This mess ain’t cleaned up. It’s just been swept under the rug for a few years.

Well, the issue was never really in doubt even though the popular vote was a dead heat. Not sure that’s a good thing, but that’s the American electoral process for you. At one point after the race was called Romney actually had 300 more popular votes across the nation. With this type of system in place, only the most deluded among us can say that every vote “counts”. Every vote does not count. The very definition of a wasted vote is the guy pulling the Obama lever in, say, Utah or Arizona. That vote meant nothing to the big picture. Granted, it may have said to the world that Utah and Arizona are not completely filled with angry white people saying “screw all of you, I just want lower taxes and less brown people”…but still. We’re talking nuts and bolts here. Some votes simply do not matter.

Alas, this time at least sanity won out. Electing Mitt Romney and his pack of right-wing neanderthals could have set this nation back 50 years. In case you didn’t notice, it wasn’t just democrats in this country celebrating last night. It was the rest of the world. The way we conduct ourselves matters in lots of other places too.

I said before the election that there was no way a guy polling at 0% among blacks and 20% among Hispanics could possibly be elected president of a diverse nation. But what really put Obama over the top was the overwhelming support given to him by women. A huge 10 point margin (men, still the dumbest of creatures, went the other way….Romney 55-45). Romney himself never said anything about “legitimate rape” or “getting pregnant after being raped is god’s will”, but men in his party sure did. Over and over again. And Romney continued to support these men….silence seeming more and more like acquiescence as time went on. Or, at the very least, moral cowardice.

To put it bluntly, Romney never showed enough balls to take on the lunatic fringe of his party, and it cost him the election. A moderate republican who ran on the economy alone….and didn’t spend time jerking off about abortion or god’s views on rape (and didn’t choose a serial liar like Ryan as his co-chair)….would have won this election. Easily. If you can’t beat a sitting President when unemployment is near 10%, you are either a colossal dolt, or you’re being sidetracked by Limbaugh and his hate crusade. I don’t think Mitt Romney is a fool….even though he campaigned like one. I think he made a deal with the devil, and figured once he got in he could slowly talk the crazies down. As Governor of Massachusetts Romney took many sensible positions (on healthcare most notably), nearly all of which he disavowed when he started getting yelled at by Limbaugh and Hannity. Not exactly political courage. And if a guy gets all wobbly in the knees when talk show hosts screech at him, how the hell is he gonna act in a real crisis? He gonna call Roger Ailes and ask him to poll the Fox newsroom? Summon the angel Moroni for a sit-down? Does the guy have no stones at all?

Positions are so entrenched these days. It’s no longer enough to just throw red-meat to your own party. We already know that serious pro-life people are gonna vote republican and serious health-care advocates are gonna vote democratic. There needs to be some sort of meeting in the middle. So when Romney got nailed on tape writing off half the country as indolent moochers, some of his base get snared in that net. When some fool goes off half-cocked about “legitimate rape” and Romney just grins, a lot of women who were planning on voting for him say, “what the hell?” If the guy had just stood up there and said….”wow, 10% unemployment”….over and over again….he’d have won. But the noise machine got to him. So he pandered. God. Guns. War. Uteruses. Throw in some subtle racism, and an unwillingness to even entertain answering questions like “you’re gonna cut taxes and raise defense spending….while at the same time shrinking the deficit? Can we have…er….you know……some specifics?”….and what’s left is the Barry Goldwater of the 2010s. Romney and John Kerry can spend the rest of their days wind-surfing and horse-jumping. That’s how quick you die in politics.

And make no mistake. Republicans, after they realize Canada has universal healthcare, thus making it a morally unacceptable place to live, will stay put and blame Romney. Not for being too extreme. But for not being extreme enough. And waiting in the wings is Paul Ryan….a guy who makes Barry Goldwater look like George Clooney. So if democrats want to do a little gloating, I suggest they do it fast. And then remain vigilant. Because this mess ain’t cleaned up. It’s just been swept under the rug for a few years.

–Tom Flannery

~ by admin on November 7, 2012.