Finally the election is over. We can all take a deep breath, and celebrate the end of endless commercials, mailings and dinnertime robocalls. Now that President Barack Hussein Obama handily won a second term let the hand wringing and finger pointing begin. The substantial drubbing that Romney took cannot be understated. The rise of the Tea Party and the ultra-right wing fringe of the party was halted in its tracks. While the GOP scratches their heads wondering what happened, let’s see if any of these factions played a part.
It’s the demographics people! If there is a single take away from the 2012 election it’s that the GOP must stop acting like the Great White Male vote is the only vote they need. This idea that the Republican Party can ever win another election with only a minority of the citizenship is ludicrous. Yet they happily spent one billion in SuperPAC money demonizing Hispanics, African Americans, Single Mothers and Women’s Vaginas.
The Conservative voices mocked the term War on Women, but in 2011-2012 there were, according to the Guttmacher Institute, dozens of laws introduces to severely curtail women’s reproductive rights. There have been restrictions on abortion introduced in 17 states; 6 states introduced legislation to restrict “public funding of abortion for low-income women; 14 states introduced mandatory counseling and waiting periods before a abortion procedure. And that’s not all, here is the complete report.
From the slander directed at Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student speaking out regarding contraception and health insurance to the insanity of Virginia’s Transvaginal Ultrasound legislation, women have had to fight men off their bodies. We have had enough of old White men dictating to us what they think we should do. No one likes to be bossed around, especially by smug men who think women’s bodies can turn on and off pregnancy if raped. Forcibly of course, not consensually. Just so we never forget what the GOP thinks about women’s reproductive system: let’s review what these men, all losers in the election, think:
Todd Akin – “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”
Richard Mourdock – “And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
Paul Ryan – “I’ve always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life,”
Tom Smith – “But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?”
Joe Walsh – With modern technology and science, you can’t find one instance,” Walsh said. “There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”
Roger Rivard – All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.’
But then, YAY Women! We now have 20 female Senators and maybe this influx of women signals the end of an era of frightened men pointing at women’s lady bits and trying to legislate it into non-existence. Planned Parenthood still stands to offer thousands of low-income women medical care and There is hope that the Senate will now leave women’s health care alone. I hope they have learned they do not have the right to tell me what to do. They are NOT my father, and even my father lost that right when I turned 18. Watch out for Elizabeth Warren as a future superstar in the Democratic party.
Obama had an 11-point lead over Romney with women’s votes. Come on GOP, you and I know this is not a good sign. You have to figure out how to reach single women and college educated married women without calling them sluts and whores for wanting contraception to be covered by insurance. You need to stop equating single mothers with “Welfare Queens.” And you need to stop negating women’s voices in general.
Romney scored only 30% of the Hispanic vote. Maybe the other 70% were not interested in self-deporting. Is it possible they do not like being called “Illegals” when they are, in actuality, legal? I do believe the scuttling of the Dream Act by the GOP certainly did not cause the Hispanic population to rush to the polls to embrace that anti-education agenda. The leaders of the GOP need to learn that Hispanics in this country are the fastest growing population. Now, this doesn’t mean that Romney will have more gardeners for his multiple houses, but maybe the next doctor he goes to, or the council member who blocks his plan for another car elevator will be of Hispanic decent. It’s almost unimaginable to some Republicans that this new population of citizens are also as smart, creative and politically astute as their White counterparts. Keep an eye on Julian Castro, Mayor of San Antonio as his star ascends in the next four years. Vice President in 2016?
The anti-gay GOP is also in trouble. Four states have now voted in favor of same sex marriage. This is finally the turning point, after 32 states said no to Marriage Equality, that streak has finally been broken! Maine, Maryland and Washington, Minnesota all have said marriage is for everyone, not just a select few. The Log Cabin Republicans have not had much of a point in the past, but now is their moment to help steer the GOP into the future. The LCR are in a position to school the GOP elders about tolerance, inclusion and Conservative views – government stays out of personal business. This is something the GOP has forgotten in the last 20 years with the rise of the Religious Right and the hard core zealots who run their party.
But quite honestly, Romney lost because he had no core, no soul. It was clear that he would say and do anything he was told regardless of what he actually thought. His speeches were tailored to agree with the group he was meeting with or the crowd he was speaking to. He went from pro-choice to pro-life; from RonmeyCare to wanting to repeal Obamacare; from repealing DADT to continuing the discriminatory practice of DADT. Here is a nice list from Rolling Stone. And of course, once we all found out how he really feels about the 47%, it was over. There is no coming back from words you spoke in private. Those are the truest words we have ever heard him say. No backtracking could stop the backlashing that took place. He truly doesn’t like half the population of the country he wants to run.
A personal message to David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch: Hey Koch Brothers! Your billions made no difference. Your threats to your employees made no difference. Your self-funded Super PAC made no difference. But your disgusting act of trying to buy an election will make a difference. The American people now see you for the selfish manipulative damaged horrors that you are and maybe this is the tipping point to stop corporations from pouring unlimited funds into the political process. You tried to buy a president. It didn’t work. But what galls me is that, you both, like Linda McMahon, think nothing of spending hundreds of millions to purchase a political seat. Yet, the idea of spending that same amount in a philanthropic manner would never occur to you. It’s your money of course you can do what you want with it, just be aware of how utterly without a soul you appear when you choose to spend this money on pure self-interest.
And to the GOP leaders, if there are any besides Rush, the electorate is getting more diverse, more brown, younger and more educated. The Grand Old Party would be well advised to open their arms and include all Americans of all shapes, sizes, ethnicity and sexuality or they risk becoming the tiny outlier party of grumpy old men yelling at the Hispanic Female college student next door to GET OFF MY LAWN.
