Samhain                                                           New (Thanksgiving) Moon

Been wondering what the conservatives are saying about the election?  Here’s some I collected from the Other McCain.  (see weblink under politics).

LONELY CONSERVATIVE: It’s The Culture, Stupid

JEFF DUNETZ: Pray for America

MARK STEYN: ‘We’re all completely f***ed’

TIM DAUGHTRY: ‘We lost the Republic in the classroom long before we lost it in the voting booth.’

ANN COULTER: ‘If Mitt Romney cannot win in this economy, then the tipping point has been reached. We have more takers than makers and it’s over. There is no hope.’

Samhain                                                               Fallowturn Moon

You wanna know the lessons from the Democratic win?  And the Republican loss?  So do I.  Hard to figure.  The handwringing and the moaning and the posturing in the Red locker room has only just begun.  See the new conservative blogs I just added under Politics:  ConservativeHQ, Redstate and The Weekly Standard.

This one will repay a good deal more thought and attention.  The self-critiques of the Republican party will provide important information to the Democrats.  I’ve already picked up two that reinforce current Democratic strategy, at least in part.  The first?  Republicans believe they have to change their attitudes on immigration.

Why?  Because there are, they’ve discovered, just so damn many Americans of Latin descent, immigrants or children of immigrants.  They vote, too.  Democrat for the most part.  The real bugger here for the Republicans?  They have lots of babies.

It may be true these Americans, focused on family values and the Roman Catholic church, are, as Ronald Reagan said, “…conservative, they just don’t know it yet.”  History though can trump instinct and memories of who treated you well early on linger in the minds of the electorate.  Not forever.  But for a good while.  This one means the Democrats will have to pay attention as well.  A good thing.

Second self-critique.  “We’ve got to stop being a regional party of old white men.”  Hmmm. You think?  This happens to lace into the first one.  It turns out whites are a shrinking part of the electorate and those pesky women (a part of the equation for sure, but I’ve not seen anything on this yet among Republican self-critiques), many of whom are white, also vote Democrat in large numbers.  So, if you’re primary appeal is to wealthy older white men and folks who believe female bodies self-heal after the rape that God intended, well then…

Even so.  Any of these insights has to be chastened with the fact that this was a close, very close election.  That’s why the Democrats had better notice what the Republicans notice and work out their own strategies.  This bumpy ride, in a time of rapid political transition, is far from over.

Samhain                                                        Fallowturn Moon

Amendments – MN 100% reporting

Source: AP and MN Secretary of State

Wow.  Just wow.  Most hopeful sign to me of the evening?  The return of the Minnesota legislature to DFL hands.  Second most hopeful.  Apparent defeat of the constitutional amendments.  Third.  Senate gains by the Dems.  Fourth.  Obama did win.

In the first instance I’d felt the Minnesota I adopted in the early 1970’s had begun to slip away, headed toward a cold Tennessee or Nebraska.  After 8 years of Pawlenty and the no new taxes madness, after four years of Jesse Ventura who made automobile license fees safe for owners of Porsches, it seemed that the compassionate, communal, progressive state I immigrated to in 1971 had signed up with the go it alone, free market (as long as they work for us), flag-wavers.  It made me feel isolated.

Now, I’m happy to say we’ve gone for Obama, re-elected a DFL senator, come close to unseating Michelle Bachmann and, it seems right now, defeated two fearful, ideological amendments to our constitution:  voter id and marriage limited to a man and a woman.  I’m most proud of the defeats of the amendments, if the vote counts hold, because they have been victorious in most places (voter id) and in every place (marriage) they’ve been put forward.  This is Minnesota showing it will not be captive to the fear moguls.  Yes!

The Senate gains by the Democrats, apposite to the predicted Senate capture by the Republicans, mean we’re closer than ever to cloture vote totals.  If only a handful of Republican senators can stiff arm the extremists in their party, we may be able to get something done in the Senate.

