A Lot to Cheer About

Indiana proved to be an outlier. Except for the (predicted) victory by Mike Pence–and the fact that Republican extremists will have pretty much total control of Indiana government for at least the next two years–last night was satisfying. And even here, there were bright spots: Mourdock proved that even in Indiana, crazy doesn’t sell. (He should have taken a page from Pence’s book and refused to talk until after the election). Glenda Ritz defeated Tony Bennett, who never learned to play nice with other children. IPS got three new Commissioners who are likely to take the job of improving the schools seriously–and who are unlikely to rubber-stamp Eugene White’s decisions.

The best news was national. I’m still sifting through results, but I’m no longer waiting to exhale. The President won comfortably–a blowout in the electoral vote and a comfortable margin in the popular vote. The Democrats actually increased their margin in the Senate–something that really shouldn’t have happened, given the seats that were in play. And for the first time ever, marriage equality measures won at the ballot box.

It will be a few days until all the details are available, but Republican strategists should have listened to whoever it was who said “demography is destiny.” Or as Lindsay Graham put it a couple of months ago, there aren’t enough old white men to keep the Republican party afloat.

12 Comments

  1. Perhaps the GOP will re-evaluate the direction their party has been taken by the Tea Partiers and more moderate members of the party will prevail. I hope we don’t get another four years of Congressional obstructionism. That has not served this country well.

  2. OK. Pence is a “Cross to Bear”, he would do well to remember that religion and politics are like “Wives and Sweethearts” they should never meet.

  3. I wasnt suprised Indiana lost to the Republicans because of all the extremly disrespectful comments that were popping up from people I knew in Indiana..In fact, thats how I knew Obama won..Im deployed so I dont have television…I just waited for the doomsday, “were all going to hell”, and “communist takeover” comments to emerge.

  4. We need to cheer our victories but not waste time bemoaning our losses. Store them in our memory, watch what the elected Republicans continue doing to this city and state and work harder next election. We must give credit where credit is due; if not for Mourdock’s foolish remarks and Pence upholding him we would have lost Senator Lugar’s seat in Congress and the Gregg/Pence race would not have been so close. Apparently there are thinking, aware voters in Indiana; we just need more of them. We also need to hope that sitting Republicans get the message that resounded loud and clear last night on the national level. I will sleep better at night knowing President Obama is standing watch.

  5. I think it is time for us old white guys to step aside and let the emerging majority take charge. If we go quietly rather than noisily maybe they won’t treat us like we treated them.

  6. We’re off the crazy train for the moment. Now, it’s back to work! One suggestion for the two major parties would be to move the seating arrangement closer together. Then, reaching ‘across the aisle’ might not be so difficult. I surely feel better about things today than I did yesterday.

  7. GREAT Night. Not perfect but a reason to hope. In Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin, an OUT Lesbian won the US Senate race. Her old Congressional seat was handily won by an OUT gay man, Mark Pocan. AND the Pres won too. Cause for hope in my little world. Glad that Murdock got the boot. More women than ever in the Senate. Slowly, things are moving forward.

  8. I have a question about the Indiana GOP’s huge House majority. Will their 69 votes necessarily splinter as individual members try to serve local/competing constituencies that are now represented by a single party?

  9. “Will their 69 votes necessarily splinter as individual members try to serve local/competing constituencies that are now represented by a single party?”

    Possibly. Maybe some of them will have the courage to express their concerns about the second sentence of the so-called “Indiana Marriage Protection Amendment”, like Governor Elect Sue Ellspermann did last year. If Mike Pence will let her, that is.

  10. For more good news, Glenda Ritz’s “David” really outgunned the Tony Bennett’s “Goliath” of a campaign treasury by outpolling all Democrats on the state ticket and Mike Pence and Richar Mourdock as well as Tony Bennett.

    Grassroots uprisings from parents and teachers upset by the constant testing of students, unfair A-F grades of schools, privatization of schools to out-of-staters, lowering of teacher standards, funds cut from public schools, and much more did the trick. While it helps to have money for campaigns, there is no substitute for people power. Tony Bennett work up the sleeping giant of public school supporters, and the giant roared.

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