Given the enormous spending by a very few, very wealthy in the hope of buying the election through propaganda, made possible by the Supreme Corporate’s “Citizen’s United” ruling, the 2012 election outcome is like a reassuring ray of light filtering through a dark, ominous and troubled sky.
In many ways, I suspect the 2012 U.S. election results were less an endorsement of the Democrats and more a rejection of the current state of the Republican Party.
While the trends in outcomes from Tuesday’s presidential, senate, and congressional races and the associated ballot referenda speak to themselves, here’s a snippet of what I took from it:
- Most Americans are concerned with the federal deficit, but don’t agree that more
military spending and decreased taxes are the ways to reduce it. Most Americans approve
of higher taxes on the very wealthy, because they know the rich will always prosper and
thrive.
- Most Americans disapprove of the worldview and fundamentalism inherent in the
Tea Party faction of the Republican Party, and dislike of the intolerance, hatred and
vitriol directed toward minority communities, particularly immigrants and gays.
- Most Americans believe in a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work, and that
conservative old white men should have no say in decisions concerning her body and health.
- Most Americans are hard workers and resent efforts to quell worker rights. They know
that the personal responsibility for working hard is no less important than being a
‘job creator.’
- Most Americans have values that are not defined by self-interest and greed, and
they know their worth is much more than what they earn or have.
- Most American’s don’t believe in austerity.
- Most American’s believe that capitalism should be regulated versus free and
unfettered from all government oversight.
- Most Americans want no part of a corporate-run plutocracy, and see the GOP’s real
constituency as one of Hallibuton and GE, by Comcast and Koch and for WalMart.
- Finally, most Americans want the man whose finger is on the trigger to be thoughtful and reflective versus hasty, to be one to reconcile versus showing belligerence, to be compassionate versus heartless, and to care and exude warmth. Similar to the oft-asked, ‘Who would you rather have over for dinner and conversation?,’ it’s a question that, for most Americans, Romney lost decisively.
In moving beyond the election results, however, the campaign was illuminating as much for the issues that were not discussed as for those that were.
On the environment, the single sentence devoted to global warming in Obama’s victory speech highlighted the strange absence of the issue on the two-year long campaign trail. “We want our children to live in an America,” Obama stated, “…that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” 1) Twitter and Facebook users took note. “He finally did it!” said one status message, while others stated, “It’s about time!” On the other hand, Romney strapped on his super-man ‘corporate protector’ cape whenever the issue was broached. “I’m not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet,” said Romney. It became the phrase that resonated best in summing his position. 2)
