Today’s topic: reporting from the ashes.
Welcome to the Daily Sausage.
For those of you that decided to crawl under the covers, turn off your TV, computer, and cellphone, and read a book last night, Barack Obama was re-elected President. Also, you may be smarter than the rest of us.
There were a lot of campaigns won and lost yesterday, so I’m not going to go through them all, but the Senate and Presidency remain in Democratic hands, while the House remains in GOP hands. Most notably, however, was the election of Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay Senator, and the fact that 19 women will be seated as Senators, an all time high.
On a personal note, Glenda Ritz was elected Superintendent of Public Education in the state of Indiana last night. I note this only because Mrs. Ritz was my fifth grade teacher.
Along with standard elections, there were a number of ballot measures that bode well for progressive causes. On the LGBT rights front, Minnesota voted down Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Washington is almost certain to legalize same-sex marriage. Maine and Maryland chose to legalize gay marriage as well. What’s notable about these issues is that for the first time, they’re being passed on the ballot, and not by the courts.
Even more notable than the progress on the LGBT front is what happened in Washington and Colorado: both states legalized recreational marijuana. There is zero historical precedent for this; it’s the first time any state has done it, and two of them did it at once. Massachusetts also legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. The winner of the evening, however, may be Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who said:
“The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will. This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or goldfish too quickly.”
Well played, Governor. Well played.
So, now that we’ve covered some results, let’s talk about the aftermath.
Calling last night anything other than a complete and total disaster for the Republican party is like saying that World War II was a minor disagreement between Germany and the rest of Europe.
Conservative SuperPACs, powered by Citizens United-granted corporate cash, spent four hundred million dollars to maintain the status quo. Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers, and every other conservative nutjob billionaire sent millions of dollars to Karl Rove and his buddies, and they delivered absolutely no return on their money. Wall Street, upset that President Obama had dared to assign the blame for 2008 to them, donated to Romney in massive numbers and cost themselves influence in Washington in the process. We’ll call it a night of liberal schadenfreude.
However, more notable than that may be the cementing of the Obama demographic: young people, black people, hispanics, urbanites, and educated white professionals. When pundits on Fox News talk about “Real America”, they’re not talking about these folks. This is the Real “Real America”. This is Obama’s America, and if the GOP has any hope of recovery, it needs to be their America too.
It’s not enough for the GOP to gin up the rubes in low-density rural and suburban counties anymore.
Conservatives need to rethink their media, because their media let them down. Demonizing Nate Silver for telling the truth looks immensely shortsighted after he called all fifty states correctly. Dick Morris and George Will should be run out of town on a rail for the crap they pulled. Peggy Noonan should be exiled to the back page of some obscure townie rag to rant and rave all she wants without hurting anyone.
Ultimately, it comes down to this: Republicans bet everything and lost.
Obamacare will be implemented, and enshrined into law. Any Supreme Court justices that retire or die over the next four years (potentially as many as four of them, including Scalia and Kennedy) will be replaced by a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate. Immigration reform, tax reform, and entitlement reform will start and end with liberals writing the policy, and the voters waiting in the wings to punish the GOP for additional instrasengence.
Most importantly, for the next fifty three days, President Obama can sit in the Oval Office, prop up his feet, play some Angry Birds, and tell John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to shove it.
On January 1st, the Bush Tax Cuts disappear, restoring Clinton-era tax rates. The military will be facing dire budget cuts that will shake the military-industrial complex to it’s core. Obama gets $5 trillion in additional revenue without doing a damn thing.
For him, it will be mildly uncomfortable. For his opposition, it will be a hellish dystopia.
Welcome to November 7th.
