moving forward

We've been nose to the grindstone around here for the last month, in the city during the week, so this is the first opportunity for me to express myself about the election.

The election is over and Obama won his second term. I admit I was nervous and concerned, fearful even at times, but after I voted early, I tried to put it out of my mind. After all, I had done everything I could by voting.

We are happy and relieved that Obama was reelected. In fact, this is 'no whine' week around here in celebration. We flipped back and forth between the election results and Escape From New York with long time heart throb Kurt Russell, staying up late enough to know that Obama had in fact beat the pants off Romney/Ryan.

I have been reading with interest Republican reactions to their defeat. Stunned disbelief pretty much sums it up. Lots of trying to understand what went wrong and the things they are coming up with are so far off the mark it's no wonder they lost.

No matter. I'll help them out.

It could have been the over 600 outright lies the R/R team told about Obama.

It could have been Romney's refusal to show that he was in fact a tax paying citizen.

It could have been Romney's refusal to discuss his past as governor or his stint as Olympic Committee chairman in Utah or his business dealings at Bain, his lack of any kind of plan or details to back up the things he said he would and could do, and most especially his repeated refrain of 'trust me'.

It could have been their desire to defund public education.

It could have been their intention to get rid of the Great Society's safety net at a time when so many people are still out of work or the jobs they have won't pay a living wage much less provide benefits.

It could have been their complete lack of understanding that older Americans deserve the benefits that they paid for all of their working lives.

It could have been their refusal to return the tax rate to pre-Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest among us, a hike that would not affect the wealthy's lifestyles one little bit.

It could have been the fact that they sold themselves and the country to corporations and the ultra-wealthy whose only goal is greater profits at any cost.

It could have been their intention to give more tax cuts to the wealthy and return to the economic policies that got us in this mess in the first place.

It could have been their intention to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act.

It could have been their desire to force government control over the reproductive rights of women.

It could have been their attitude that women were second class citizens and didn't deserve equal pay.

It could have been their desire for Latinos to engage in 'self-deportation'.

It could have been their belief that the LGBT segment of society didn't deserve equal civil rights.

It could have been their arrogance and obvious and utter contempt for anyone who wasn't a rich, white, hetero, christian male.

It could have been that they think half the population of this country are lazy shiftless moochers.

It could have been their complete lack of understanding what the working poor and the struggling middle class have to endure on a daily basis.

It could have been their flagrant attempts to restrict the voting rights of the segment of the population that generally votes against them.

It could have been their desire to take this country back to a time of social repression where the white christian hetero male reigned supreme.

It could have been their desire and attempts to turn this country into a right wing christian theocracy.

It could have been their complete and total extremism to the point of marginalizing the moderates in their own party.

It could have been and was all that and more.

Republicans are beating their chests and wailing the loss of 'traditional' America, they are losing their country, America is done for.

What?! Like their opinions on marriage and the family and patriotism, they think that they and only they know what that is.

This may come as a shock to them then when I say that far right wing republicanism does not get to define America, it does not get to define patriotism, it does not get to define what women will be allowed to do, it does not get to define marriage, the family, or even 'christian' values.

America is moving into the future with a true diversity of population and inclusiveness and continued stonewalling and obstructionism by the Republican party will only make them obsolete.