Obama, Warren, Gay Marriage. Liberal Winning.

Obama has some pep in his step.

Liberal warrior Elizabeth Warren is going to Washington.

Gay marriage won a clean sweep. Maryland, check. Washington, check. Maine, check. Minnesota, check.

Go ahead, do a little dance.

"All the winning  Dems,
all the winning Dems."
And that list goes on. Tammy Baldwin won her Senate election in Wisconsin, becoming the first gay US Senator.

Tim Kaine won in Virginia.

Results showed that when men say ignorant things about rape, they pay the price.

This year that price keeps Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in the Senate (please click this link, one of the best headlines of the day) and sends Democrat Joe Donnelly to the Senate from Indiana.

Women were key to President Obama's reelection and the number of women who won seats in the Senate this year. As one of my good friends put it, "there will be binders full of Senators."

This year was not 2008.

No, there weren't any enormous crowds of people cheering in the street.

No, will.i.am wasn't rapping about hope and change.

But this election proved something perhaps more important than in 2008.

In 2008, the GOP brand was an ugly duckling. In 2010, I guess to some people it looked a little better. In 2012, however, the coalition the Obama built in 2008 on a wave of political support, supplemented by a country that was reeling from recent economic plummet and eight years of the Bush Administration, held.

Photo of election 2012.
No, this election wasn't pretty. It was gritty. It was tough. You could say it was the electoral equivalent of Bruce Willis in Die Hard.

It was that kind of tough victory that shows that liberals have guts, they can get in the trenches and fight against the Republican money machine and still come out on top.

Grassroots and a strong ground game can still win out.

The Obama campaign again showed that small donations from a wide swath of Americans can beat out large donations from the richest 1%.

With their millionaires and billionaires, the conservative SuperPACs still lost.

Maybe this year we can have a meaningful conversation about lessening the importance of money in politics.

But most of all, this election proves that liberalism in America is here to stay.

You could say that the Republicans had a weak field. But honestly, was there a stronger candidate out there for Republicans? 

Romney can raise funds, he knows how to run a campaign. Heck, he almost won!

But liberalism won the day because people still believe, to quote the President, "if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try."

The President has four more years to keep that dream alive and it is liberalism that will take us there.


0 comments:

Post a Comment

 

About

All posts are written by Will Wrigley -- a politics nerd, music-lover and a barely comprehensible writer.