The Future, as it must, has defeated The Past.
Obama winning is important. His presidency being both historic AND successful is important to the narrative of history. But, more immediately, American voters have – whether by intent or incident – protected the Supreme Court from anti-choice, anti-science nominees for another four years and maybe longer… NOTHING was more important than that.
However, other things of profound importance were either decided or are in the process of being decided tonight. Among them:
Puerto Rico has voted, for the first time, “YES” on a non-binding referendum stating that they wish to become the 51st full member-state of The United States of America. Both Obama and Romney were on record as saying that they support and would sign off on the change, but if this really does get to the U.S. Congress expect a massive fight from Republicans – the zealously anti-Hispanic Tea Party wing of the GOP will not support a predominantly-Latino Spanish-speaking territory becoming an American State. In a very real way, this could be the biggest thing that happened tonight.
Marijuana has been legalized or semi-legalized in at least three more states than before by solid margins. This is the beginning of the end for Marijuana prohibition.
When the next session begins, more Women will sit in the U.S. Senate than ever before.
One of those aforementioned women, Tammy Baldwin (Democrat, Wisconsin) is also the first openly-gay woman to be elected in U.S. Senate history.
Four states had gay marriage legalization ballot initiatives on their ballots. Previously, such initiatives have either lost or won AGAINST marriage-equality 30 times with no victories. Tonight, all four were affirmed. The tide is changing.
Here in Massachusetts, archetypal preening alpha-male bully Scott Brown was trounced by Progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren – kiss my actual working-class Boston guy ASS, Scotty.
The down side to all of this is that there will be no “wakeup call” to the Republican Party. The spin tomorrow morning will be that Romney lost because he was too moderate, not a “real” Christian and not a “real” conservative; and the push will be on to run a true believer next time. They will only become more intractable, more fundamentalist and more committed.
But, still, little by little we are improving. With each battle won over the forces of “tradition,” anachronism and superstition; persons of open-mind get one step closer to building the Superior America that we both need and – to be frank – deserve for the 21st Century.
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
Funny-named black guy re-elected, pot is legal in Colorado, 3 states have approved marriage equality, Santa is real and he's in DC handing out favors. AMERICA, bitches! *drops mic*
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to quote Gandalf on the matter of Puerto Rico “events have now been set in motion which cannot be undone”
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This election represents what I love about America. We're not always right and we're not always smart, but there is a consistent sense of progress that comes whenever elections like this happen.
Sure, we may get thrown back a few years every once in a while, but overall, compared to where we've been, America has made great strides (not saying that other countries haven't, though).
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Bob, for what it's worth, I think your “Message to Young Liberals,” really did some good. Less than ten thousand views could still have been five thousand extra votes or so. If nothing else it helped get my butt out the door. Good work and here's hoping for four years of progress.
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Almost all swing states going for Obama, voter-driven gay marriage victories, medical marijuana victories, some kickass people like Elisabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin heading for the Senate—I think America may have kicked a little ass tonight.
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I don't foresee any nasty comments or arguments on this post at all*Sarcasm
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@Nathan
Nasty comments don't matter right now. James and his ilk can't ruin this. Science and reason has beaten back ignorance and superstition. It's been a wild night, but we won the day!
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I'm not convinced that the republicans will run a “true believer” next time. Isn't Chris Christie their supposed favorite for 2016? He is no Gingrich or Santorum. The only 2 things I really know about him are that he put a muslim on his cabinet while shooting down racist comments about his decision, and he looked past partisan bickering to work with and eventually thank the president for his help with Sandy.
I don't know whether the whole Sandy thing will mean that Gov. Christie is no longer the favorite for 2016, but in my mind he is a heck of a lot better than Ryan or Perry or any of the other “serious” republican contenders
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I'm quite pleased with the results of our local elections (WA, I voted for legalization of marijuana and recognition of same-sex marriage), and with most of the results around the country and in the Senate (I voted Cantwell, who won in a landslide). And, perhaps above all, I'm very happy that Obama's victory will keep a couple more Scaliae away from the Supreme Court, though the only retirees will be a liberal and a moderate, so I doubt much will change. At least Roe remains off the table for another ten years or so (not that there was much likelihood of that).
