I am no longer represented by a corrupt Republican jerk. My previously majority Republican suburban district elected Dan Maffei to replace the execrable James Walsh (who retired). Maybe now if I call my Congressional office my concerns won’t be dismissed as soon as they ask me my party affiliation. Maffei won by a margin of 55% to 42% in a district that went overwhelmingly for Obama, giving him 62% of the district’s votes for President o McCain’s 37%.
For comparison: In 2000, Walsh won with 69% of the vote. In 2002, Walsh beat his Democratic opponent with 72% of the vote. In 2004, no Democrat ran against Walsh, when Kerry won the district by 50% – 48% over Bush. In 2006, Walsh beat Maffei by 51% to 49%.
Democrats in New York also won control of the State Senate for the first time in forty years. Democrats now control both branches of the legislature and the Governor’s office for the first time since the New Deal era.
And of course, my old state of Colorado, not only voted for Obama, but now has 2 Democratic Senators and at least 5 Democratic House Representatives. So, all in all, I’m feeling good this morning.
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Now for a little meta-political analysis from the less experienced and less politically plugged in front page blogger at the Frog pond (i.e, the guy not named BooMan or Terrance or Clammyc or Liza).
Why did Obama win in the face of the most relentless campaign of sleaze and slime I’ve seen in a very long time, with constant references made by Republicans to his “terrorist connections”, his “socialist” policies, his “Muslim” heritage, his race and his lack of patriotism? Why did he win, despite a message that for the most part eschewed negative attacks on his opponents?
I don’t have a single answer to that question. Certainly the economy played a big factor. It clearly trumped all other issues in the minds of voters based on exit polling. Yet, I think he would have won, even if the financial system had not collapsed this Fall.
All along his campaign has had a consistent message that reached out to all Americans in every state of the country. A message that rejected the politics of division, fear and loathing for those who aren’t members of our particular tribe, whether that tribe was defined by race, ethnicity, politics or religion. It was frankly a message I thought would lose in these Divided States of America which the Republican Party under Karl Rove had constructed. I was wrong.
I now believe that most Americans, outside the bubble of Fox news and Conservative Hate Radio has grown tired and disgusted with the constant negativity, and the constant demonization of liberals, Gays, “illegal aliens,” Muslims and non-fundamentalist Christians, and that was, and has been, the primary message of the Republican party and its enablers for as long as I can recall. These Americans had seen, and digested, the result of eight years of Republican rule with its unfettered corruption, greed and benefits for corporations and wealthy individuals at the expense of everyone else. They were sick of war without end, lousy health care, falling incomes and lost jobs.
They were especially sick of the reign of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who ran roughshod over a compliant Congress, prosecuted preemptive aggressive wars for reasons that proved to be complete lies, weakened our civil liberties, tortured thousands, killed millions, ruined our moral reputation around the world, acted in complete disregard of the laws and the Constitution whenever it suited them and called into question the patriotism of anyone who opposed their toxic policies and unprecedented power grab.
I had a conversation with a local banker yesterday, a guy one would assume would be as Pro-Republican as they come. Yet, he volunteered that now was a time for greater regulation of his industry, not less. A time for reversing the decades of corporate consolidation which has made a virtue out of concentrating wealth and power in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations and individuals. A time for reversing the income disparity between the rich and the middle class which is choking our economy, and which he believes led to the the decline in innovation in this country at the expense of speculation. He uttered Alan Greenspan’s name as if it were a curse word. I’m willing to bet four years ago his views were very different.
The conservative philosophy, the “conservative revolution” of Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich and Bush has proven itself to be a complete failure, as its ideology has been implemented into policies which have effectively ruined the middle class and fostered hatred and class warfare. John McCain’s campaign was the ultimate evidence of this fact, forced to rely on beating the dead horse of sleazy personal attacks. Reciting the hoary bogeyman of “tax and spend” liberals. And calling into question any American who didn’t support Republican policies promoting a culture war, government deregulation of industry (at the cost of our health and the health of the planet), privatization of government services, the war on science, and massive spending on the military and Bush’s illegal wars which have made us no safer and which generated massive federal deficits even before the the “Wall Street” bailout.
To be honest, I think Obama would have won a larger victory had republicans not worked so hard to suppress votes of Democratic constituencies. Indeed, I suspect many of the votes cast on electronic voting machines were improperly counted, but the turnout was too large, the margins voting for Democrats and Obama too great to steal this election as they did in 2002 and 2004. My guess is that the real margin of Obam’s victory was at least 5% points higher than the official tally. We will never know for certain because no one bothers to check for inconsistencies in voting patterns when your team is the winner. No one tallies the number of people discouraged from voting, or intimidated by illegal tactics used to suppress turnout.
But next time we may not be so lucky. I pray that one of the first orders of business is to require states to offer paper ballots to all register4ed voters in place of voting on electronic machines at the request of voters, and to eliminate barriers to voting that are unnecessary and unwarranted.
As for the Democrats and Obama, I don’t envy them. They had better get their shit together and avoid the mistakes that led to coddling corporations and lobbyists during the Clinton years. If they revert to that behavior, they will be setting themselves up for another fall. They must act to rebuild the middle class, dig us out of the financial hole Republicans and Wall Street dug for us, promote a green economy and green technologies, rebuild our infrastructure, revitalize our educational system, retool our military, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and re-impose and enforce necessary regulations to preserve the health of our financial system, the environment, consumer safety and our health. Not to mention reversing all the unconstitutional actions of the Bush administration, providing some system of universal health care and restoring confidence in our nation, here and around the world. A tall order. and I’m not sure they are up to it. But the alternative has already shown itself to be untenable.
May the blessing of the Great Spaghetti Monster be with them and with President Obama when he assumes office as our 44th President. It can’t come soon enough.
