; in fact Mitt made his millions off of those people.  Their plan for the future of our country lends absolutely no credibility to that notion either Mitt, Ann or Paul care at all about the middle and lower echelons of our society.  If they actually cared, we’d just know it.

The fact is, the man in the White House is also quite well off (though he certainly doesn’t have the wealth of the Romney’s), yet he has devoted his private and public lives to serving those less fortunate.   He doesn’t have to tell us how much empathy he has or how much he cares about the poor because he makes it obvious by his policies and philosophies.  His tax policy includes raising his own tax rate and lowering most everyone else’s.  Mitt Romney’s tax plan includes reducing his rate to nearly 0 – that’s right 0.8% – while raising others.  How is that empathetic to the plight of those who are in fact struggling right now?  How is that supposed to make us believe that they care about these people at all?

If you are not a part of the Romney’s elite social class, why would you cast a vote for a ticket that quite clearly and forcefully wants to throw you under the bus?