Initially, I had pegged my approach to this post to today's debut in selected
theaters of Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln.
I envisioned brilliantly and insightfully writing about all that I’d found good and bad, hopeful and troubling, new and
old in Tuesday’s results, and then comparing and contrasting all that with What Abe
Would’ve Done—Could’ve Done, Might Do—were we to have a leader of his vision,
savvy and integrity on our national stage today.
That approach
seemed workable until I woke up his morning and realized it was trite, lame and
obvious. (Lame and obvious may be redundant.) Then, too, my idea of ending this
post by informing you, the reader, that I was temporarily tabling my cynicism
and responding to the better angels of my nature by going out to catch Abe at
the local bijou was thwarted by the logistic fact that the film currently is
playing at only a single local theater that’s a bitch for parking. (“Fourscore
and seven minutes ago I began circling the lot in forlorn hope of a finding a spot.” Ha ha
ha.)
So, I’ll spare you the
overarching theme, or any strained attempt to weave a sociopolitical,
historical tapestry, and simply run through my list.
The
White House.
Obviously I’m happy the president was reelected, and that he won both the
Electoral College and the popular vote, with the claim to legitimacy that this
"bifecta" entails. I frankly thought that was the way it would go, but one never knows.
Much has been said and written in the past few days about America’s changing
demographics, and how the Republicans no longer can win elections by nailing
the Grandpa Simpson and Jerry Falwell votes, given the facts that tomorrow’s
seniors are today’s moderate baby boomers, that Jerry Falwell is dead and America’s
religiosity is turning fuzzier, and that those damn minorities not only aren’t
going away, but are growing in number—and voting, to boot.
While I do find those
trends encouraging from a presidential-election standpoint, I also have no
doubt that the GOP eventually will come up with some brilliant strategy, resplendent
in spin and obfuscation, to win voters back without radically changing the
substance of their policies. Maybe they’ll nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio
in 2016 and he’ll somehow make more-nuanced immigrant-bashing cool, since he’s
Latino himself. Or, this whole changing-demographics thing will take a breather
for one election cycle, as voters drool over themselves and their Big Macs in
rapture over the fact that Republican nominee Chris Christie, in his
button-popping glory, literally Looks Like America.
(One quick aside,
because I love this joke and shamelessly urge you to applaud me for it. It had
been my contention, in the calamitous aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, that the
floodwaters that devastated vast swaths of New York City, New Jersey and Long
Island might have been stopped, had only the Garden State’s massive governor
been positioned in precisely the right places at the right times. This may be
one case in which my steadfast refusal to engage Twitter denied me
satisfaction. As it was, I was reduced to sharing my observation in a few
e-mails and then being disappointed that the recipients did not respond by
nominating me for the Mark Twain Prize and Kennedy Center honors.)
Anyway. What I took
from the presidential election was that yes, the result was a reflection of
changing demographics—with minority populations rising and younger voters
looking at things differently than do their elders—but also that, while the US
Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has badly tilted the playing field,
it hasn’t quite succeeded in turning it upside-down. I’m always glad when
Republicans don’t win presidential elections, as much because they can't install foxes in all the regulatory henhouses as because of the
higher-profile damage they can do. But that’s not to say that I’m a huge
Obama fan. I’m hoping, now that he’s a four-year lame duck, that he’ll turn
bolder, less conciliatory and more candid as he seeks both to address the huge
issues now being discussed—the “fiscal cliff” being tops among them—and the
many dormant issues that demand action, such as global warming and gun control.
Congress. I’m thrilled that the Democrats
retained the Senate, and I’m particularly grateful, as are all Democrats, to
Tea Party voters for nominating as Republican nominees such knuckle-draggers as
Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana. Still, it’s sobering to
note that both of those throwbacks to the Paleolithic Age weren’t thrown back
at the polls by so thumpingly much, still having secured 39 and 44% of
the vote, respectively.
It’s cool, too,
that the chamber now has its first openly lesbian senator-elect in Wisconsin’s
Tammy Baldwin. (It’s not too early, however, to anticipate conservative
bloggers’ snickering speculation as to whether this will embolden Hillary
Clinton to finally come out, or whether she’ll maintain her
business-arrangement marriage to Bill as she prepares to step down from the
State Department and weigh a presidential bid in 2016.)
The House remained
solidly in Republican hands, maintaining divided government and ensuring continued
gridlock on most issues. Gridlock that, by the way, could be greatly lessened if
states would put an end to politically drawn redistricting that results in
tortuously gerrymandered safe havens for extremists on both sides of the aisle.