That said, I can't see a future that isn't full of more House obstructionism and Senate filibusters. Whether the Dems have 51 or 59 senators, it doesn't matter one bit the way the GOP runs things. Obama will be lucky to get anything done, and I don't see the Dems winning the next general either, since the GOP will have a far, far, FAR (as in decent) candidate next time, unless they're going to take their advice from Limbaugh instead of Rove. The Tea Party did well enough in the House, but I still think they suffered a greater defeat overall; moderate Republicans/conservatives should seriously reconsider if they're worth including in their platforms.
Maybe the future does beats the past, today, but I don't think much will change in the medium term. maybe the Republican party will finally wake up to how things have changed (like they shoulda four years ago), but I don't know if that's gonna be a good thing or not. Are they going to become a more inclusive, less-radical party (maybe espouse Federalism without all that reactionary populism), or are they just going to get smarter at crafting their image next time?
But again, hurrah for the many progressive triumphs on the local level. Hurrah for the increased recognition of gay marriage, and hurrah for getting this country a little bit further away from the drug war. Demographics will continue to march the country's politics forward, but our political calcification will remain. Maybe the Republicans will learn to play to the middle in deed as well as word, and give moderates a reasonable choice in four years. But I'm not putting any money down on that.
P.S. For the record, I didn't vote for Obama this time, so his victory isn't as much mine as it is yours, Bob. But of the only two realistic choices, he was by FAR the more preferable for me, so I do share in your delight. Congratulations.
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Man!
I've had an… interesting view of America throughout my life, as a Mexican I mean. Mostly shifting back and forth between; endearingly arrogant older brother who showcases his affection by lightly punching you in the shoulder, threateningly unstable bucket of boiling gasoline, or 'that country that could annex us with a single thought'
But DAMN! Thats a lot to accomplish in a single night.
America, you go ahead and be about as arrogant as you want for the next few years. You fucking deserve it!
Yay Obama! 😀
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Guys, quick note: You're wrong about Marijuana. It is not legal in any state in the union. The Supreme Court decided this issue and is legally supreme.
States have no authority to just ignore this decision, just like they don't have authority to ignore desegregation.
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I wonder if it'd be a little arrogant of me to go up to every dickheads who wished Romeny would get elected for all the wrong reasons and go “HA!” to rub it in their smug, little, butthurt faces?
Anyway, big things, especially PR possibly becoming the 51st state within my lifetime. I can only imagine the amount of fuckheads that would have a stroke from it.
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That's it, I'm moving to Rapture.
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@Daniel
Remember that 2008 was supposed to be Hillary vs. Rudy, so I wouldn't put much stock in early-early-early predictions.
Cristie would be far better a candidate than Romney (and especially than most of those Romney beat), but I think there's a good reason why so many qualified moderate Republicans sat this one out. It wasn't fear of Obama, it was a calculated move based on what Republican voters were looking for this time, in the first election since the emergence of the “Tea Party” into the mainstream. 2012 was the wrong year to be a Republican moderate. Romney demonstrated that amply. You think Rubio or Daniels would have wanted to twist themselves in a knot to appease a far-right that felt Obama was so vulnerable that they could have run anybody and won?
They'll be back, and hopefully (I think…) GOP primary voters will have learned their lesson this time.
As for Gingrich…ugh…I still blame him for everything bad that has happened in our national politics since 1994. Compromise becoming a bad thing, always. Bi-partisanship became a mere buzzword, pleasant on the ear but verboten in Congress. Arch-conservative, litmus test Republicans becoming the norm in the House. Madness, polarization risen to suicidal extremes. I miss Bob Dole. I miss George H.W. Bush. I miss Reagan even (though I was kinda young at the time, his kind would be very welcome among the GOP today). Gingrich effed that all up. Hopefully not forever.
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Bob, can we get a source on the Puerto Rico Story?
