Democracy FTW
I've felt joy bubbling up within me all day. I walk around with a goofy smile on my face, spontaneously breaking into song at times. I am just so proud of American voters for making choices that were so much better than I feared they'd choose:
-Barack Obama gets a second term. I watched his victory speech last night, and it honestly moved me to happy tears. Obviously giving a good speech is easier than accomplishing real things. Still, I am cautiously hopeful that with more experience under his belt and no need to worry about his reelection, maybe in his second term Obama can be more of the president I want to see. He mentioned climate change in the speech, which is a big deal after he pretty much ignored the issue of our catastrophically warming planet during the campaign.
-Marriage equality passed popular votes in Maryland, Maine, and Washington, while Minnesota voted against putting discrimination in their constitution. I believe that the tide has turned towards justice on this issue, and I hope to see many similar decisions in the years to come.
-The Republicans who were prominent dickheads about rape, including Akin and Mourdock, lost. Looks like women's bodies shut that whole thing down.
-There will now be record numbers of women in Congress, including an all-female delegation from New Hampshire, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the first openly gay senator.
-Prop 30 passed in California, leading to temporary tax increases with the money going to stop brutal cuts to education funding. This is great news for kids, students at public colleges/universities, and also my job security. California voters have been really reluctant to vote to tax themselves in recent decades, so I'm really pleased that people looked at the big picture rather than just their pocketbooks here. Also, California voted to ease up our super-harsh three strikes law a little bit. Sadly the ballot proposal to abolish the death penalty in CA failed, but that was a long shot.
-Democrats retained control of the Senate, though unfortunately without the supermajority that is needed to break filibusters.
-Recreational marijuana legalized in Washington state and Colorado. While I am personally not keen on marijuana, keeping it illegal does FAR more harm than good. The drug policy in the US is badly broken, and this is a step towards common sense. We shall see whether this actually results in much practical change, because it is still illegal in federal law.
-My excellent congresswoman, Lois Capps, defeated her Republican challenger in a close race.
It's important to keep things in perspective. The Republicans still hold the House of Representatives in firm control, so the Democrats still have limited ability to get anything done. This election was not exactly a sweeping nationwide progressive mandate in all things; many of the races Democrats won were victories of moderate Dems over ultraconservative Republicans. Still, this is a time to celebrate the triumph of diversity, compassion, data, and good sense over fear mongering, greed, and fundamentalism.
-Barack Obama gets a second term. I watched his victory speech last night, and it honestly moved me to happy tears. Obviously giving a good speech is easier than accomplishing real things. Still, I am cautiously hopeful that with more experience under his belt and no need to worry about his reelection, maybe in his second term Obama can be more of the president I want to see. He mentioned climate change in the speech, which is a big deal after he pretty much ignored the issue of our catastrophically warming planet during the campaign.
-Marriage equality passed popular votes in Maryland, Maine, and Washington, while Minnesota voted against putting discrimination in their constitution. I believe that the tide has turned towards justice on this issue, and I hope to see many similar decisions in the years to come.
-The Republicans who were prominent dickheads about rape, including Akin and Mourdock, lost. Looks like women's bodies shut that whole thing down.
-There will now be record numbers of women in Congress, including an all-female delegation from New Hampshire, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the first openly gay senator.
-Prop 30 passed in California, leading to temporary tax increases with the money going to stop brutal cuts to education funding. This is great news for kids, students at public colleges/universities, and also my job security. California voters have been really reluctant to vote to tax themselves in recent decades, so I'm really pleased that people looked at the big picture rather than just their pocketbooks here. Also, California voted to ease up our super-harsh three strikes law a little bit. Sadly the ballot proposal to abolish the death penalty in CA failed, but that was a long shot.
-Democrats retained control of the Senate, though unfortunately without the supermajority that is needed to break filibusters.
-Recreational marijuana legalized in Washington state and Colorado. While I am personally not keen on marijuana, keeping it illegal does FAR more harm than good. The drug policy in the US is badly broken, and this is a step towards common sense. We shall see whether this actually results in much practical change, because it is still illegal in federal law.
-My excellent congresswoman, Lois Capps, defeated her Republican challenger in a close race.
It's important to keep things in perspective. The Republicans still hold the House of Representatives in firm control, so the Democrats still have limited ability to get anything done. This election was not exactly a sweeping nationwide progressive mandate in all things; many of the races Democrats won were victories of moderate Dems over ultraconservative Republicans. Still, this is a time to celebrate the triumph of diversity, compassion, data, and good sense over fear mongering, greed, and fundamentalism.