REJECTED!

November 7, 2012  By Jack Jodell

The U.S. voting public rejected a number of elements in Tuesday night’s election. First and foremost, they rejected the Romney / Ryan Republican presidential ticket, handing the presidency back to Barack Obama for one more term. They rejected the Romney “visions” of a much-weakened federal government and that, to create jobs, taxes must be lowered again on an already far-too-UNDERtaxed wealthiest 2% of  all income-takers. They also rejected Paul Ryan’s utterly preposterous notion that the misguided, pro-wealthy and anti-government hypocrite Ayn Rand had somehow been correct all along with her assertion that the rich must be rewarded heavily and must not be impeded by government  in any manner, shape, or form. Americans also rejected the very idea that fabulously wealthy and self-centered jerks like the notorious anti-labor Las Vegas magnate Sheldon Adelson should be able to buy politicians and influence elections by contributing unrestricted MILLIONS to political campaigns.  This arrogant man truly deserves the migraine he undoubtedly woke up with this first post-election morning, when he realized he had spent those millions totally in vain! The same holds true for the dastardly Karl Rove and the nasty Koch brothers, all of whom believe that billionaires should and must control the American government! In essence, Americans definitely rejected the outlandish Romney and activist Extreme Court belief that “corporations are people too” and that their excessive political donations somehow represented their “right” to free speech and must therefore not be subject to regulation! In fact, the average voter was thoroughly disgusted with, and rejected the way this election disintegrated into an unnecessary 18-month spectacle of non-stop primaries whose main purpose was obviously to load the corporate media’s much-bloated pockets up with even more advertising cash!

This, too, was a public outcry which rejected the oft-quoted and very errant conservative Republican assertion that “government isn’t the solution – gpvernment is the problem.” Even conservative Republican politicians like New Jersey governor Chris Christie  proved the fallacy of such a statement when he gratefully sought and received Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) aid following the devastation othat Hurricane Sandy had wrought on his state! It also showed that Americans strongly rejected fanatically-extremist, far-right reactionary attempts to end or radically alter such time-tested and beloved New Deal and post-New Deal institutions as the Minimum Wage, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and numerous others as well! It also demonstrated the American displeasure with the near-austerity measures Ryan had previously proposed in his unpassed federal budget.

Mostly, though, these election results can best be viewed as where voters rejected Romney himself: his extreme and deliberate use of the LIE as a political tool, in which he indulged himself nearly constantly! They also rejected his lust for power and his willingness to say or do virtually anything in an effort to obtain  that power. For, while Americans expect a certain level of immodest boastfulness or even occasional hyperbole coming from their preferred candidate’s campaign, they nonetheless demand that their President be reliable and a person they feel they can trust. On this level, Romney failed miserably. For he refused to release 9 years of his tax returns (even though his own father had released 12 back in his unsuccessful presidential bid in 1968,  and even though Romney had demanded that his running mate release 10 of his own!). Worse than that, one of the missing returns was from 2009, where there is strong evidence that Romney and his wife profited off of taxpayers to the tune of $15 MILLION by first buying auto parts supplier Delphi’s depressed stock at an extremely low price and then demanding that Delphi’s parts be sold back to the newly-bailed out General Motors at a much higher price! American voters were therefore justified to reject such a man, who profited immensely from exporting American jobs through his practiced use of vulture capitalism and who also maintains secret,  overseas bank accounts! So goodbye to Mitt Romney, who should never have qualified as a serious contender in the first place!

American voters rejected a number of other minor party presidential candidates as well, relegating them rightly or wrongly to a mere and insignificant non-spoiler status. They rejected the far-right Tea Party kooks like deadbeat dad Joe Walsh and apparently the wacky Allen West in favor of more moderate Democrats. As of this writing, Tea Party candidate Chip Cravaack has been rejected after only one undistinguished term in the House, and the notorious batshit crazy Michele Bachmann, also a Tea Party darling, was deadlocked in the political battle of her life  against her Democratic challenger, Jim Graves. Voters also apparently rejected Tea Party attempts to take control of the Senate by deservedly denying extremists like Todd Akin, Josh Mandel, Linda McMahon, and Richard Murdock the chance to serve. Voters definitely rejected Tea Party / Republican efforts to obstruct legislation this past Congress and sent an undeniable message of their disgust with this tactic. Finally, voters overwhelmingly rejected the cynical conservative Republican effort to make this election be one dominated primarily by white, backward-looking, uncooperative males. The near-record level of females elected to the Senate and Hispanics elected to the House is ample proof of that. 

While neither side can claim anything close to a mandate from this election, it is abundantly clear that the American public has rejected obstructionism and now wants this next Congress to behave responsibly, act civilly toward each other, and get down to enacting practical and beneficial legislation like infrastructure modernization and development for the people they are supposed to be serving!