Election postmortem: And here we are

It’s the day after the US election and it’s all over but the crying and the hoping. Yes, I’m using the H word again: Hope. Many of my American friends say there’s no difference  between Obama and Romney, so the election didn’t really matter. They aren’t exactly wrong. It was sad to see a debate on foreign policy that made no mention of climate change, Wikileaks, or Bradley Manning. But there are differences between Democrats and Republicans and I’m hoping the Republicans don’t learn the wrong lesson and follow Charles Krauthammer’s terrible advice that Mitt Romney lost because he wasn’t conservative enough.

The Republicans espoused less government but their agenda was to control the lives of women more (as in page 14 of their position paper: If you’re raped, you must have the baby, but if the only way you can have a baby is through in vitro fertilization, you can’t.) If you know or care about an American woman, the Republican party in its current form wasn’t a good choice. The American people agreed with that assessment and voted for more Obama and less fear-mongering yesterday.

The Republican party denies global warming and climate science and they’d make Supreme Court appointments to reflect their fact-challenged positions. Teachers, firefighters and soldiers, according to the Right, are expensive inconveniences (unless, of course, you’re pandering to them in a speech or it’s convenient to you.) Republicans blocked bills that would help injured and afflicted 911 first responders and programs to help veterans. Firefighters don’t vote on whether your life is worth saving before they turn on the lights and sirens to rush to your aid. If they did, they’d be…well, I guess they’d be Paul Ryan.

Like most Canadians, I’m relieved at last night’s election results. Romney’s long list of gaffes, his secrecy over his tax returns and his lack of a core (a “windsock of a man”, as Bill Maher put it) should have disqualified him from running for the White House. The cynical pick of Paul Ryan — a wink to reassure the extreme right that Romney was crazy enough — smacked of McCain’s pick of Palin in 2008. Romney and Ryan tried to bluff their way into leadership with a tax plan they wouldn’t reveal and fetching, insincere  smiles and P90X work out pictures. Will the Republican party change, eschew the Southern Strategy and broaden its appeal to a wider, more diverse base?

I hope so. The Republican party would be better for the change because one of the many strengths of America is a two-party system, compassion and reason. What the Republicans once were, they have to get back to. A good start would be to rebuke Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Anne Coulter and most of the people who work at FOX. Those voices try to act like they’re helping, but they’re only helping themselves and hurting the country by giving a voice to the most hateful and cynical rhetoric. They hurt Republican’s chance of being elected in the future. Race politics are out because the demographics aren’t so pale anymore.

In 2008, the Republicans made the denial of a second term to Obama their “first priority.” Serving their country’s best interests by endorsing plans that had once been Republican ideas? It’s hard to say how far down their list of priorities their country was. Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor and Reince Priebus sneered at Mr. Obama, tried to obstruct his policies and turned their backs on his attempts at compromise. They tried to delegitimize a democratically elected president at every turn. At the RNC, the party faithful applauded the idea that they were the “owners” of America instead of its citizens. They applauded fierce pride but were silent on equality, diversity and caring. They tried to con the electorate into policies that would destroy the middle class by telling the working poor they were all “soon to be” wealthy, too.

Shortly after President Obama’s first election, we were told it was now a “post-racial America.” The opposite was true. His election radicalized the haters. The hateful rhetoric got louder and not just from the extremists on the right. The so-called “moderates” catered to the Tea Party extreme instead of rebuking them. What John McCain feared at the end of his 2008 campaign came true and the party was hijacked by the extremists. Mitt Romney stood by Donald Trump, took his endorsement and his donations and never once challenged Trump’s calls to expose the Other. When Rush Limbaugh called a woman a slut, all Romney could say was, “I wouldn’t have used those words.” Romney didn’t simply  lack a heart. He needed a spine transplant.

Trump deleted some of his outrageous tweets from last night. Republicans need to lose him, too, if they hope to retake the White House. This is the 21st century, and the country needs two parties good and strong enough to face the future together.

When the President of the United States reaches across the aisle, he can’t reach farther than halfway. Raise your hand.