What a night. I stayed up far too late last night and now I'm running on fumes. Staying up past midnight and getting up at 4:30 is definitely a young man's game. However, I am mostly satisified with the news from last night. I want to set aside the presidential race for a moment and focus on the State races. There was a lot of good news coming out of the State races. Here are just a few of the reasons I'm happy today:
Florida: Allen West lost. West gives unhinged a whole new meaning and I'm sure he will soon be hosting his very own lunatic radio show. But for now, lets rejoice in his defeat.
Illinois: Joe Walsh lost. Maybe Walsh can team up with West to start some tea party AM Radio show - The Morning Zoo With Wacky Walsh & West.
Massachusetts: Scott Brown lost. Elizabeth Warren reclaimed Ted Kennedy's senate seat, and hopefully, will be a much needed progressive voice in the U.S. Senate.
Indiana: Richard Mourdock lost. I'm not necessarily enthusiastic about Joe Donnelly, who is now Indiana's newest senator. However, I see his victory more as a voter repudiation of the ignorance fomented by the tea party, rather than as an endorsement of Joe Donnelly.
Connecticut: Linda McMahon is 96 million dollars poorer as she lost her second senate race in three years. Chris Murphy won easily in a race that gave me hope that money simply cannot buy elections.
Ohio: Sherrod Brown won. The State of Ohio told Josh Mandel to shut up and Sherrod Brown, the U.S. Senate's most progressive voice was re-elected.
Maine: Same Sex Marriage passes. The nation's attitude on this issue is finally evolving.
Maryland: Same Sex Marriage passes. See a trend?
Washington: Same Sex Marriage passes. Oh, I do, I do see a trend! Marijuana decriminalization passes.
Colorado: Marijuana decriminalization passes. Is the nation's attitude on marijuana finally evolving?
California: The initiative to require that all food containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) be labeled as such, was soundly defeated. I'm wildly disappointed in this outcome. This was a very important initiative that I believe is needed on a National basis.
Latest Update
North Dakota: Heidi Heitkamp is being projected as the winner of the Senate race in North Dakota. With 93% of the vote calculated she has a 3,000 vote lead over Republican Rick Berg. This is a surprising pickup for the Democratic party.
Ok, I admit to being sleepy and I am sure that I missed a lot of important victories and losses. What are you celebrating or mourning today?
Comments
this election is history, some good news last night
I believe that we are seeing the beginning of a trend for the decriminalization of marijuana and the acceptance of same sex marriage. Both are long overdue. The social issues are no longer under the ownership of the conservatives. The demographics are now firmly working against them.
Mostly meh.
There is no possible outcome of the presidential race that could have made me happy. We're just taking the hell in a handbasket local instead of the express.
I guess it's nice that so many allegedly progressive people won in their respective states. Alan Grayson apparently won, which is nice. But my prediction is that they will all show up in January and rubber-stamp everything Obama does, including the Grand Bargain. Everyone might as well bend over and kiss their Social Security and Medicare goodbye right now because they are on their way out. I'm really looking forward to retiring on hope and platitudes because I'll have nothing else to retire on. Yay.
I am glad that the marriage equality and marijuana measures passed in my home state of Washington. I am particularly pleased about the marriage equality referendum in light of the amount of out of state money that was spent trying to defeat it.
I'm told that the only state in which Jill Stein got more than 1% of the vote was Maine. That saddens me a lot. I think about all those people who stayed home and I think about how different last night might have been if they had gone to the polls and voted third party. I saw a FB post from someone last night who defended her decision to not vote at all by saying that she was "protesting" - and then she went on to say this: "If you vote, then you have no right to complain". That was pretty depressing.
Those who voted for the status quo - by which I mean, everyone who voted Democrat and everyone who voted Republican - need to complain. They really do. Particularly Obama supporters. When they see what's coming in the next year or two, they need to complain vociferously.
But I predict that they won't. I predict that the gutting of Social Security and Medicare will be okay with them, because it's Jesus H. Obama doing the gutting. Drone warfare will be okay with them, because it's Jesus H. Obama doing the killing. The loss of their civil liberties will be okay with them because it's Jesus H. Obama taking them away. The lemmings will gladly follow their hero right off the cliff, and not even notice that they're falling until they are splattered on the rocks below. And that final "oh shit" moment, a nanosecond before they hit, will be too late. For them, and for all of us.
