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| The First Family Still |
I was so happy last night when President Obama won re-election in record time against all predictions that we might not know for weeks or months because of all the dirty tricks and fraud and suspected voting irregularities.
Elections have never been easy for me. Much of my youth I seemed to always be voting for the least onerous candidate. And when I was deeply devoted to a candidate they seemed to lose. The 2000 election when Gore had the election stolen from him I was a wreck for weeks. I was so embarrassed for my country. We export democracy and yet we failed at it on our home turf. And when GW turned out to be a drunken fool that leaned on podiums and could not speak proper English I just tuned out.
When Kerry lost to GW in 2004, again by suspected voting machine manipulation, I seriously contemplated moving to Canada. Evidently one hell of a lot of Americans did the same thing. When Barack Obama won the nod of the Democratic party for the 2008 election I didn't dare hope he might win. It was a huge and historic victory. The first black man in the white house! Made up for not having the first woman president in Hillary Clinton.
Had I been the president elect in 2008 as GW Bush and policies pushed the United States off the financial cliff I would have moved to Canada. What an impossible task? There we were as not merely a nation but the world heading for economic free fall. And everyone seemed to believe he was superman. He was suppose to keep us out of the deepest depression the world had ever known and deliver on all his campaign promises. And all against a GOP subset that was determined from day 8 to make him a one term president. And yet he got us the ACA and signed into law a bill to help ensure equal pay for equal work for women. And slowly inch by inch the economy has been improving.
I would not have run again (see previous mentions of moving to Canada) but he did. But there was so very much at stake. With the economy beginning to heal we could not turn it over to a party and the same polices that broke it. And it was clear from the outset that the GOP wanted to return women to the '50's. The 1850's. It was so scary because losing was not an option but also not in our control. There were several indications the GOP was willing to cheat. That was taken so seriously the United Nations sent Election Observers to several key battle grounds. The polls kept saying it was too close to call. This has not been good on my stress levels. But Nate Silver's reading of polling data gave me hope.
I had voted early so on election day I could divert my mind and tummy with something creative with a friend - Nuno felting. And I was so exhausted when I came home I figured I would just go to sleep. But an election junkie I tuned in and watched. At ten o'clock it was all over and Barack Obama was still president of the United States.
I am not sure this will solve all our problems. This campaign has shown that we are a deeply divided nation. Maybe even more divided than the days before the Civil War. But at least we did not turn over the country to the people that broke it in the first place and seemed determined to do anything to get in power including lying, cheating, and bigoted/sexist slurs.
To my list of words I no longer want to hear I add - polls, polling data, cliff hanger, birther, Donald Trump, Romney, Ryan, and Republican. Not another word about 2016 until at least 2015. See campaign reform.
During the last days before the election I kept thinking of my sister and her soccer club. When Ajax had to play a really important match she could not bear the suspense and did not turn on the TV till it was over. I had been dreading the night. It was such a relief to turn on the media in the morning and find out Obama was still in. Hard to believe the difference in the popular vote was so small.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be major reform of the whole system if we want our elected people to have some time to govern in between running for the next election.
It really gave me tummy aches. And I was prepared to have you adopt me. Obama has not been declared the winner of Florida and so that gives him 332 electoral college votes. And the lead in popular votes is growing. They can declare a victor for the state before all votes are counted. And sometimes the verification of the total count is not made for a week.
DeleteBut yes we need a far shorter campaign period and strict controls on money spent. I think I read somewhere that Obama spent about $32 per vote and Romney spent like $67. And the news media is trying to beat the drums already for 2016. Just not right
Only now coming to this as I check my blog roll.
ReplyDeleteYou know my feelings and I too am glad that he won. The only thing I could not stay up for was his victory speech as by that time, I was shot. I had been calling for the one whose name you don't want mentioned (whatever happened to him since??) to concede but the man wouldn't. We now know Florida.
I am troubled though as it is obvious that there is a deep divide and say what they want, race is a major player in all of this division. Only today I have read of some racist horror stories in connection with Obama, coming out of the US. A 22 year old was fired in California after she put up racial slurs on Face Book and mused that perhaps Obama would be assassinated. Later in an interview she claimed not to be racist saying at the same time that if he were to be, she would not care. A bar owner in another state put up a banner with racist remarks pertaining to the President.
Until these people and the other party come to realize that there is global change, things will not improve. A child is not born a racist - it's learned behaviour and I'm deeply disappointed in some of my so called friends who said that the race question was brought into play during the campaign by the Democrats and that Chris Matthews was to the fore in that. That is nonsense and those people should admit that they are covering their nasty biases by disagreeing with the democratic policies. I may think more of the person who comes right out with it (barring racial slurs) than the person who hides his bigotry behind a so called dislike of the way the administration performed.
There has been some interesting and hopeful analysis coming out of the post election debrief. Evidently California has now gotten to a place where it is basically a one party state. With the decline of the Republicans it leaves room for the Green party and other minor parties to move up into more control.
DeleteI do think this will be the death of the Republicans because they do not seem to get the message that less and less people are marching to their particular drum. And that is evident in the congressional races. Single women are making a bigger and bigger impression in voting. That said I think the bigots, racists and fundamental sects are getting more and more vocal. Maybe their are aware this is their last hurrah.
One would hope that the groups which you mention here are eventually marginalized.
DeleteIt speaks volumes that women have definitely come into their own and are a force to be reckoned with - a tremendous blow to the anti women representatives.