I was SO-O HAPPY! when Ohio finally turned blue on the United States election map staring at me from the television screen... Words could not have even begun to describe the feeling of relief and elation that overwhelmed my senses and cleansed my soul as my eyes fixated on that state. Screaming while trying to hear and comprehend the commentators' statements on MSNBC at the same time, I knew that, at last, after more than a year of wild political debates and dirty-dog campaigning, I could lose my breath and exhale... I couldn't remember when I'd ever felt such relief... Perhaps because I never had before... Perhaps because there had never been so much at stake in my life, my family's life, or the life of my country...
With every cell in my body, I felt from the beginning of the campaign season, it was vital that President Barack Obama be re-elected... To me, turning over the most powerful position in the world to the alternative candidate, Mitt Romney, appeared far to scary as well as extremely anti-American... I did not believe that voters, with respect to social issues, wanted to see the country go back forty to fifty years in time... In addition, with respect to civil rights, I did not believe voters cared to see the country go back even further... It was not until Ohio turned blue, however, that the country could rest assured that voters had come out in force and won the battle against those who would have about-faced us...
If we are fortunate, the Republican Party has learned a few things during this election cycle that will alter their platform and the way they present their philosophy to the American people. Of course, I couldn't be certain of this... and in fact, during the morning of this post (the day following the election) former Republican strategist, Michael Steele, said on MSNBC that he was very proud of assembling the Tea Party and expressed no intent to disassemble or to tone down the group's extreme notions or policies. Listening to Steele, it occurred to me that, from his perspective, determining a "nicer" way to present offensive ideas is all he believes necessary to make offbeat ideas"appear" more mainstream... At least, that's what I got from his comments...
At any rate, the Republican Party could only be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see that they must, somehow, change their tactics in order to pull more voters to the right. No doubt, they are none of those things... Still... I believe it will be extremely difficult for them to sway voters if their rhetoric continues to insult women, degrade immigrants, or continue to insist that the poor and middle class pay the way for the wealthy...
Another thing I believe we learned from this election cycle is that the Republican Party foolishly took the American people, in general, for granted... I believe the Party banked their political wins on beliefs that voters were too stupid or inattentive to discern the plot the GOP was attempting to implement that could have moved toward turning the United States into a plutocratic society. The infamous "Ryan Budget" appeared to be Mitt Romney's blueprint for doing just that... Problem was that although voters may not have seen the BIG picture of the so-called "change" Romney and his crew sought to impose upon the country, the people certainly did determine that individual facets of this plot were not goods they cared to purchase... and so... down the drain went the billions paid to buy the United States... Indeed... We did learn, or at least, simply brought to the forefront, that no amount of money can buy the millions of votes cast by the people when they decide to utilize their franchise.
At this point, I say the Republican Party needs to step back and realize that not all voters listen to, or become brainwashed by, Right Wing television, radio programming, or repetitive lies; and that even low-information voters can see through schemes aimed to impose unfair burdens on their lives... What's more is that forgetfulness may not be a factor on which politicians can rely as much as they may have thought they could... Gone are the days when it took months to deliver messages across the seas from one continent to another... Gone are the days when riders spent days to weeks jockeying their horses while delivering mail/messages from one state to another... and... Gone are the days when newspapers were able to slant information to suit their own means regardless of what the facts truly were... Now we have the internet...!
Despite what politicians might think... It appears that voters really do remember more than what they are given credit for when it comes to legislators stripping rights, interfering with personal lives, and pushing the general public into debts wherein the rich, despite their wealth, become exempt from paying...With information travelling via social networks operating as the veins that joins us... voters are able to go online to find out what is "truly" happening across the country; and they can do so within a matter of minutes... and... fortunately... most voters are able to seep through the noise that is Right Wing interference to find the clarity that is truth-telling "friends" to unveil actual facts that impact our lives...
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