Minnesota.
Crazy eyes squeaked out a win, but the same-sex marriage ban was defeated. The homophobes lost ALL FOUR FIGHTS!
also voter photo ID in Minnesota
Not only did we in Minnesota vote down the anti-same-sex state constitutional amendment, we voted down the photo ID for voting amendment, which was actually more surprising -- it had looked to be a lock to pass (according to polls) just a couple months ago.
Klobuchar returns to the Senate to help in the Grand Betrayal of the safety net. No surprise there.
Welcome to VOTS! Good news on the voter ID defeat.
I had not heard of Minnesota's voter ID proposal. I'm glad it was defeated. Voter ID laws are nothing more than voter suppression laws. Great news that it was defeated. I believe that you are correct abd that the Grand Bargain will now be proposed. Now is the time for progressives to agitate against any cuts in the safety net. Good to see you at VOTS.
Klobuchar is one of the worst. nt
hey tom! welcome to VOTS!...
and glad the voter ID amendment got canned... sorry to hear that Bachmann kept her job, albeit barely...
anyway, welcome to VOTS - look forward to seeing you around! :D
and stay warm - Minnesota is freeeeeezing! :D
That's great!
Andrew Cohen argues here that voter suppression is turning out to cause the GOP more harm than good.
This election on the presidential level was boring+predictable
I am happy about marijuana decriminalization in CO and Maine, Maryland, and Washington with same sex marriage passing.
I'm cautiously optimistic about Alan Grayson(he went to bat for auditing the Fed when the WH did not like that at all) and Elizabeth Warren winning(she needs to prove she can go against this administration).
I'm happy Sherrod Brown won who also went against this administration with Ted Kaufman and tried to cap bank size to 10% of GDP which would have broken the banks up. he introduced the safe banking act again and hopefully some Democrats will fight for it.
Filibuster reform is where it's at right away at the start of Congress; the only time they can do it with 51 votes. When they shoot that down, expect nothing to get done.
Grayson's winning
was my pleasant election night surprise. Think he'll quit phoning us with his robo money hustling now that he's' back? I got a lot calls from Alan Grayson on the landline. I missed him as he's a great progressive grand stander and not a weenie liberal. I really like the progressive direction CO went this election. He has always for me invalidated the CW that only blue dogs can win in states that are in Republican territory CO went pretty damn liberal. David Sirota has a great piece about this at Solon. Annie Kuster in NH was another race I was following, she squeaked out a victory, despite the Democratic deficit hawks.
http://www.salon.com/writer/david_sirota/
Progressives win big in Colorado
Indeed, shaharazade
Alan Grayson back in is something to be happy about.
A lot of great things happened in CO. Thanks for the Sirota piece.
The anti-gerrymandering amendment in Ohio went down in defeat.
This was widely expected ~ after getting it on the ballet, the supporters took a break ~ probably shortage of money created ~ while the opponents went on TV to characterize. Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama's campaigns were officially Pro-Issue 2, but my impression, from inside the ground game of both (Brown and Obama's canvassing operations merged in the last three weeks) was that only Sherrod Brown's campaign pushed it hard ~ in Barack Obama's campaign, everything was an afterthought except how great Barack Obama is.
the Obama campaign's focus was solely on Obama's reelection
Bruce, I am in complete agreement with your statement: "in Barack Obama's campaign, everything was an afterthought except how great Barack Obama is." I had not heard of Ohio's anti-gerrymandering initiative. Seems like a common sense initiative that should have passed easily. Too bad that Obama did not bother to campaign in some of the tougher races. His presence probably could have defeated Bachman and possibly could have generated a Senate seat pick up in North Dakota. His campaign was one of the most selfish that I have witnessed in my lifetime.
There still may be a pick up in ND ...
... Heidi is leading with 100% of precincts reporting, so I guess it comes down to absentee ballots still in the mail.
North Dakota Election Results 2012: Heitkamp appears to win Senate seat; Dalrymple coasts to reelection as governor (WaPo)
Great Plains states often reward economic populism, and North Dakota has a windpower boom to go along with its fracking oil boom, so while Heidi is likely no better than the guy she replaced on oil drilling, she could be looking to take the lead on Green Jobs and could well join Sherrod Brown in opposing the hold of the Banksters on the Senate.
