Election Night

I wrote most of the post on election night. For a while it was close, and then it wasn't close at all.

Watching the election returns on MSNBC. As I write this, the human cipher, Mittens Romney, is leading President Obama in electoral votes; one talking head after another takes to the airwaves to prognosticate. Virginia, Ohio, Florida, which way will they lean? How many votes will not be counted? If you can’t win the vote, steal the vote or deny the vote. I still can’t believe the race for the White House is as close as it appears to be, but I don’t believe Romney will win.

Too close to call in Florida.

Senate candidate Todd Aiken is not only an idiot, his comb-over is terrible; it’s like what’s left of his hair is plastered on the side of the head with Elmer’s glue. A dear friend of ours just called to confess that he cast his ballot for Romney. I’m considering disowning him. The returns continue to trickle in. Elizabeth Warren wins a senate seat in Massachusetts – maybe there is some justice in the world. The Republican moneybags poured tons of dough into Scott Brown’s campaign, but their boy was such a lightweight that even with a gigantic advantage in money he couldn't win. Another smart woman is heading to the Senate.

Appears the Republicans will maintain their stranglehold on the House, meaning we can expect at least two more years of partisan posturing, gridlock, and John Boehner.

Romney is projected to win Arizona. No surprise. Arizona is doing everything it can to be as ass-backwards and retrograde as Texas. Fuck it, let Arizona cede from the union. Switch to the Daily Show for a dose of truth disguised as comedy. Jon Stewart knows what we all know: the entire race hinges on one state, Ohio. O-Hi-O. Why do we bother holding a nationwide election when only Ohio matters? Toledo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus. Great rivers in Ohio, rivers that run through the heart of the old Rust Belt, sliding past dead factories and crumbling foundries, tattered union banners flapping in the wind.

Jon Stewart reports that Obama has 243 electoral votes to Romney’s 203. 270 is the magic number. 270 to maintain the status quo, 270 to continue socialism for the wealthy, 270 to deny humans are altering the climate, 270 to launch a preemptive strike against Iran, 270 to back Israel, no matter what, 270 to continue killing Afghans.

I voted.

I held my nose and filled in the bubbles on my ballot. The lady who handed me my ballot reminded me to return her pen after I finished voting.

The Republicans refuse to concede Ohio, even though the major networks have called the state for Obama. Maybe the GOP will claim massive voter fraud on the part of Democrats…

Chris Matthews is spewing some rot; Donald Trump is calling for a conservative revolt. What a dumb fuck. The pinheads over on Fox are foaming at the mouth and howling at the camera. They refuse to believe that their boy Romney is going down, taking a whipping from the black guy. That fat fuck, Karl Rove, claims Ohio should not have been called for Obama; Rove has charts and graphs that prove nothing more than that he’s a sore loser. Demographically, rich white guys are in trouble, and they know it on some level, even though they refuse to admit it. 

Obama must have cheated, somehow. The folks over in Romney’s camp look somber; cruel reality is settling in. In the days to come they will learn that Romney was such a lackluster candidate that a majority of his fellow Mormons voted for his opponent. Romney lost Michigan and Massachusetts, a clear repudiation of the man. I’ve written it before but it bears repeating: the more people saw of Romney, the less they liked him. Romney can exit the national stage now, take a final bow, he’s done.

Obama will win a second term, and I hope this time around he grows a spine and stands up to the freaks and fools of the GOP. By now Obama should understand that he can’t negotiate with these people; that attempts to compromise are fruitless; that Republicans only respond to one thing, power. Obama needs to put his foot on John Boehner’s neck and keep pressing until Boehner admits that Obama is his daddy.

More important is what the American left and progressives do to keep the pressure on Obama. They need to push him to restore some equality to the economy, to raise taxes on the super wealthy, to reign in corporate power, to take meaningful action on climate change, and to get the hell out of Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan. 

Governing starts when the election ends.

Enjoy the celebration, Mr. Obama, but then be ready to make your bones.