An Electrifying Night

At Sassafras House, my election day birthday dawned cold and a little bleak.  It was our 8th morning without electricity.  Though I had great confidence that Obama would secure re-election, I  expected a day of nervous waiting.  The polls looked good, Nate Silver was giving me terrific odds, and yet I wasn't in a mood to count on much.  I've been disappointed on election day birthdays in the past, most notably in 1984, when Ronald Reagan swept the nation and defeated Walter Mondale.  When you care about politics as much as I do, you hate to make assumptions.

JT and I headed off to a local diner for breakfast and then I voted in a FEMA-powered temporary polling station.  For the afternoon, we joined the T-N family for companionship, heat, and electricity.  I began to troll the web for exit-poll data.  I was anxiously hopeful.  After supper, we had some birthday cake and as I blew out the candles I opted for my nation and wished for an Obama victory instead of power for my home.  

We turned on the telly at 8 pm to watch poll returns.  As polls in the east closed, the southern states provided numbers for Romney's column, but that was hardly surprising.  New York and New Jersey were predictably blue.  Pennsylvania was good.  Then, more surprisingly, New Hampshire went for Obama.  Soon the numbers began to shift in Obama's direction.  As I began to relax in the surety of an Obama victory, my friend M, who also lives in my town, texted that she had power.  I called my home and heard the re-assuring voice of my answering machine and I knew that I too was back on the grid.

Within the hour, JT and I drove home, confident that the day had brought us a whole lot of blessings.  We switched on the furnace and settled in to watch more swing states line up on the blue side of the equation.  Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico…the news was good and getting better.  We stayed up late, determined to watch Romney's concession and see November 6 out on a much happier note than it had begun.  Electricity and an Obama victory?  In one day?  Our cup overfloweth.

Later this week, I'll have some thoughts about what Obama's re-election means.  Hint: the numbers in Congress may be virtually the same, but the game has changed, a fact Republicans must understand and acknowledge.  But today is for celebrating the blessings of democracy, citizenship, electricity, and four more years of an Obama White House.  We are blessed.

Letting Their Freak Flag Fly

It's one thing for Republicans to disagree with Democrats on the issues.  When expressed rationally and sincerely, I respect those disagreements.  After all, free exchange of ideas is the cornerstone of democracy.  But disagreement is one thing.  Misogyny and racism are a whole different kettle of fish.  This weekend, the GOP seemed determined to show just how far off the rails they've gone.

Take this example from the GOP's Senate nominee in Missouri, explaining that women can't get pregnant when they are legitimately being raped.  Seems unbelievable, no?   Read the article and watch  Representative Todd Akin say it. 

It was a busy weekend for Republicans seeking to stick their foot in their mouths.  Case-in-point: Franklin County, Ohio, Republican Party Chair Doug Preisse.  Mr. Preisse explained that he opposes early voting in his county because it may increase African American turnout.  He really said that.  Read it here.  

I've always suspected that the GOP was the party of heartless cruelty.  These days they seem happy to admit it.

Update: Akin is now claiming he misspoke.  He didn't seem confused in the interview I watched.  This morning, the Romney campaign has taken pains to "distance" themselves from Akin's remarks.  Distance, of course, is not the same as repudiation.  

The End of Compromise?

Though you would be hard-pressed to know this if all you consumed was a steady diet of Tea Party political rhetoric, the American Congress was constructed by the Founders to be a legislative body oriented toward cooperation and compromise.  Only by working with one another could legislators govern.  By the early 1800s, with the formation of political parties, this meant that the parties reached across the aisle to build legislation to serve the national interest.  By definition, this means that neither party gets all of what they want.  The hope is that if both receive a little and compromise further on what's left, our deliberative legislative process will govern in the national interest.

When the ability to compromise breaks down, the nation suffers as a consequence.  The Civil War is typically cited as the most extreme example of a failure to compromise.  It's not a perfect example, because there were some very good reasons to refuse a compromise that would permit the continuation of slavery, a morally repugnant institution in a nation claiming to favor liberty above all other values.  Even so, we should be profoundly reluctant to reject compromise these days, when the issues on the table don't approach the gravity of slavery's threat to American values.

In the last twenty years, it's gotten harder and harder to build compromise between the two parties in Congress.  Both parties are guilty, though the lion's share of the blame goes to the Republican party, as political scientists Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein argue in their new book about congressional gridlock, It's Even Worse Than It Looks.  You can see evidence of this everywhere, but especially in last night's primary election defeat of Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, who was seeking re-election to the seat he's held since 1976.

Lugar, a Republican, has long been the kind of Senator willing to reach across the aisle, committed to the idea of finding a moderate compromise in order to govern well.  This morning, the New York Times called Lugar "a collegial moderate" and the characteristic is perfect.  But it was that moderation that served as the primary  explanation for his loss to Republican challenger Richard Mourdock, whose Tea Party-fueled campaign thrived on a steady stream of invective directed at Lugar because of the Senator's long-standing record of compromise.

Democrats were not expected to devote a lot of resources to this race in the fall, feeling that the well-respected Lugar would likely be re-elected by his moderate state come November.  The Mourdock primary victory changes that calculation and Indiana is now very much in the running for the Democrats, who suddenly have a chance to pick up this Senate seat.  I'm a Democrat and I should celebrate that.  And yet I can't help but feel this is a hollow victory.  It puts us one step further away from the compromise that is essential for our nation to govern itself.  That's not good for any of us.