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@Taylor
You raise a good point. But local change precedes federal change. The more states that enact legalization (even if only on the books), the more pressure the Supreme Court will be under to revise its own policy.
And according to Gonzalez vs. Raich, states aren't even allowed to recognize the legality of medical marijuana. But that's rarely prosecuted. It's still a clear step towards full legalization, or at least of federal recognition of states' individual rights to set their own rules on legalization.
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@Andrew
We need Teddy Roosevelt again.
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@The Mason
Actually being from Wisconsin, it was actually news to me today that TB is gay. It was nice to have a election that didn't revolve around her being gay and more about the issues.
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@Anonymous
Hell yeah we need a Teddy again. Back then, the Republican Party was in many ways the more progressive party.
But that's not gonna happen. Teddy was a phenomenon, a guy so charismatic and brilliant that he couldn't be constrained by his party (only moderated). Nowadays, the party IS the candidate. The candidate is just the mouthpiece. Or the hair. Or the skin color, perhaps.
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Wisconsinite here. Cheering at sending the first open lesbian to the US Senate. I remember my parents taking me to campaign rallies for her way back when she was still just a district councilwoman, and then our representative, and now a senator.
This almost makes up for losing Feingold.
I am also taking some cathartic thrills at finally smacking down Tommy Thompson, after fighting that douchebeck for Celestia-only-knows how many years. The guy was like one of those burrs that just shifts to another part of your clothes every time you try to brush it off.
I too am intrigued by the Puerto Rico thing, though. I wonder how many EVs they get?
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I'm from MN, and we did not legalize gay marriage. (I'd like to but) What we actually did was prevent marriage from being defined at one man and one woman.
Had the amendment passed, we'd not even get to vote for legalizing gay marriage in the future. So, yeah, clearing up that misconception.
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The Red states still got away with a little bit of bullshit. Oklahoma voted to ban Affirmative Action.
North Dakota decided not to criminalize animal cruelty.
A handful of other red states got a way with a couple of their typical union-busting and anti-teacher propositions.
Regardless, overall, I'm very fucking pleased with this election.
I disagree with you, however, that the Repubs are going to become more fundamentalist and fringe-y.
Earlier I was watching the live coverage of Romney Campaign Headquarters. One of the news reporters literally said “Maybe the Republican Party needs to re-evaluate their position on social issues like Women's Rights”
(No shit, sherlock.)
While some random pundit certainly isn't representative of an entire party, I think it illustrates that the party realizes they need to abdicate certain social ideologies.
…Then he went on to blame Black people and Latinos for the reason why the White vote is not the only one that counts anymore… failing miserably.
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Meanwhile you also have conservative nuts pulling some wins. Like Louisiana becoming frighteningly pro-gun rights. http://www.wdsu.com/news/politics/Gun-rights-amendment-approved/-/9853324/17296432/-/s97v7rz/-/index.html
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First things first, the Puerto Rico issue is not decided yet. Although they elected a pro-statehood governor, the plebiscite they had to vote on seeking statehood was awkward to say the least. It consisted of two stages, wherein the first vote was on “do you want to change the status quo [regarding being a territory]” and then the second stage was “would you rather be a state, an independent country, or a sovereign entity [which is less than a territory but more than independent]?” This way of framing the issue creates a lot of confusion and doesn't accurately translate the will of Puerto Ricans.
Furthermore, the this does not mean they will be a state. The constitution states that Congress has to accept their request for statehood, which it may not. As for the issue of electoral votes, that depends on whether the Congress changes the rules regarding the size of the Electoral College. Now it's restricted to 538, but will probably be increased. For comparison though, Puerto Rico has almost as many citizens as Oklahoma, which has 7 Electoral votes.
Regarding legalization of marijuana and gay marriage: neither of these is recognized by the Federal government, and would likely only be recognized through Supreme Court decisions. For what it's worth, I think prohibition of marijuana and gay marriage is unconstitutional, but the Court would probably only agree with me if Obama got the chance to replace one of the conservative Justices, which seems unlikely right now. They might try to wait until they can secure replacements who are more in line with their positions, such as poor Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been doing.
