Remember how it was all gonna be too much?
Remember how in 2004 gay rights, if Democrats embraced them, would doom all candidates forever because some matron somewhere found ass sex icky?
Reproductive rights, because we all knew that sluts were a terrible constituency to support?
Opposition to Iraq and Afghanistan, because hippies are smelly?
Immigration reform, because Chris Matthews’ racist uncle would never vote for us then?
Yeah. We’re done with that now.
We’re not going back to that.
It’s over.
Sometime around the DNC Democrats grew a fucking spine and decided that if they were going to be tarred as gay-marrying baby-killing illegal-alien-coddling peace freaks anyway, well fuck it, might as well make hay. Sometime around the DNC and the weeks thereafter Democrats noticed that if you added up all the minorities and chicks and men who weren’t threatened by minorities and chicks, you had a fucking fuckload of people who were fucking pissed off and ready to vote for anyone who wasn’t calling them Satan. And so sometime around the DNC Democrats began asking themselves what on earth they were so scared of, anyway, with numbers like that at their backs.
It took longer than it should have, and various measures needed by those constituencies have been too slow in coming and likely always will be. But there are some things you say that you can’t take back, and I FUCKING LOVE BLACK BROWN GAY FEMALE PEOPLE seems to be one of those things, for the good of all.
So go on, Republicans, and be whiter and angrier and smaller and more truly conservative. Keep demonizing women and protecting tax loopholes for squillionaires and calling anyone who likes science and numbers a big nancyboy. This morning on NPR even Mara Liasson, who can usually be counted on to talk about how Democrats winning means Democrats need to change, said you know, this isn’t working anymore, because we as a country don’t look like the 50s did politically.
And the great thing is, we never will again. Harry Reid’s about to set the Republican obstructionists on fucking fire with just the power of his big scary mind. Obamacare’s not going anywhere, because by 2016 yelling about it will just be old and tired. Gay legislators aren’t going back in the closet and no matter how much various pastors might wish you can’t un-gay anybody, marriage equality triumphed in every state where it was on the ballot, and the president of the United Fucking States affirmed gay rights in his acceptance speech which not even my one true love John Kerry had the stones to do when he was running for that chair.
We’ve been having a fight for the past four years — since angry old white folks went batshit crazy nuts about a president who doesn’t look like them — that should have been over a long time ago. And the fight is never really over, you have to keep putting out little brush fires with blankets forever and the work of pushing a society to be more loving and more tolerant and more open should never be over anyway, but when I think about where we were four years ago, and especially where we were eight years ago, I don’t see how we go back.
A.
Angry old white men, mostly.
You rock. Now. Let’s get to work.
Forward’s a mindset. I’ll say I think we should all head that direction. I’m glad we have a President, and a Vice President, we can be thankful for tonight instead of scared about.
I’m glad our First Lady and Second Lady are absolutely smart, strong, forward-looking women. I’m glad we have 19 women in the Senate-to-be. I’m glad we have four states open to marriage equality and at least one willing to admit the War on Drugs is a failure.
Not only won’t we — nay, can’t we — go back. We’ve got to build on the roll.
From your mouth to God’s ears, Athenae.
All hail the spirit of the late George McGovern.
Amen.
I have absolutely no doubt that a lot of the current rancor is due to a little melanin in Obama’s skin. No doubt this has pushed people over the edge to crying on camera that their country is no longer what it was (starting wwithin hours of Obama being elected the first time). There are way too many instances of video “man on the street interviews” where the reporter asks why someone is for Romney and the person starts crying and decompensating on the spot.
But I also have to remember the rancor over Clinton. Despite a market that was frankly overheating, people were predicting annihilation of their portfolios. In an homage to Rocky Horror Picture Show, everytime the name “Clinton” was mentioned, the speaker would be interrupted by “He’s not my President” etc. I also remember this as Gingrich passing around the conservative lexicon and being a strong contributor to (if not chief contributor to) a drastic heightening of the rancor in politics.
you left out the POTHEADS!