That's not the exception that proves the rule ~ they sent Clinton to stump in North Dakota, and given the choice, I'm sure that Heidi would rather have Clinton making an appearance in a state that Obama was sure to lose.
Note that Heidi won in part ...
... on the back of the American Indian vote and the tireless work of American Indian organizers.
American Indian civil rights was, indeed, one bright spot in Obama's first term.
Thanks, Bruce. I need to do some research on ND politics.
Based on what happened in ND I'm research the political environment of ND. I have never really paid too much attention to ND, but her victory has greatly increased my interest level.
i think that maybe the more effective way...
to bring pressure may be to single out and pressure individual members of Congress, like Grayson and Brown - those who have a progressive history and seem to have a backbone for the most part....
so glad to see that marriage equality and the decriminalization of pot are finally starting to take hold country-wide... ok maybe not the south yet. not sure why the pot amendment went down in teh south, cuz gawd knows, i certainly know it's a common thing to partake... maybe give out free chips on teh way out of the polling place would be a good way to GOTV? ;}
at least I wasn't nervous last night
Although I never reached a point where I thought "Oh my god, I can't stand the suspense, I do so hope that our wonderful President wins re-election" I did end up enjoying Mitt Romney's loss. I enjoyed seeing Romney looking like he just came from a good cry.
For short term hilarity it was a reasonable outcome. It worked pretty well as entertainment.
Now I'm trying to find Jill Stein's vote count, so far without much success. An early report shows she had about 100,000 nationwide but that was early. Gary Johnson with about 4 times that many, but those aren't updated.
Jill Stein
Got 396,684 votes so far. She may add a few with absentee ballots, but call it around 400,000 votes or around 0.3% of the national vote. You can check it here. Click "show other candidates".
thank you!
Now I know how many people, nationwide, would make good dinner guests.
More than doubling the Greens
More than doubling the Greens' totals of 2008, triple that of 2004. Not as big as when Nader was running, but then, Stein was hardly a celebrity either.
As a 'far lefty'
I have been for years called a Nadarite which is pretty inacurate as I didn't like Nadar .I thought he was as bad as the D and R machine pols as far as being self serving and egotistical. He seemed to have no interest in building any left coalition or seroious third party challenge that would last. He kind of wrecked the Greens and moved on. I for voted Jill Stein . First ever vote that wasn't Democratic. I liked what she had to say but the main reason I voted for her was that I really feel that the best chance this country has is to somehow\ break the grip of the so called binary system we have.
This administration went to far for me to hold my nose and vote. I'm not a big celebrity type of voter having witnessed the results of the cult of personality that Obama engendered. I found the progressive measures that passed and the candidates who were not blue dog's winning to be a good sign. A sign which I have no doubt will be totally ignored by the upcoming administration and the absolute corrupt party machine. I'm done voting for Dems only as it has not served the democratic end of the party or any of us well at all. Hyper Partisan reactionary voting just keeps the loop and the kabuki going. Any bet's here on whether Reed will do something about the filibuster procedural rule? I wonder if Nate Silver has a prediction?
I think Jill Stein had about half a percent in ...
... Portage County, Ohio, Johnson about 1%. I didn't recognize the difference between the other Progressive and Reactionary 3rd party candidates by name, and the unofficial election results tally with 100% of the precincts counted that I got as I observed the county BOE board vote release of the tabulation (followed by the all important vote of the zero tally) only lists names, not parties. I believe the libertarians and greens were 1st and 2nd in the country tally, so the others won't modify that by much.
The 3rd parties did not contest the Senate Race, but the independent Scott Rupert was on the ballot. From his website he's agin regulations, for states rats, and against funding the UN, so I'd position him as roughly Constitution Party. He got 6% of the vote in Portage County.
The Ohio statewide Secretary of State election day tally is not up yet. It might not ever go up ~ they might wait until the official tally in a couple of weeks time (provisional ballots have 10 days for people to come to the BOE and finalize their ID, etc.). So if the Green Party tally is waiting on official State Secretary of State results, it might be a coupld of weeks coming.
