I Am So Happy

I will start my post-election blog with a picture of my granddaughter:



I do this because I am happy precisely for the next generations of America. I am reading Facebook posts and tweets that go like this: "Sick to my stomach. Our future looks bleak and I feel sorry for my daughter and her generation. How Obama can win this election based on the disaster of the last 4 years is beyond comprehension."

For me, just the opposite is true: If Romney had been re-elected, it would have been a crucial victory of the aristocracy in this country over the majority. It would have been a crushing blow for the welfare of millions of children in this country. It would have ensured the decline of America and the impoverishment of many, many Americans. All to satisfy the bottomless greed of a few.

Yes, I am very happy.
 

President Obama has been re-elected. Of course, his re-election won't end the deadlock. It won't completely change the tune of the Republican obstructionists in the House of Representatives (unless, that is, they wake up and smell the demographics).

But the opposite result would have been so devastating. And it goes beyond Obama's victory.

Many of the Tea Party crazies have been thrown out of office. Goodbye, Joe "She's No Hero" Murphy. Goodbye, Richard "Rape as God Intended" Murdouck. Goodbye, Todd "Legitimate Rape" Aikins. Goodbye, Scott "Scalp Her!" Brown.

Hello, Elizabeth Warren! A true economic populist with eloquence and expertise, who will do battle with the oligarchs on Wall Street. She gives me great hope.

Of course, just enough Americans woke up to where the fundamentalists in the Republican Party wanted to take this nation. Just enough. 50 million people voted for Romney. Most races were very tight.

I don't have many illusions here; the results of 6 November 2012 represent a clawing back of some severe losses from 2010; a holding back the tide of intolerance and white backlash. 

But the demographics are clear: a party that panders to whites, and especially white men, is doomed. A party that trades on racism is out of touch with the new generations of Americans for whom multi-racial and mixed race friends and lovers is the norm. A party that attacks immigrants as the "Other" will wither before the growth in Latino and Asian populations.

I hope that we will look back years from now and see this election as the time when the moderate wing of the Republican Party charts a path to retaking the party back from the Ayatollahs and fundamentalists, like Karl Rove and Grover Nordquist, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.

These people will be causing trouble for a long time to come, but maybe they will do so increasingly from the fringes, and not the positions of power, within the GOP.

Yes, I am very happy. We are still deeply divided, but at least "my side" has woken more fully to the dangers and said "Enough! No more!"