To say the least. I must say, I cannot remember the last time I felt so happy after an election. I feel as if I’m finally getting my country back. Here in Massachusetts, I can at last feel hopeful about leadership from the governor, and an end to Mitt Romney’s screw-the-towns-and-schools philosophy. Deval Patrick has his work cut out for him, but I’m hopeful that he’s up to the job.
In my native state of Ohio, election-stealer Ken Blackwell is out of a job, they’ve put a Democrat in the governor’s office for the first time in 16 years, and a Democrat in the Senate, as well. Dare we hope that election “irregularities” in Ohio might come to an end?
Nationwide, what can I say? The neocon/pseudocon stranglehold on the federal government has been broken at last. Finally we might have a Congress that doesn’t roll over and play dead for the president, that understands checks and balances. With luck, we’ve seen an end to the pro-war, anti-environment, steal-from-the-underclass-and-give-to-the-rich sort of lawmaking we’ve come to know so well. It’s probably too soon to hope for the repeal or amendment of the bad laws enacted under the last Congress. On the other hand, maybe they’ll finally hold the president accountable to the law. Wouldn’t that be refreshing?
And to see Rumsfeld leave: that’s just a miracle from Heaven. (Side note: I had known that Rumsfeld was a former high school wrestling coach—embarrassing enough to the sport!—but had not known until I read it in the paper today that current Speaker of the House Hastert was, as well. Ai caramba!)
As for Iraq…truthfully, I don’t know the best way out. I don’t think it’s right to demolish the country and then just leave it in disarray—but I’m not sure how much good we’re doing with our continued presence. Probably the best thing would be for peacekeeping troops from other countries to take over, if they were willing. (And just to be clear, I don’t doubt the dedication of the guys and women in uniform; it’s we who have put them in that untenable situation.) It will take people smarter than me to figure that one out.
Anyway, I’m not going to let that uncertainty ruin my week. I voted this week (actually last week, absentee) and so did the rest of the country. And I’m thrilled with the outcome.
Charlza
Yeah, it was an interesting election. We were up and following CNN until about 1:00 am.
I’m not even from MA and I’m glad to see Romney gone too, heh.
I’m still a bit of a realist, though. I have to wonder if they’ll just be yet another batch of do nothing politicians after they get comfortable.
substandardTim
I won’t debate the specifics of this post but I do find it amusing that most people who vote democrat are acting like everything in American is suddenly going to align with their point of view. (The liberal news media could barely contain their jubilation tuesday night).
And most people that vote republican are acting like America is suddenly going to go down the drain now.
The reality is that no group of politicians in the history of this country have been able to fix/screwup everything in a couple weeks time.
Jeffrey A. Carver
You’re both quite right, of course. But…for the first time in many years, there will be something like a balance of power in D.C. For his entire term, the current president has gotten nearly everything he wanted from Congress, even if the majority was slim. That’s not going to be true anymore.
And Congressional oversight, in the form of hearings into…shall we say, controversial actions by the administration…finally has a chance of happening, as much of this function has been blocked for years by committee chairs friendly to the president.
One step at a time. A key point here is that a sizable portion of the population that has felt as if they were caught on a runaway train now can feel that they have a voice again.
Anonymous
I regret that I didn’t have time to research as much as I would have liked about the candidates themselves. I voted mostly democrat because that was the mood I was in that day, but I mostly came for the local ammendments and refferandums, there were some in my state that I thought were important. Of course the one I really wanted lost anyway but at least I tried right? Anyway I’m happy for the democrats but I’m worried they might cancel project Orion/CEV since that was Bush’s idea :-/ it’s hard to toe the party line when your two major passions are space exploration and environmentalism.
Kitty
Hooray to you for voting!* This was clearly an example of why everyone’s vote counts. We have one race down here that was decided by 7 votes, and another by 133 votes.
*Although I must admit that your blogs on politics are my least favorite ones. 🙂
Jeffrey A. Carver
I always worry about funding for space exploration, but I don’t see that either side of the aisle can claim much to be proud of on that score. The Bush space initiative sounded good, until you noticed that he didn’t ask for any meaningful funding for it. The funding has been sliced out of space science and robotic planetary exploration. And some of my favorite Democratic reps on most issues (Kennedy, for example; Frank, for another) don’t support space exploration nearly as much as I think they should.
I think most of the country still believes that the space program takes a big percentage of the national budget, not the 1 or 2% that it really is.
So yeah, keep those cards and letters coming (to your representatives), telling them to support space exploration! And the environment.
Jeffrey A. Carver
Hi Kitty — What an illustration of the value of a single vote, eh?
Truthfully, I don’t like my political blogs as much as other topics, either. I write them mostly out of frustration and genuine concern about the screeching turn to the ultra-right that the country had taken (but, I hope, is turning back from).
Kitty
I think that it is always important to vote absentee if you think you might not make it. I don’t know how your weather was in Boston, but it was terrible down here. The pundits think that the rain may have kept some people away from the polls. That’s a pretty sorry excuse for not voting, in my book. In Arizona the poll workers at my precinct called me “the Girl who Voted in the Primary,” because apparently there was one primary when I was the only person who voted at my precinct. Scary, no?