UPDATE: based on the Google elections tally site, posted above, progressive 3rd Party candidates took about 0.4% of the Ohio Presidential vote, 0.3% for the Greens Jill Stein and 0.1% for the Socialists Stewart Alexander. Reactionary 3rd parties took 1%, 0.9% for the Libertarians Johnson and 0.1% for the Constitution Party's Virgil Goode. A self-funded moderate neoliberal independent, Richard Dunction, was the 5th highest vote getter on the Presidential ballot, with 0.2% of the vote.
I more or less remembered the Green vote and Libertarian vote here in Portage:
Johnson, Libertarian, 1.06%
Jill Stein, Green, 0.46%
Duncan, independent moderate neoliberal, 0.26% (he lives in Portage County)
Goode, CP, 0.17%
Alexander, SP, 0.08%
I awoke this morning feeling pretty damn empty
It seems like a big deal to me that, for the first time in my life, I felt I had almost nothing riding on this election. Now I'm struggling to resolve how to live with feeling powerless to stop:
1) Open extrajudicial killings.
2) Illegal and indiscriminate killings by drones.
3) The stranglehold of corporations on public policy, preventing coherent response to such matters as climate chaos, militarism on steroids, a thuggish financial sector intent on obscene concentration of wealth and power, control of the food supply without accountability, and elections as a legally sanctioned orgy of greed and manipulation.
4) Concentrated media controlling the discussion.
These are just the highlights. In the next few days, my hope is that people on this site and elsewhere begin looking at options for how to move forward, given the political landscape. Elizabeth Warren is going to the Senate, and I can't help feeling excited about that. This hero of the left has stated her full support of the war crime that is use of drones. Perhaps she will at least have some passion for addressing what she has called the maldistribution of wealth. What I expect from her, Grayson, and Sanders are compromise and going along, especially on the crucial votes, punctuated by the occasional rousing speech backed by little to no meaningful action. Yeah, I even feel that way about Grayson and Sanders. That's where I am.
heard Bernie on the radio last night
when he started talking about debt and deficit I knew nothing had changed.
The big difference on (1) and (2) ...
... versus half a century ago is that the extrajudicial killings were performed by the CIA and such back then and it was not open killings, because it was not a stand-off capability, so they had to try to keep operational details secret in order to maintain effectiveness in extra-judicial murder.
Typically, victories in opposing a well entrenched system like the American Imperium come neither fast nor easy. It takes decades of undermining in order to lay the foundation to take advantage of an opportunity that arises to roll back one of those institutions ...
... and at the moment, it still looks to me like the forces of reaction are far more willing to play the long game to lay the foundation to push things in the wrong direction than the rag tag forces of progress are to play the long game to lay the foundations to push things in the right direction.
For (3) and (4), take out the qualifications: that's just the status quo of the past thirty years. Observing that some are thirty years old and some sixty does not imply that the thirty year old parts are not well entrenched: they were entrenched by hooking into the parts that were already in place, to form a network of vested interests that owe their livelihood in whole or part to the continuation of that system.
'Apocalypse Averted'
said the twenty year old followed by 'For Now' from the rest of us at the election returns get together we went to. He is not an Obama fan far from it, but Mitt's and the R's agenda especially regarding global warming/climate change scared and angered him . Women voters voiced their disgust with the vagina probing/ rape =god's will talk loud and clearly. How stupid to declare war on both women and Latino's and expect to win. GBLT rights have moved forward and two states went against the feds with legalizing pot . Grayson's back.. Annie Kuster won. California voted down GMO labeling, OR voted no on pot, and we have in Portland a slimy new mayor, were open for business.
The show went on. Obama let it rip in his speech and we all agreed that if you didn't listen to what he was saying it he was in great form with his soaring rhetorical style, he even actually gave global warming a mention. No one there troll rated my raspberries and snickers during Obama 's speech. The family we watched the returns with are Democratic. They are much more 'moderate' then we are we're solid Bill Clinton supporters but surprisingly they are not at all obits and do not like his direction and policy. None of the usual excuses and defenses offered either. Nobody seemed to think that the next four years was going to be 'change you could believe in'. So glad it's over. I also got a little queasy about voting 3rd party when OR early returns started coming in. Made me feel the dilemma liberal voters faced in swing states..