The Day After

After a $6 billion, hard fought, unprecedentedly negative election, we find ourselves essentially back where we started. Obama is still President, Democrats still control the Senate (though with a few more progressive voices and maybe a couple more seats) and the House is still ruled by the GOP (though with a few less seats). But in some ways the election does provide some signs of the future of the country. While many conservatives, including Fox News' crew, are decrying absurd charges of voter fraud, liberal bias in the media and Americans who "just want stuff" (according to the always fair and balanced Bill O'Reilly), the reality appears to be that many Americans believe that the government can help solve some of our economic problems, that the rich should pay their fair share and that the attack on women, gays and minorities are tired, old and counterproductive. The other big news appears to be, as I mentioned last night, that the increasing diversity of the country is starting to pay dividends for Democrats. Obama won big among African Americans, of course, but also among Latino/as. These were the key players in many of the swing states, though his success in Ohio, Wisconsin and the Midwest appears to have had to do a lot with union workers, who believe he and the government can do more to get them back to work. It is also apparently the case that women have not taken too kindly to the attacks on their reproductive rights that 2010 elicited and candidates this year played up with great aplomb (and abject stupidity, one should add). And women increased their share of Senate seats to at least 19, and maybe 20, and gained in some other races showing that the short-term retrenchment against them is probably just a blip on their long term push toward increased political power and representation.

The GOP talking head machine is already at it however, and one wonders if notions of a mandate for President Obama will again be undermined by the obstructionist right. Watching Fox News this morning, I noted the same old tired discourse of the 47% (that might well have cost Romney the presidency) that just want stuff from the government: including, according to Lou Dobbs, the absurd desire to get Social Security and Medicare -- which they, of course, paid in to. In the same segment, the host noted a 300% increase in government expenditures with only a 20% increase in population over the past 20 years, but didn't adjust for inflation (a pretty big oversight). While some in the party are already conceding that they need to do some sole searching given the changing demographics of the country and the fact that all that money didn't actually reap the intended outcome, it appears many others are just steeling their resolve. They lost to a President who many blamed for our continuing economic downturn, who scared the elderly with his healthcare reform, who still resides over almost 8 percent unemployment and who has been effectively marked as a socialist, Muslim and even fascist among a none too small factions of the electorate. Sure the election was close in many  states, but Romney only won in North Carolina among the swing states. In the morning, he appeared confident he would win it all, but twelve hours later the writing was on the wall. The team's shock is the only explanation for the extra hour and a half we had to wait for a result that was clear to everyone else besides Karl Rove.

So will things change in Washington now? Early comments from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell certainly must give those who hope so pause: 

“The American people did two things: they gave President Obama a second chance to fix the problems that even he admits he failed to solve during his first four years in office, and they preserved Republican control of the House of Representatives.  The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term, they have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together with a Congress that restored balance to Washington after two years of one-party control. Now it’s time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a closely-divided Senate, step up to the plate on the challenges of the moment, and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office.”
 – Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader

Some pointed out last night that he will be running for reelection in two years and this helps explain his position, but it is certainly troubling to consider that the GOP will just keep on trucking along their obstructionist path. We should remember that this started under Bill Clinton and led to the historic change in House leadership that quickly followed. Sure the Dems won it back for a short stretch but the same tactic paid benefits two years into Obama's first term. One must wonder about the long term viability of the Tea Party, however, as they suffered a number of important defeats in the last two cycles and may well have cost the GOP control of the Senate. Whatever the GOP and Tea Party do, it is imperative that Obama start to "spend his political capital" before it is gone. Our collective memory has fallen to the level of a Ritalin-less ADD adolescent and he must now step up and push through the legislation the public seeks. What does this include? It appears to me it includes modest tax increases for the wealthiest Americans, continued tax relief for the middle class, serious consideration of the Dream Act, some sort of government stimulus -- which might most readily be accepted if it was oriented toward strategic investment and subsidies for key industries like alternative energy and telecommunications and more regulation over Wall Street and Big Business. Given his speech last night, I'm not clear if the always measured Obama will come through, but one hopes he pushes the agenda back toward his more progressive roots, as it may be the only thing that can save us.