Finally, I fear that I agree with Bob on his second to last point: there is a coming civil war in the GOP. There will be those who look back at the last four years, and think “We ran the more moderate candidate back-to-back in McCain and Romney, and we lost. We might as well run the out-and-out fundamentalist-Christian-Right guy, and the rest of the country be damned.”
Then there are others who are serious politicians, who are willing to play the game, who will tack more to the center. Think post-first-debate Romney, maybe with a more libertarian bent. For example, Lindsey Graham said “If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn’t conservative enough I’m going to go nuts. We’re not losing 95 percent of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we’re not being hard-ass enough.” LINDSEY GRAHAM, Republican senator out of South Carolina, said that.
The funny thing is, the coming new progressive age will result in the absorption of the growing Libertarian and Green parties by the moderate Republicans and Democrats, respectively. In the modern two party system, parties do no rise and fall, platforms do.
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Also: Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin getting clobered: if I may express some blunt and crass schadenfreude, for once, its the old dicks who got fucked, and they had it coming to them.
And I wholeheartedly agree with Paul Krugman: the fact that Nate Silver has been proven (once again) right against the “predictions” farted by the pundit class is one positive step toward the Reckoning of the Nerds.
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Also, I forgot to add:
“The down side to all of this is that there will be no “wakeup call” to the Republican Party. The spin tomorrow morning will be that Romney lost because he was too moderate, not a “real” Christian and not a “real” conservative; and the push will be on to run a true believer next time. They will only become more intractable, more fundamentalist and more committed.“
At the same time, the GOP strategists will conclude that since the sheeple can't be as docile as expected, more effort to rig the results must be made next time. Expect more campains of voters suppression and more skullduggery from the Ohio secretary of state.
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Over here in England, we're just looking on approvingly, like Obi Wan and Yoda at the end of RotJ. Good job America: for all your flaws, you did the right thing and voted for progress, positive change and a scientific future. We're proud of you kid 😉
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@moviebob
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/dr_obama_and_dr_mccain.html
Obama is open to the idea that vaccines cause Autism. That doesn't sound pro-science to me.
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Congratulations America and thanks for keeping a lid on The Stupid for a few more years! 🙂
@Jake: I'm curious, did Obama actually take action against the distribution of vaccines based on any autism-related concerns?
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Yay~
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Congratulations Bob, we get four more years of war and violations of civil liberties. Hope you're happy.
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Bob, I'm still waiting for a LEGITIMATE answer: defend the kill list, defend the drone strikes, defend keeping Gitmo open, defend indefinite detention, and defend all the other ways Obama is as bad as Bush & Romney. If you're an intelligent person as you claim to be, then why do you weasel out of explaining why you support these atrocious policies? Answer me, coward.
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@Anonymous 5:28am
“Answer me, coward.”
… It's silly because you're anonymous.
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@Anonymous 5:28am
Do us all a favor and just stop. Look, I consider myself a Libertarian, too. But what you're doing is just sad. So, just stop.
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I'm not going to stop. Bob needs to own up to his intellectual dishonesty. So come on Chipman; defend the kill list (and don't pull that “conspiracy” bullshit – it exists!)
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@James
Shut up. Please. I thought that maybe seeing Obama's reelection might have knocked some sense into, but I guess it didn't. Do you wanna know why Obama couldn't get much done over the past four years? It's because people like you were constantly whining about anything he ever even attempted to do. Now that he has four more years in office with no reelection to hold him back, he can do whatever the hell he wants for four years, and people like you can whine all you want and he won't give a shit. In order for this country to function, we need to support our president, even if we didn't vote for him ourselves. So sit down, shut up, and leave Bob alone. I'm NOT dealing with you spamming this blog for four more fucking years. My brain can't handle that much stupidity.
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James, have you ever stopped to think what the alternatives to “teh kill list!!!1” would look like? If so, I'd be curious to hear them from you.
