I have the flu and can't sleep anyway--my ear hurts!---so I'm sitting up watching the elections.
I have been cautiously optimistic about this election, but the emphasis would have been on "cautiously." Needless to say, I'm glad to see that the Republicans' unchecked domination of the government has been well and truly undercut by the Democrats' gains.
But most of all I'm pleased by what the Democrats are saying. Every one who comes forward has emphasized their intention to reach out to the other side of the aisle and to push for bipartisan efforts to deal with our current terrifying crop of problems. The word "moderate" gets used a lot.
But of course, that's not going to work if the Republicans immediately start gearing up to recover power in the NEXT election. Hopefully they've got the message that the American public is sick of their partisan politics, but who knows? We definitely need to build a better Congress. I'm hoping that the emphasis on working together is sincere and that it can be done. I would like to see the Congress all work together to put some restraints on the executive branch.
You can't ignore the fact that the votes are still split fairly drastically along party lines.
I'm concerned by some of the really nasty campaigns that the Republicans have been running---and the mind turns immediately to defeated Harold Ford, who I liked so much in Real Time with Bill Maher. Harold Ford is amazing and whoever said he was a "rock star" candidate was right on the money. It seems to me that most of the negative campaigning backfired this time. I certainly saw some ugly tactics used in some Florida campaigns.
Florida was a bit of a disappointment, but then it always is. I don't hate Charlie Crist. It was sweet to see Katherine Harris concede hilariously early this evening. I never doubted she would lose; but it was sweet, sweet vengeance that she suffered a really humiliating defeat against Bill Nelson.
Some of the happiness was certainly dimmed by the decision in several states to ban not only same sex marriage but ALSO civil unions. That is disgusting, as was the defeat of legalizing medical marijuana. Wait till the people who voted against legalizing it get cancer or glaucoma or have someone in their family get cancer or glaucoma.
That's all I'm saying tonight.
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