The AP is reporting that John Kasich has bumped Ted Strickland from the governor’s seat in Ohio.
That’s the only race that hung in the balance for me, semi-locally. From here on out, given Kasich’s record on higher ed, it may well be my own job that’s hanging by a thread.
Perhaps ironically, my husband passed his citizenship interview earlier today. He hasn’t taken the oath of citizenship yet. It’s not too late for him to back out. (Not that I expect he will, but hey, he’s still got the option. Envious, anyone?)
Also in Ohio politics: Boehner, our new Speaker-in-waiting. Isn’t it a bit of a pity that his name can be misread as “boner”? I mean, a friendly boner is generally rather nice. Boehner? Well, he’s just a dick.
(Sorry for the cheap shots, but I haven’t been this bummed since 2004. And 2000. And 1994. And 1988 and 1984.)
As for the country as a whole? Well, the kitteh above says it all.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
Aah to be young enough not to remember 1980, or 1972, or (even more dimly) 1968. Speaking of dicks, the cynical liberal motto in 1972 was “Don’t change Dicks in the middle of a screw, vote for Nixon in ’72″
My way of interpreting this, by the way, is in with the Old Testament, out with the New. This election appears to repudiate Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which served as the effective blueprint for liberal social policy for much of the last century.
figleaf
Yeah.
For a couple of months — from a few weeks before the 2008 election until a month or two after Obama’s inauguration, when he started making some seriously retrograde executive decisions that had nothing to do with the Senate filibuster — I felt genuinely hopeful that maybe somehow America could actually pull out of the Republican post-industrial nightmare world it had been digging for itself since 1980.
If the economic depression and bank bailouts aren’t enough to overcome the corporate mass media brainwashing we all endure and make it clear to most people how utterly self-destructive the Republican policies of ‘cut taxes and deregulate business’ are, I don’t know what will overcome that brainwashing. At this point, it’s hard to see what will beat the combined influence of the corporate mass media and the flood of corporate cash that’s killing our democracy.
Ballgame – I actually started to lose hope when Obama voted for immunity for the telecoms in June 2008, and I got a lot more pessimistic when he brought in Summers and Geithner and Emmanuel. I’m appalled at some of the calls I’ve been seeing today for Obama to “become a moderate” again. What do people think he’s been doing all this time?
I’m with you when it comes to Obama’s maintenance of the “unitary executive.” As a constitutional scholar, he should have rolled back the Bush-era powers. He didn’t. We will all come to regret this.
I wish we had a way of assessing the damage Citizens United wrought in this election. For instance, how much corporate cash helped float Kasich to power? (He is in thick with the Wall Street folks.) How much was aimed against Feingold? I hope some intrepid reporter will reconstruct the cash flow for a couple of key races. Not that it would change anything.
I am so gloomy, Eeyore’s got nothin’ on me.
My way of interpreting this, by the way, is in with the Old Testament, out with the New.
Tell me about it. Those tea-partiers are almost as bad as the Jews.
/snark
I know what you’re trying to do here, but think about why it has cultural resonance. And people who don’t look to the Sermon on the Mount have had plenty to say about justice over the years.
Speaking of one of them, while his loss was, I believe, expected, I’m saddest about the defeat of Russ Feingold. There are vanishingly (literally!) few people of his integrity in high elected office.
Sorry about your governor. Thanks mostly to the complete implosion of our state Republicans (I’m in Colorado), we got a Democrat for governor. While it’s looking now like our Democratic Senator will sneak out a narrow win and I’m glad, on an individual level, I worry more about the governors in so many of our states that already are struggling.
I am really sad about the loss of Feingold, too. I am afraid we are not going to see another senator like him in our time. I have one pretty decent Senator representing me from Ohio – Sherrod Brown – whose politics are not far to the right of Feingold’s, but I just don’t see anyone who has the same kind of moral courage.
Thanks for the condolences. I’m glad you got to keep your Democratic governor. Here, it was the Democrats that imploded, though I think mainly due to the economy. They were left holding the bag. Only my local representative to the State House was reelected. I just saw her on the street and we shared a hug. She said everyone in her office spent the morning crying. She has worked really hard for education and now all that work is endangered.
You Coloradans still aren’t free of the threat of Ken Buck, last I heard – I hope he goes down!
@chingona: My Old/New Testament remark refers to a very deep divide in Christianity between the now completely ascendant conservatives who not only prefer all the smiting and thou shalt nots but are actively antagonistic towards charity, forgiveness, and hope.
Speaking of which, it’s definitely a shame about Russ Feingold! Dang it all!
figleaf
@chingona: Ugh! Total mansplainin’ in the last comment. Sorry about that. Rough night.
figleaf
Like I said, I know what you were trying to do. If you made a disparaging reference to Pharisees, I also would understand what you were trying to do.
Your sincere good intentions don’t change the fact that those references only make sense in a culture that (even among progressives) treats Christianity as inherently better than its predecessors, even if you don’t personally feel that way.
I hope there’s no hard feelings. I wasn’t personally offended. I read or hear those types of statements all the time, and sometimes I’m in a mood to say something.
One thing about the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus didn’t abolish Old Testament law. He expanded it:
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:17-20)
He then goes on to specify that it’s not only one’s external behavior (compliance with the law) that matters, it’s also what’s in one’s heart.
It’s easy to forget that Jesus was, in fact, speaking to a Jewish audience.
I see both Christianity and Judaism as having elements of justice and elements of oppression (often in the form of patriarchy). American social conservatives have consistently emphasized the latter.
So figleaf, I don’t really think this election represents a departure in terms of the kind of Christianity embraced by social conservatives. Nor do I think these conservatives are newly ascendant. I actually remember 1980 very well (and even 1972 fairly well); I just wasn’t astute enough to realize how much power the then-new “Moral Majority” would come to yield. But certainly the battle lines were drawn in 1980 for the so-called culture wars that are now being exploited by the Tea Partiers.
I’m hard pressed to think of an idea that’s new among the Tea Partiers. How can we set them apart from the followers of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc.? The main difference I see is one of tactics. They are much more publicly visible, thanks to all their rallies (and their tendency to court violence and even practice it). They also have moved beyond the direct-mail evil genius of Richard Viguerie and now have Fox News to spew even more effective propaganda.
So the means are changing in ways that I find alarming – but I think the ends are pretty similar. Social conservatives still want women in the home, racial minorities in their place, immigrants on the other side of the border, and government out of our lives (except when they personally benefit, which turns out to be quite often, or when government can be used to keep women, blacks, etc. from exercising too many liberties).
“Passenger rail is not in Ohio’s future,” Mr. Kasich said at his first news conference after the election. “That train is dead.”
Yep. He also demanded that Ohio’s teachers’ union take out full-page newspaper ads apologizing for what they said about him during the campaign. But I suspect no amount of butt-kissing will stop him from undermining education …