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politics

2012 election

[Tuesday run: 3.5 miles]

So, we voted yesterday and the results came in and I woke up to an unexpected outcome.

Looking back over my years as a voter, I think I am well under average in being able to predict the outcome of national elections.

But that seems to be a popular problem these days.  The polling people and the established media seem to have been drinking the Kool Aid this time.  I saw an opinion piece that surmised that maybe political correctness is such a force in the country that people really weren’t going to give straight answers about who they would vote for.  That doesn’t seem to slow down a lot of the people I see on Facebook!  But I could imagine there may be a flaw in the way polling turns out if there are a substantial number of folks of one wing who are less likely to participate in polls.

The other thing about the election: I’m wondering if the old-union workforce came out for Clinton the way they used to.

This is the first presidential election where I’ve had to present an ID, since moving to Mississippi.  We had to do that in Colorado.  Anyway, it seemed to be a non-issue.  And that’s nice.  I’m proud of the way voter ID has been implemented in Mississippi.

My own voting was driven first by rejection of Clinton.  And then I had a lesser rejection of Trump.  Trump acts like a buffoon, but he’s never been in elected office so he’s never had the public failures that I attribute to Clinton.  I like having the conservatives run Congress.  And I’d like to see more Clarence Thomas’s in the Supreme Court.  I don’t want to see the Republicans try to run the table with all sorts of goofy stuff for two years.  I didn’t like that with Obamacare and I won’t like it going the other way either.  Unlike the Democrat electorate, I’m not very interested in cheating the system.  So, let’s just say I’ll be happy if there is some friction between Trump and the Congress and within the Congress.  Greased rails for political change is bad, in my opinion.   I had the luxury of not having to vote for Trump, so I checked the box for the “Constitutional Party” guys.  And they’re from Memphis so there’s a bit of regional connection too.

I have had some nice conversations with a man I respect who thinks that Clinton is really an honest, hardworking champion of children and the oppressed.  I think that is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.  But he could be right.  His county went for Clinton.  Maybe she’ll be the next Mother Theresa.  I’d be happy for that just like I’ll be happy if Trump is the next Abe Lincoln.  Let’s just say I’m skeptical.

I was really happy to see that the Democratic senate leader in the state of Iowa, who always blocked a vote on gay marriage, was finally defeated.  It would have cheered me up even more if the remaining rogue Iowa Supreme Court justices would have gotten the boot.

6 replies on “2012 election”

I’m confused by your title.

Have to admit I watched the whole thing. Finally went to bed around 2 a.m. It was so interesting and so close – and so unexpected! – I couldn’t look away.

Like you, I’m willing to give the guy a chance and hope for something better than what I kind of expect. But, like you, I was voting against Clinton. As long as we don’t have a group ramming things through – “You’ll take this medicine, and you’d better love it or you’re a hater!” – it will be such a relief from the past eight years.

And retiring “the governor” was so wonderful, I almost couldn’t believe it was happening. He blocked nearly every conservative bill just to be a jerk…and not just the gay marriage and abortion-limiting ones.

I’ve wondered about where the Clinton vote went. Did the Bernie young people disperse to other candidates? Where were all the dead people? Did the union bussing to various precincts and states diminish? There must still be thousands of absentee ballots in car trunks throughout the nation. Or maybe there were folks who just didn’t want to vote for a haranguing grandma; or someone who preaches women’s rights yet remains married to a man who totally disrespects her in public and she puts up with that abuse day after day, year after year because her aspirations are so great and her self-respect is so small.

I saw something interesting on Facebook yesterday. One of our nieces who is some kind of “peaceful resolution” counselor – don’t look at me, I’m lost with what she actually does – put her services out there to stand in the gap for anyone who is afraid because of the outcome of the election. I thought “this can’t be real – she’s being facetious”, but no. She actually had a few women say they were very afraid and may need help getting past the disappointment and fear of Trump being elected.

All I can think is where are all the adults in this nation? The problem is we all must grow up at some point. Why not do it sooner rather than later and save yourself constant disillusion?

Personally, after 2004 I’m not surprised. Of course, that election ultimately lead to a housing bubble and crash, personal savings rates hit record lows, and then the worst recession since the Great Depression. Extreme FED and fiscal measures have ameliorated the Bush depression considerably, but it’s a very long road and I suspect folks are wondering why Obama hasn’t fixed it yet (with an intransigent congress). Obamacare implementation was a disaster and complaints roll in and folks may forget the pre-existing condition feature that is the primary benefit. We never had that before and you can’t have it at all if you don’t have nearly full enrollment.

If Trump does half of what he promised, the price of everything at Walmart and Best Buy will go up. But there will be more service jobs as millions of folks are deported. Hotel maids, cooks and dish washers, farm and construction laborers. Gardeners.

Of course, the difference this time is we have a twice divorced casino investor who quoted “two Corinthians” and boasted about how he can grab things that aren’t his and get away with it. I wonder if his photo will be hung on walls of elementary schools?

(I live in a bubble so am unaffected. Unemployment is extremely low, wages are high, and a huge majority is liberal in the northwestern European kind of way. Flowers of one sort or another bloom year round.)

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