I wanted to express my thoughts after Election Night :
Obviously, I am just so thrilled !
but there is more and I want to express my two pennies here !
I apologize for the rambling nature of what follows - it is from my heart (as well as my head)-
I love my President ! What an amazing person ! And that video - wow !
They ran such a great campaign - so smart, so disciplined, and a huge THANK YOU to all of those (like me) who made phone calls for the President, donated, knocked on doors, ...
This was such an important election. Quite honestly, I cannot due justice to the disaster that would have awaited our country had willard won. Willard is a terrible, terrible, terrible human being. What he did as Bain is unforgivable. His statements about the 47% reveal a truly heartless bastard. I am very restrained in my language here - just try to find profane language in my posts. But such he is truly, truly is. He is exactly what is wrong with America. Clearly, I believe, President Obama represents what is best about this country. I am truly convinced that President Obama will end up as one of the top five presidents of all time. Elsewhere I stated why I believe this (e.g. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month before he took office, now we have had 30 something straight months of job growth - 5 million jobs ...). President Obama has an incredible amount of character. I respect him so very much !
Next, I am ecstatic about our wins in the US Senate, especially US Senator elect Tammy Baldwin and US Senator elect Elizabeth Warren. It was huge for them to win - our country is lucky to have them ! I am very happy Chris Murphy and Heidi Heitkamp won ! Angus won - slightly better than Olympia Snowe I suppose. Joe Donnelly won in Indiana - pretty amazing. I am disappointed Shelly lost in Nevada. I am happy we retained the Virginia seat with Tim Kaine winning !
A great night for Team Blue ! However, I am quite disappointed that we did not do better with the US House of Representatives. It is still full of tea baggers.
First, we must do filibuster reform. We have no choice. Second, we must raise taxes on the wealthy. All things being equal, I do not believe that there exists ANY credible ACADEMIC study (non partisan) that suggests that cutting taxes for the wealthy does anything for the overall economy. And those tax cuts clearly do not pay for themselves.
We hold all the cards. We hold the Presidency and the US Senate. The American people heard President speak about raising taxes on the wealthy frequently and they elected him. Polls show 70 or more % of Americans and registered voters, in particular, support raising taxes on the wealthy. And revenue increases, of any significant amount, require tax increases. We hold virtually all of the cards. We let all of the tax cuts expire. Then, they have to choose between not cutting taxes for anybody or cutting taxes for those making less than $250,000 (and for those making more than this amount - up until $250,000) and letting the tax breaks at the highest income bracket expire.
For 2014, we must work on making significant gains in the US House of Representatives.
We need to retake state houses and win more races for governor's seats to prevent (1) voter suppression laws (2) anti choice laws (3) gerrymandering by the republicans.
Republicans continue to live in fantasy land. They continue to tell themselves that they only lose when they nominate moderates. First, they need to consider whether they really want to count Todd Akin as a moderate. More to the point, in order to win the nomination, both McCain and Willard had to lurch severely to the right. They rejected the very policies that gave them the label "moderate" among republicans. McCain rejected Immigration reform and supported "supply side" (ie magical vodoo) economics. Willard became anti choice, refused to support his own health care plan (nationalized), and refused to support increasing revenue $1 for even $10 in spending cuts. These are extreme positions.
John McCain picked fringe Sarah Palin as his running mate and Willard picked extremist Paul Ryan and his running mate. They clearly ran as extreme conservatives. Certainly, the only time Willard gained any real momentum in the polls was when he lied and pretended to be moderate, refusing to own his real positions.
This leads to the fact that they failed to deal with reality regarding the electorate. They expected an electorate that was in between 2004 and 2010. They are trying to pretend that Hurricane Sandy changed the trajectory of the election. First, the polling data contradicts this claim. Second, they supposed a different electorate. The makeup of the electorate was not affected by Hurricane Sandy. The demographic makeup of the electorate is the salient point that disproves their excuse. The republicans lost the Hispanic vote by about fifty percent. Tokenism will not help them. Until they change their policies, this trend will continue. The trends for Cuban Americans are very positive for Team Blue- we are three generations away from those who escaped from Castro. The Hispanic vote was huge in Florida, Nevada, and Colorado, among other states.
With a strong candidate, we have a structural advantage in the electoral college, due to the Hispanic vote in Colorado and Nevada. President Obama won have won even without Ohio and Florida. We won the fast growing Asian American population by a similar margin.
As seniors in Florida die off and the Hispanic population in Florida continues to grow, they will find themselves in serious trouble in Florida. Ohio may still be 2 or 3 points more Republican than the nation as a whole despite the numbers from 2012 because of the heavy and effective advertising campaign by the President in Ohio.
Finally, it is incredible to be able to share this election with my fellow Kossacks !
I am very thankful to Marcos and to the Daily Kos staff and writers and the community
for making the site what it is !
Thank you !
We must pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform and The Dream Act !!!
We must earn the continued voter support of the Hispanic community !