Feeling a tremendous sense of relief today ... tempered with sorrow and disappointment and, yes, apprehension, that the race could possibly have been so close.
Yes. I was talking to my farrier yesterday while he trimmed the horses about the deep divide that never actually healed, re-opened during 'Nam, and certainly hasn't healed since. It's scary. But it's our time, and we have to make the best of it...and in this election, despite all the anger and vitriol and downright nastiness, we did, pretty much.
Yes. It is heartening that the results were as good as they were. And that our compatriots at later seem prepared to believe in global climate change. Perhaps some progress can be made.
I am proud to be part of one of the states (Maryland) that passed a Gay Marriate Referendum (even though I am NOT happy about some of the measures that passed). I hope it means that the country is moving on a more understanding and tolerant direction.
I agree very much with you, and how you put it, That mean spiritedness always bothered me as much as the politics. I know I live in a bubble (my county had the highest percentage of Obama supporters in the country 91 vs 8,) but because its the Bronx I know my views are not that of the rest of the country.
For me the biggest thing is that he will be able to nominate the next round of supreme court judges and the things I care about might be safe for a while.
I also find that Elizabeth Warren being elected is wonderful. She was blocked and belittled from heading the government agency she helped create, and now rather than going away and being quiet like a good little girl. She will be a thorn in the side of the bankers for a long time she is not going away. I am also proud of the fact that smarts won out that is rare and I am grad for any move to it.
I live in the "other" bubble--the red one--but some of that red is turning at least purple and there are other blue spots in the bubble.
I'm VERY happy that Warren was elected. I've watched her on TV many times--in different venues--and she's always seemed intelligent, reasonable, fact-based, and exactly the sort of person I wish I had representing me.
According to the BBC, the only country in the world other than the US where Obama wasn't a shoo-in was Pakistan, and they are --understandably -- unhappy about the unmanned drones. Most of Europe is having a party.
And I am hugely relieved for all my American friends and colleagues, that Romney and his rich, white, male centred policies have been defeated.
Kari
I understand Pakistan's position. OTOH, other countries wanting Obama will spook (already has spooked, pre-election, to the extent they knew about it) the die-hard paranoid crowd who think if another country likes a US politician, the US politician isn't being "tough" enough. This bullying attitude ticks me off and raises my own latent desire to knock heads together--just different heads.
We want to bang their heads together, too. Bullying is never good.
You put into eloquent words what I incoherently squeed all night.
I heard the news early this morning in the UK - I woke up at 6:30am just in time to hear Obama's speech, and I have to say I cried with joy, especially when he actually mentioned climate change, something that was not brought up *at all* in the election campaign.
The news of his election has been greeted with elation here in the UK (and mutterings that we wish we could get rid of our own awful conservative government).
I know that the promise of 2008 never really came to pass over the past four years, but Obama is so, so much better than the alternative, a group of people who despise "the other", including, apparently, half the population (I notice the rape apologists didn't get elected).
I'm so pleased for you, and I hope that Obama is able to make good use of the next four years.
I wish that your people had taken another option altogether. But of the two, I'm glad it was he.
We moved in mid-August, and I did not get around to switching my drivers license and attempting to register to vote at our new location until JUST too late.
I was also not at-liberty to drive the 5 hours back to our old neighborhood and attempt to vote there [I'm not sure it would have worked anyway; all my ID's EXCEPT my voter-registration now give a Mississippi address rather than an Arkansas one].
My husband wondered-aloud when HE got back from the polling place [he had switched HIS residence information in time] whether his would turn out to be the lone Libertarian vote in the county. [This reminds me of the family legend that when my parents moved to a north-central Arkansas county in the early 1950's and my father registered to vote, he single-handedly doubled the Republican population of the county, as-measured by party affiliation in voter registrations.]
But I am also enormously relieved that Obama won.
Good post.
I am a very happy camper right now.
From: (Anonymous)
2012-11-07 10:22 pm (UTC)
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absolutely thrilled that those two ignorant misogynists Aiken and Mourdock lost!!! glad that Obama won, one could hope that the GOP will go away and rethink it's policies but I doubt it.
I am very glad Obama retained the Presidency, for the USA and for the rest of us. Parochially while it is not entirely true that 'what happens in the USA happens in the UK couple of years later', there is enough truth to make anyone with a regard in particular for womens rights, but also for so many other areas worry about the implication of a Republican winning.
As an Australian, I am incredibly glad Obama won. Wherever you go, we go 10-15 years later and the prospect of heading towards Romney was a grim one.
OK...I really like Australia, but you guys need to quit being politically dragged along behind us when we're going the wrong way. I don't know the causes (which I'm sure involve money somehow) but please, please, don't let us drag you into anything you don't want to be in. (Deleted comment)
Having a dedicated Lying Machine (Faux News) certainly does help, as does the money behind the whole shebang. I don't know if Rove, the Koch brothers, and the rest of that crowd have lost enough to cost them anything...I certainly hope so.
Amen!
Having worked at the polls again, (Here in a Tomato Red County) I was heartened to find my precinct has moved from 3/4 Republican to 2/3 Republican. We are on our way to becoming Windsor Rose from the era of Blood Red. More young people, more folks of color.
None of my candidates won, except for Obama, but I'm so pleased the Senate picked up two D seats and eliminated the "Rape Caucus" leaders. Twenty women in the Senate is a new and welcome high.
I haven't looked at the 310 results, but remember that in 2008, at the precinct caucus, the GOP had claimed the indoors at the fire station and we were left in the (very literal) cold parking lot outside--but we had four or five times as many Dems there. The GOP guys and gals were clearly scared...I think they had 10-15 at most. We had 40+. There've been new affluent white folks moving in (thanks to The Vineyard) so it may've changed, but I'll bet we had a respectable Dem vote.
As we discussed, one of the things that worries me now is the very poor training given poll workers (at least in Republican-dominated states) nationwide. And yes, though I regret the results of many Texas elections, I'm SO glad the "rape caucus" people didn't win elsewhere.
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