Republicans Humiliated
History was made on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. When President Barack Obama won re-election this past Tuesday, he didn’t only defeat Governor Mitt Romney by a landslide, he made history as the President who got elected with the most Electoral Votes and the most Popular Votes the first time he got elected and he repeated that feat on his re-election. Throughout the night Republicans were on disbelieve of what was happening. They felt totally humiliated by the results. They were so stunned that Romney refused to concede. Romney said going into the elections that he did not write a concession speech, I guess that was the reason he refused to concede as the President won the 303 Electoral votes, he needed that extra time to write his concession speech. I must say, to my surprise, that it was a great concession speech that called for unity and prayers for President Obama.
This historic election proved that social issues are important. It proved that extremist do not have a place in politics. It proved that the color of your skin is not an impediment to success and holding important leadership positions in this country. It proved that Immigration reform is needed and must be tackled. It also proved that someone’s sexual orientation does not make them less of a person.
There was a lot of history made this past Tuesday. In the states of Colorado and Washington, voters legalized Marijuana for recreational use. In the states of Massachusetts and Montana, voters legalized Marijuana for medical use. In the states of Maine and Maryland voters legalized same sex marriage.
There were three openly gay officials elected for the first time.
There were more Hispanics, more African Americans, more Women, and Younger voters who voted in this Presidential election than even the largest turnout in the 2008 Presidential Elections.
In Hawaii voters elected the first woman Senator and the Senate’s first Asian American woman.
Democrat Heidi Heitkamp won a Senate seat to become the first woman to ever represent Congress in the state of North Dakota.
Tammy Baldwin became the first woman to be elected to the Senate from Wisconsin and the first openly Gay candidate elected.
The 113th Congress will have 20 women Senators elected, the most in US history.
Councilman Hector Lora became the first Dominican elected to the Passaic County Freeholder seat. He is also the first Dominican elected councilman in Passaic, New Jersey.
Passaic has been a city with many firsts. This is the city that elected Mayor Alex Blanco as the first Dominican Mayor and also elected Councilwoman Zaida Polanco as the first Dominican Councilwoman.
Senator Bob Menendez easily won a second term reelection by a projected 18% margin. Senator Menendez also made history in his first term in the Senate. He was the first Latino and Cuban American elected to the US Senate in New Jersey.
The Senate maintained the majority by keeping every Democrat Senator and adding two new Democrat Senators to raise the majority by three. There are now Fifty Five (55) Democrats. All eight Republicans that had extremist anti-abortion views lost their seats.
The House of Representatives maintain a Republican Majority, however, they lost a few seats and certainly lost their most extremist Representatives.
There are a few take away from this past election:
- Democracy worked. Foot on the ground won over Super Pac’s. Even after the conservative massive spending of almost $435 million, they failed to win one single new seat. Instead they lost several seats in the House and the Senate, and of course they also lost the presidency.
- The scaring tactics did not work. Republicans tried to instill fear on every conservative and anybody who would listen about how Obama was a communist, not a citizen, not an American and a socialist. It did not work.
- Attempting to stop minority voters from voting by requiring that they show photo ID’s and filing law suits in just about every state to prevent voter turnout by African Americans and Hispanics. It did not work.
- Lying about everything from Obamacare, the stimulus, the unemployment rate, the car industry rescue, immigration, foreign policy, the economy, and anything that was positive for the country. It did not work.
- All Tea Party candidates lost their seats. Extremist will not be tolerated. It did not work.
President Barack Obama won every Battleground State.
The president now has an opportunity to continue to move forward in helping the country recover steadily. The House will have to shape up and play ball or they really are going to turn off every other voting population that still support them. Some of them will have to run for re-election and some will be retiring by the next election cycle in two years. I will predict that if the Republicans in Congress do not collaborate in helping the President fix this mess the Busch administration and Republicans got us in, in the first place, they will lose the House Majority, as well. Heck, I wonder if they will ever have a majority ever. The Republicans under estimated the women vote, the African American vote, younger vote, and specially the Hispanic vote.
If you want to discuss this topic or others, please call me at 973-390-2926 or via email anibal@anibalalcantarajr.com
