Election day was a progressive’s dream come true, wasn’t it? Well, almost, and well – in some ways, not really. But progressives did win some big ones yesterday – and yes, at this moment, there’s almost 10,000 votes between Bob Filner and Carl DeMaio – so, that race is really too close to call, and even though Scott Peters leads Bilbray – he only has about 700 votes over him – so, that one will certainly go to a re-count.
But with the defeat of Mitt Romney and his tea party accountant Paul Ryan on the national level, with the victory of Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, and the defeat of misogynists Aiken and Murdock by their Democratic rivals, Election 2012 was a resounding defeat for the extremist agenda of the Radical Right that has taken over the Republican Party.
It was a defeat for Grover Norquist – the extremist ideologue who advocates drowning government in a bathtub – , it was a defeat for an Radical agenda that wants a serious privatization make-over of the American system , a defeat for all those tea party types who wanted to force women back into the Fifties, a defeat for those who cannot accept a diverse America, and a partial defeat for the Koch brothers, the billionaires who have funded much of the Right’s assault on American democracy over these last couple of years.
Democrats and independents in the US Senate now hold sway. And President Obama will now have the chance and challenge to nominate as many as three new justices to the US Supreme Court – and that is sweet.
On the California state level, there is much to be satisfied with – the passage of Prop 30, Gov. Brown’s tax measure on the rich which hopefully save our schools, the defeat of the Right’s efforts to curtail unions in Prop 32, the reform to the Three Strikes law passed – definitely needed with Prop 36, cutting off Molly Munger’s Prop 38 at the knees, and the win by Prop 39 – all point to progressive victories. The results were somewhat checkered, however, with the defeat of Prop 37 – that was a surprise – but millions were spent to defeat it by Monsanto and Dupont. And the bid to do away with the Death Penalty with Prop 34 was also halted in its tracks.
Back on the local level, it looks like Democrat Dave Roberts has broken into the conservative cabal of white Republicans who have ruled the County Board of Supervisors for nearly two decades.
Our good friend and former OB Ragster Gregg Robinson also won a seat on the San Diego County Board of Education. Prop Z passed for schools. (For more of a complete low-down, go over to the San Diego Free Press.)
As the results trickle in on those races too close to call, we can still feel good that in this year – 2012 – progressives rose up and joined millions of fellow citizens and put a stop to the slide to the right, and in the process, turned everything around and formed the beginning of a new Progressive Era across the country and a new Progressive Era in San Diego.
We can dream … for a day, can’t we?
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At Harry’s Coffee Shop in La Jolla this morning, there were a lot of stunned diners, mulling over last night’s GOP rout national and local.
One Anglo male customer asked a Latino busboy for a caffe mocha and then reconsidered, asking “What kind of chocolate do you use in it?” Emiliano answered, “Mexican.” Customer then asked , “Do you have some American kind?” Impassive Emiliano brought out a bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup for approval and the guy gave him the go-ahead.
What was the figure — 71% of Latinos voted for Obama? Do all Romney voters prefer Hershey’s syrup in their mochas? Is there some correlation here with winners and losers?
Obviously the nation’s voters have taken to heart and mind, all the good political advice from the OB Rag and wise of them to do so. It’s taken a while but it seems that the progressive spirit espoused by the Rag has finally seeped into the very core of the U.S. political persona and lit a fire in the collective national soul. Good job, OB Rag! You called it–it came to pass.