I guess I'll need to take a moment or two to digest it all. I don't feel like gloating (for one thing, I'm more relieved than exhilarated), and I really hope (it could happen, couldn't it?) that there'll be some changes in attitude in D.C. John Boehner has already mouthed from both sides, so who knows?
With the exception of Jim Graves, running against Michele Bachmann, everyone to whom I gave money across the country won: Warren, Baldwin, Duckworth, what's-his-name running against Alan West; and, of course, the black guy. Locally, the school district of which my wife, Judy, is board president passed its levy to buy new school buses. In the state, gay marriage passed, and it looks like the D candidate for governor will win. A pro-marijuana initiative is leading, too. I voted for it without a lot of thought: mostly to see what would happen, both in terms of federal reaction, and in terms of effects on costs of law enforcement. I don't expect to see drug-crazed people roaming the streets and highways. If so, I guess it can be repealed.
My most significant initial reaction, though, is pleasant surprise that the millions and millions poured into elections by a small group of billionaires didn't have the effect I feared. (Nor, for that matter, did the blatant efforts at suppressing voting in D districts.) Poor Sheldon Adelson: hundred million or so spent around the country, and 0 - 6 in outcomes. Same with Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. I don't like the idea of democracy being for sale to such a small number of people, and maybe it isn't. Will they redouble their efforts, or reconsider their asset allocations? I'll be curious to see.
I'm glad the false characterizations of President Obama didn't prevail; and I'd like to think that Mitt Romney finally reached his lifetime allotment of dishonesty, that rejection of lies as strategy was in play. Some are saying so, at least with regard to his Jeep ads in Ohio. I hope so. Because if money and lies were all it takes to win elections, it'd be a bad thing. I say that soberly, not triumphally. One election doth not a trend make; but I hope it has meaning in that regard.
I liked Obama's victory speech; to me, it's what he's always been about, and I think it's more than just words. It was cool that he mentioned the Romney family, Mitt's parents. Romney's speech was nice, too. Will there be a lessening of vitriol? I'll do my part. For now.
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