I had a feeling last night was going to be depressing so read and watched Arrow and had dinner with a friend rather than watch the electoral returns. And it was what I expected but more so. I could understand Iowa and Colorado. I could even understand Wisconsin, but Paul LePage, a seemingly insane individual was reelected in Maine? Or this Hice guy who is a fundamentalist preacher who has declared that Islam is not protected under the first amendment — among other equally charming remarks about gays, birth control, etc.
I think the American people just feel bludgeoned and they have been condition since 9/11 to go descend into fear, anger and paranoia. I think that’s what happened last night, and cynics play on those fears to get people to vote against their own best interests.
This will probably be great for me. There will most likely be another big tax cut, and other goodies will be bestowed on people like myself who have had the good fortune to do very well financially. But I don’t think it’s going to be good for the vast majority of people in this country where roads and bridges are in disrepair, the water system in L.A. is one hundred years old and keeps breaking and wasting millions of gallons of water in the midst of the worst drought in five hundred years, our electrical grid collapses every time there is a powerful winter storm. And the truth is that even in our gated upscale communities people like me still have to drive on the roads and have electricity delivered to our homes.
There is such a thing as the common good. I think out of fear a lot of people threw that away yesterday.