Finally, Obama’s win.  He will get to name Supreme Court justices. A very big deal.  Hopefully he will become more active in naming other Federal judges.  The Affordable Healthcare Act will now move toward full implementation.  Beyond that, I’m not sure what we’ll see.  Obama’s proven a more pragmatic president on many of my issues: environment, foreign policy, aid to those ravaged by the greed of the big banks and wall street.  I hope he will grow some spine and front the Republicans on these issues.

But you say.  He has to govern.  Yes, he does.  And that comes first.  Still, I believe he can do better.

Samhain                                                              Fallowturn Moon

President Barack Obama re-elected to 2nd term

An Obama victory.  A technical victory on a very technical climb.  Unemployment was too high.  His popularity too low.  There was a rabidly energetic right-wing fringe that gained real traction and power.  The economy struggled like a punch-drunk fighter, getting up, weaving, falling down, standing up.  It was the scenario in which an incumbent loses.

His campaign focused on battleground states with organizing at the grassroots level.  He managed to paint Romney as an out of touch rich guy.   The Obama campaign stayed on message.  It was uninspiring.  It was ugly.  But it was bruising politics at its best.  This one will be studied for a long time.  Especially if Romney’s persistent lead in the popular vote holds up.

The National Journal says this election comes with no mandate.  Well, duh.  A divided electorate is not going to hand out atta boys.  Nope, a mandate will have to be earned, if that’s possible.  I’ll settle for more judicial appointments, defense of the Affordable Health Care act and something decent in regards to climate change.

The lunatic fringe lost two probable wins in senate races with Todd Aikin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana losing what were thought safe Republican seats.  They represent an anti-science, misogynistic, historical fantasy version of politics.  William Cullen Bryant would be proud.

Samhain                                                           Fallowturn Moon

Molar, already root canaled, now planed and scaled.  This tooth has had a lot of attention, more than any other.  I hope it appreciates it all.

Our votes have been cast and the lines, across the nation, seem to be long.  It’s now the midpoint of election day, votes still being made, yet polling place closing is much closer now than their opening.  Then the counting and the projecting and the analyzing and the harrumphing and might of beens and could have dones.  Joys and sorrows.

Election time brings my fondest memories of my dad.  Watching the Eisenhower/Stevenson race until the wee hours on our little black and white television.  Going out as a poll watcher to run numbers back to the Times-Tribune.  Dissecting the races, results.  Politics were, in the beginning, a bond.  In the end it was politics that drove us apart.  Vietnam.  Remember Vietnam?

My first election as a voter was 1968.  Never missed an election since, many of them as active participant in party caucuses, conventions, campaigns.  Lot of time on the policy side, too, working Minneapolis City Council and the Minnesota State Legislature, even occasional forays out to DC.  Maybe politics have been my second vocation, running parallel to everything else.

This one has felt more like more molar, in bad need of planing, scaling.  Give me a political Cavitron with which I can trim out excess verbiage, mendacity and cowardice.

Samhain                                                       Fallowturn Moon

Filled in the ovals with black ink.  No. No. Amendments.  Yes. Obama, Klobuchar.  With faint disdain.  No.  Bachman.  Yes. Graves.  The rest, less feeling.  House of Representatives.  Council person.  County Commissioner.  Less feeling because the latter two have no candidates I like and on the first my guy has no chance.

Good news, though.  Lines were steady even at 10 in the morning.  The church parking lot was full.  Good turnout usually mean good things for Democrats, so I’m heartened.

Walt Whitman’s poem published below was about an election in 1884, 128 years ago.  That’s a long stretch for a democracy, peaceful transitions of power.  Remarkable, really, given world history.  Even when we consider moving to Canada or Monaco (depending on your feared winner) we do so from political repugnance, not out of fear of political reprisals or partisan violence.

I feel optimistic about this election in that I think candidates I prefer will, largely, prevail.  I fell less optimistic about this evenly divided country in the near term future.  Our current intractable differences make for vilification, not compromise, and we need movement on so many issues, among them entitlement reform, climate change and controlling the costs of healthcare.