Sunrise at Last!

Voter turnout wasn’t all that great yesterday and still the most diverse and progressive candidates won where they needed to!

Transgender folks won. African Americans won. Latinas won. In Virginia…in the south… in the north… in middle America…and on the west coast.

Last night ALL Americans won–black, white, brown, red, LGBT, straight, immigrant and native, men and women of goodwill.

We even won in states and counties where (so-called) conservatives have held the reins of governance for more than a generation.

Low turnout usually is better for the GOP…

But what remaining GOP voter in his or her rational mind would even consider voting Republican after they’ve witnessed how lowdown, mercenary, incendiary, racist, xenophobic and homophobic their talking heads (Trump, Pence, Sessions, Ryan, McConnell et al) have become? Or after witnessing how the command on Capitol Hill back in 2007 after President Obama won was “block or vote NO on everything Obama says he wants or will agree to, even if GOP representatives wrote the bill he’s willing to sign”.

I decided years ago that whichever way white supremacists (racists, Nazis, KKK’ers), sexists, misogynists, xenophobes and homophobes were voting, I was voting the other way.

This decision has never steered me wrong.

Having Donald Trump and his minions represent us on the world stage has wounded and disgusted a lot of people. The vast majority are feeling embarrassed and demoralized, and even seeking treatment for depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges in record numbers. They simply cannot imagine how the country they love has come to this.

Many of them feel guilty, too, for not having voted a year ago. Had they not just assumed that the victor would be the first woman President of the United States because of the polls, she would be the Commander in Chief right now, someone who is far more qualified to lead, influence and overcome national and international obstacles and challenges than our current Charlatan in Chief.

I was not a diehard HRC fan. I was a Bernie Broad. And an Obama supporter from the get go both times before that. In my opinion, she had too much baggage put on her by far-right ideologues. (Although they were never able to prove the charges they brought against her and she was never convicted on anything, the narrative was undeniably fatally pervasive and corrosive).

Life is not fair even when you have–as HRC did–a ton of money and all of the political chops and leverage available to you that should have  been necessary to win. All of that certainly should have more than compensated for the unfairness of life in American politics…. except…except…except for the running narrative that she was corrupt and too tough/butch to be a “real” (Stepford) woman, which came from the right, the left, and the Kremlin. From her perspective more than anyone’s, her loss must have really sucked.

I did vote for HRC after Bernie bowed out and endorsed her. But she was not my first choice for a number of legitimate reasons (hawk, Republican Lite, mean-spirited and untruthful about the legitimacy and ability of the richest nation on earth–clutched in the hands of greedy, tax-avoiding oligarchs and plutocrats–to enact Bernie’s commonplace-for-other-developed-countries progressive issues).(Watch Michael Moore’s eye-opening documentary WHERE TO INVADE NEXT for a primer on this.)

I don’t think voting for the first woman POTUS, no matter how well qualified, is sufficient reason to vote. (I’m more progressive than HRC is or ever will be.) Nevertheless, she won the popular vote by three million votes, and mine was among them, as was Bernie’s. There is no dishonor in that. I’m not happy to acknowledge that those who thought there was dishonor in voting for her helped get Trump elected, which is the ultimate dishonor, in my opinion. (There was lots of help from Russia to make her look bad, too, it looks like. Putin and his puppets despise Clinton.)

But the silver lining in all this is that both candidates–elite plutocrats–have taken a hit: Clinton by losing, and Trump by winning.

The American electorate is wide awake now (those who are ever going to be) and actively working to get people in place who will carry the progressive agenda forward so we, too–like so many other  countries–will get to enjoy universal health care as a right, free higher education, a livable minimum wage, and other perks that are among the common benefits of being a citizen in a developed nation.

Last night’s victories were just the first electoral evidence of the rising tide of citizen action. Working together as a united front, all marginalized groups can elect a body of representatives that truly represent the average wage earner. Working together, we can improve our lot and get a fair deal.

So…onward and upward!!!  CONGRATULATIONS, PROGRESSIVES!  And thank you to the millions of people who are doing what it takes to bring in the kind of government that responds to the legitimate needs of we, the people.