Thank God That's Over.

[attackfish]

Or, the only thing that could make me want to go through an election night is nine months of presidential campaigning.

Don't get me wrong, I love politics, the political process, voting, our democracy, yeah.  But my nails are chewed down to nubs.  Four years ago, I was trying to cheer for Obama and my country while crying for my childhood home, California at the same time.  This morning, I am all smiles as the hateful misogynistic Republican senators and house members went down, three states voted to legalize same-sex marriage, a fourth voted not to make it illegal, we elected our first openly gay Senator (and she's a woman, too!), first Asian-American woman Senator, and our first disabled woman legislator, and we reelected Barrack Obama!

I can relax now.

Comments

[unjapanologist]

That whooshing noise was 98% of the rest of the world breathing a sigh of relief. Romney was scary.

You know, after endless months of build-up, it seemed to be over really quickly. Just a couple of hours. It was like waiting months for a movie, then being kind of let down because nothing much happens until the last half-hour.

[attackfish]

I know! Sometimes stateside, I forget how scary he is, having sat through the Republican nomination process with him being the not-as-horrible one. Let's all take a moment to imagine President Sanatorium.

Four years ago, it seemed to take longer, but that might have been because I was actually working on the Obama campaign...

[unjapanologist]

Romney was legitimately, terrifyingly extremist from a Belgium POV. Obama is already really right wing. Romney is the kind of right winger that other politicians wouldn't be caught dead in a photo with.

Santorum... Whooo. I don't think we have an equivalent of that :D

[attackfish]

Oh America...

[unjapanologist]

Well, it's not like any country's flavor of right or left is The Standard that the other countries' politicians can be weighed against. Our socialists and communists are probably very moderate compared to some other countries I can think of. But I wish there was more awareness everywhere of how similar labels can mean very different things. (I think Belgian socialists all have little heart attacks whenever somebody calls Obama socialist. That is very confusing :P)

[attackfish]

I hope you can tell at least someof the socialists you know to calm down. I've heard Republicans complain about "Obama's brand of Socialistic Fascism." It's as bad as the people calling him an Atheist Muslim. Hereabouts, Fascist means "anybody" I don't like, and Socialist means "Democrat I don't like." Obama's very moderate by US standards, but the Right (many of whom actually approach fascism, only with less ideological consistency) are shouting that he's some kind of radical leftist in the hopes we'll believe it.

[elrhiarhodan]

You know, that's just the way I feel. Thank goodness it's over, and thank goodness we won.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

So relieved/ I am not ashamed to admit I was scared of a Romney presidency.

[elrhiarhodan]

Me too. I'd been dreading waking up this morning ... so I stayed up and watched the returns via my iPad (still no heat, no electricity at home).

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I feel like a total wimp. Watched it on the couch and did my best to keep my mother from hyperventilating. Stayed up until she fell asleep during Romney's concession speech.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

We just gotta get those women back in their place! They make a difference in politics, and that is just not right!

That's snark, just in case.

I am so relieved.

Love, C.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

If we don't put all those women back in heir place, society might just not revolve around straight white Christian men anymore!

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

And no more election ads! I got redistricted into actually having a competitive House race this time around, and it was awful.

...Which sounds unintentionally anti-democracy, now that I type it out like that.

Anyway, I too am glad that this is all over. And to top things off, we may just be adding a new star to the flag. Never thought I'd ever see Puerto Rico take the plunge.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

It was really weird this time for me, no competition in my state at all, and only one guy ran any ads. After living in a swing state for so long, it was surreal.

I know! Good for Puerto Rico!

[lalunatique.livejournal.com]

For me, too, the reaction was not so much joy but relief. Two Russian students who were in the classroom with me when the news came seriously breathed a sigh of relief and said they were happy because Obama was better for foreign policy. That's what you get, I guess, for insulting a bunch of other countries and calling a U.S. ally its greatest geopolitical threat.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

And the thing is, Romney tried to hammer Obama on foreign policy. The whole Benghazi thing? Romney screwed it up and then tried to claim Obama did, and then harped on it. He would have been terrifying, Jingoistic and untrustworthy. Worst combination possible.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

The Benghazi thing is interesting, because the insiders on both sides are starting to talk now that the campaign is over. Apparently even Romney thought he had screwed up by pouncing on Obama before the bodies were cold (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/the-strategy-that-paved-a-winning-path/2012/11/07/0a1201c8-2769-11e2-b2a0-ae18d6159439_print.html), but was afraid of backtracking because the neoconservative wing of his party would "take his head off." (And they would have, I think.)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Of course they would have. But a lot of the problem I had with him is that he pulled in some of the most prominent neocons to be his foreign policy advisers. He was more scared of defying them than he was of insulting every other country in the world.

[wolfs-lament.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of relief from a large amount of expats too (at least the ones in Europe - most of the countries won't let us forget we elected Bush twice. I doubt Britain in particular would have been impressed at hosting the man that insulted their Olympics/Paralymics). While I look at the Presidency win with relief, I am excited about women banding together to win! I was so worried after those misogynists made their comments and continued to run that they would win.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

*Shakes head* and he tried so hard to talk down to Obama about foreign policy, trying to make himself look like "the adult in the room". Thank God he failed. He would have been horrible, and we would look like idiots.