Oh and do log in before you call other people cowards, it's just, you know, intellectual honesty.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
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@James
Here is the answer you deserve: http://tinyurl.com/cktfvfj
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I think everyone here agrees that this has gone on long enough, Mr Bevan. Your conduct has only gotten worse over the past weeks. You've thrown around unfounded accusations of facism (do you even know what that word means?), you've continued to harass Bob's colleagues on Twitter to get to him, and even wished Bob lose his job and get thrown out on the street. You keep going on about how “the lesser of two evils is still evil”, but the way you've been behaving is nothing short of despicable. No one owes you anything. The only reason Bob isn't responding to you is because he's doing what anyone else would do to trolls like you: He's IGNORING you.
I think it's your turn to do some defending, James: defend your behaviour. Defend the fact that you've been harassing people on Twitter and spamming them with your immature bullshit. Defend your accusations of fascism that were spectacularly uncalled for. Defend the fact that you've contributed NOTHING meaningful, constructive, or interesting to the comments section ever since you first started this shit.
Enough is enough.
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Well, I for one am completely satisfied with the elections last night.
-Joey
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I just want to see where it all goes, really. Now that this is over, we can hear about Bob's thoughts on Disney/Lucasfilms because you know he has something to say.
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In spite of what I said in the comments for your last American Bob video (regarding Obama and Detroit). I do believe that Obama is the better man for the job, and honestly with some of the retarded shit Romney & Co had been spewing (about Woman and Rape, about single mothers) I was truly afraid of what would happen to this country if he won.
I'm still finding it funny that the biggest election 2012 story seems to be about how 2 states legalized the recreational uses of marijuana.
It fun to see where everyone's minds at, I've already read that the issue will be on Michigan's 2014 Ballot.
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Something else we saw in the 2012 presidential race was the increasing demographic changes in the US. Obama won re-election despite losing the white vote by a whopping 20 points.
In a United States where white has gone from 'majority' to 'plurality', and may not even hold onto that in our lifetimes, the Republican party has some serious soul searching to do in terms of who they are and who they hope to represent if they want to remain relevant.
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I'll admit, I still don't understand the accusations of the Republican party being nothing but racist white guys. Is the belief really that about 50% of the American populous are racist white people? Because I keep seeing black/women republicans running for office, and getting shot down by the Left for having the audacity to break the carefully controlled narrative that only white men are republicans.
But that's my only rebuttal. I also hope for a more moderate Republican party in the future, at least on social issues.
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Hee hee hee, I was worried for a bit that Obama's victory might've made him too mollified to say anything, but I was wrong! There's no stopping the crazy train that is James. XD
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“I also hope for a more moderate Republican party in the future, at least on social issues.”
You just answered your own question. The Republican's hardline anti-progressive stances on social issues makes them attractive to racist, sexist, homophobic white guys. These unsavory folks then noisily proclaim both their republicanism/conservatism and their racism/sexism/homophobia, cementing that image among those outside of the Republican ranks.
As that image is cemented, more and more moderates leave the party, more and more more actual racists, sexists, and homophobes are attracted to the party, and those already there grow more vocal thanks to the echo chamber effect, having more extremists to cheer them on and fewer moderates to talk them down.
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“Obama won re-election despite losing the white vote by a whopping 20 points“
The white male vote you mean
“In a United States where white has gone from 'majority' to 'plurality“
Whites are still by far a majority. It's the angry at losing their ethnically locked privileges subgroup which has shrinked to the point of making it impossible to decide the election on their own.
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– “The white male vote you mean”
nope. Obama lost the white vote overall by 20 points, despite doing well with women in general: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/07/politics/exit-polls-analysis/index.html
– “Whites are still by far a majority.”
You are correct, I was in error. However, whites are no longer a majority of new births in the country, though they remain the plurality, and that demographic change will be reflected in the overall population within our lifetime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/whites-account-for-under-half-of-births-in-us.html?pagewanted=all
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I'm glad we won 😀
Now can I please have a real Job.
I'm tired of working at Starbucks as a college graduate with 2 BAs for the past four years D:
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