By Nathan Rothwell
I remember like it was yesterday thirty years ago.
It was late 2011, and I was writing a political column for a
small community college newspaper. The Republican presidential primaries were
just on the horizon, meaning that political pundits and the blogosphere at
large was about to turn its primary focus to pontification about who would
challenge President Obama for his job in less than a year. And I was somewhat
lamenting having to write about it.
I was not looking forward to spending months speculating who
would win the presidency when I was already convinced how it would unfold. At
the time, I made the following three predictions to just about anyone who would
listen:
- Mitt Romney would win the Republican primary and earn the presidential nomination
- Romney would eventually select Governor Chris Christie as his running mate
- The Romney/Christie ticket would go on to lose to Obama in November 2012.
As it turns out, I just barely
missed going three for three on my predictions. Paul Ryan would ultimately
be selected to round out Romney’s losing ticket, but my other two predictions
indeed proved true.
I’m sorry, I’ve put my horn away now – there will be no
further tooting. I only bring this up to say that while I did expect Obama to
defeat Romney for a good while, what I did not expect was the triumph of
liberal candidates and ballot measures that would also earn clear victories
last night.
Maine, Maryland, and Washington became
the first three states in the union to approve same-sex marriage by popular
vote, while Minnesota voters struck
down a constitutional measure that would have defined marriage as only
between a man and a woman. Washington also made news, along with Colorado, for ending
70 years of marijuana prohibition.
Elizabeth Warren defeated Scott Brown to become the newest
Senator from Massachusetts, earning
a sweet revenge over the Republicans who blocked President Obama’s attempt
to name her director of the newly-created Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. Tammy Baldwin became America’s
first openly gay Senator by defeating Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin. And
Republican senatorial candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, they who
believed the rights of unborn cell clusters trumped those of rape victims, were
soundly defeated by Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly, respectively.
Last night proved to be a night of clear victories for the
left in America, which I hope will be remembered by the public and our media
long after our post-election hangover. Jon
Stewart of The Daily Show joked last
night that after two years of campaigning and roughly $3 billion spent on
the process, we’re right back where we started.
To a large extent this is
true; the House of Representatives remains in Republican control, while the
Democratic majority in the Senate remains not enough to overcome the GOP’s
blatant filibuster abuse and rampant obstructionism. So while Mitch
McConnell’s dream of basing the entire Republican party platform on making
Obama a one-term president has failed, there is little doubt that they will
cling to these congressional numbers as an excuse to now make Obama a lame-duck
president.
But for now, America appears to have made its choice.
Obamacare lives. Rape apologists and “traditional marriage” proponents have
been decidedly smacked down in the polls. Marijuana prohibition will soon earn
its place alongside alcohol prohibition as one of the more bizarre chapters of
American history. And Mitt Romney, assuming
his wife’s words were true, will fade off into the political sunset forever.
Go ahead and enjoy your victory lap, Democrats. You’ve
earned it. Just don’t forget that when you’ve finished, the Republicans will be
waiting with an army of excuses and redoubled resolve in their obstructionism.
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