But alas, the prospects for that are dim. And even removing the issue from the
politicians’ purview isn’t necessarily the pathway to reform. Which brings me
to …
Maryland. In my state, the lone
disappointing election result Tuesday was the decisive defeat of a ballot
question that would have forced state leaders to redraw a convoluted 6th
congressional district map—described by one district court judge as a
“Rorschach-like eyesore”—that had been crafted by the ruling state Democratic
Party specifically to defeat longtime Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (and
which on Election Day succeeded in doing so). While I believe that most voters,
regardless of political party, favor fairness and nonpartisanship in the
drawing of district lines, the matter was dwarfed on the Maryland ballot by
such glitzy, ad-fueled issues as gay marriage, casino gambling and the Dream
Act. Also, Marylanders were of a collective mindset Tuesday to vote “for”—for
legalization of same-sex marriage, for expanded casino gambling, for facilitating
in-state college tuition to children of noncitizens. In the case of that
abhorrent 6th District map, a vote “for” affirmed the status quo—the contorted geographic
contours already in place.
The same-sex
marriage vote, however, was historic. Maryland, Maine and Washington on Tuesday became the
first states to affirm gay marriage by statewide referendum, ending a string of
some 30 defeats nationwide. This surely was due in part to changing societal
attitudes that will ensure future statewide victories, but Maryland long
has been a progressive state. I’m particularly proud of the fact that populous
Montgomery County, where Lynn and I live, powered the narrow statewide victory
on this issue, with 65% of its voters casting ballots in favor.
The vote on the
Dream Act was similarly groundbreaking and affirming, if more widely anticipated.
Expanding casino gambling in the state, meanwhile, was hardly a moral victory,
but it does promise to bring jobs to Prince George’s County and to pump money
into state coffers that otherwise simply would be spent in neighboring states.
The
nation. Last
Sunday, the Washington Post published
a special section that took a state-by-state look at the presidential race,
Senate and House elections, and ballot issues. Two of the more offbeat items
that caught my attention at that time were the fact that Democratic Senator
Maria Cantwell was favored for reelection in Washington state over Michael
Baumgartner, who’d earned the nickname “F-Baum” for encouraging a taunting blogger
to go fuck himself, and that Republican Kerry Bentivolio, a reindeer farmer and
Santa Claus impersonator, was seeking an open House seat in Michigan’s
11th District. My immediate thoughts on those races were that F-Baum might yet win by
emphasizing (ideally without obscenity) the “can’t” in “Cantwell,” but that Michigan voters might be wary of a candidate who’d built his career
playing God with “naughty” and “nice” declarations and threats of coal-filled stockings on Christmas morning.
In fact, however,
Cantwell cruised to reelection, and it was Bentivolio rather than his
Democratic challenger who was issuing hearty ho-ho-hos on Tuesday night. This
despite the fact that the erstwhile Jolly Old Elf, a Tea Party favorite, had
been condemned by his own brother as “mentally unbalanced” just five days
before the vote, as I belatedly discovered upon Googling his name earlier today.
Phillip Bentivolio had called his brother “conniving” and “dishonest,” and said
that he’d undergone electroshock therapy as a child and was a glue-sniffer as a
teenager. Also, there was this today, from Huffpost
Detroit: “According to Politico,
in old court documents Bentivolio was quoted as saying he had “a problem
figuring out which one I really am, Santa Claus or Kerry Bentivolio.” (Of
course, as the film Miracle on 34th
Street documents, it’s not so easy to prove that a claimant isn’t, in fact, Kris Kringle.)
On a serious note,
I was saddened but not surprised by the defeat of Proposition 34 in California,
which would have repealed that state’s death penalty. I’m simply not in favor
of governments executing their citizenry. I see it as being morally wrong, too
subject to error, without deterrent value, and on balance, even more
economically costly (totaling the legal costs) than imprisonment
without parole. The 53-47 vote was, however, a vast change from
the 70% favorable margin in 1978 that had placed the law on the California books in
the first place.
Finally, there were
the successful ballot initiatives Tuesday in Washington state and Colorado to
legalize marijuana for recreational use. As victory had been forecast in both
states, I wasn’t surprised. But, as I outlined in my August 6 post headlined “Rolling Stone Blows Smoke,” I’m neither
enthusiastic about the prospect of state-sanctioned stoners, whatever the
potential tax benefits, nor convinced that these votes ultimately will mean
anything, given the federal ban on recreational marijuana use. It remains to be
seen what the federal response will be. Sure, Barry Obama liked to toke during
his Hawaiian youth, but he’s the Man now, and he’s gone from laidback hoopster
to unapologetic launcher of unmanned death drones. “Don’t make me sic my jackbooted thugs on your
dopily giggling asses!,” I can hear POTUS exclaiming, as law-and-order Republicans nod in grudging respect and, somewhere, Willie
Nelson reassesses his relocation plans.
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