There Must Be a Pony

This was the third general election since I've been writing this blog, and the first that didn't go my way, with Democrats losing control of the House and narrowing their control of the Senate. That outcome had been predicted for months, so I've been keeping my head in the sand, eschewing news coverage. On Tuesday night I chose to avoid all election returns, and instead watched a portion of the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks (a full review will come later). This particular segment of the six-part film dealt with how President Theodore Roosevelt radically converted millions of acres into nationally-protected areas, an example of how government works for the betterment of all citizens.

The defeat for Democrats was significant, but not fatal. A House majority can do nothing without Senate approval, or a presidential signature, so I think we're in for two more years of bitter vituperation. As the week wears on, I'm going to focus on the good things that came out of the election, much like the boy in the joke, who is seen flinging shit around, crying "There must be a pony in here!"

To start locally, my congressman, Rush Holt, was re-elected. Holt is a classic liberal, who actually said on camera that good things come from government spending. His opponent, hedge-fund manager Scott Siprelle (who lives in the former home of Grover Cleveland), tried to use that in an ad against Holt, but thankfully it didn't work. Siprelle, in many ways a moderate Republican, was for cutting unemployment benefits to below minimum wage, so he was one of those weird people who think that there are legions of us who don't find work because being on unemployment is so cushy. I wonder where he gets that idea, because I certainly don't see it.

In New York, both sitting Democratic senators were re-elected, and Andrew Cuomo coasted to election over one of the more repugnant candidates to come down the pike, Carl Paladino. In Connecticut, Linda McMahon, who based her entire candidacy on her ability to create jobs in the wrestling business, was defeated by Democrat Richard Blumenthal. This makes me happy for many reasons, but mostly because her commercials, aired in the New York City market, in which I am part of, were insistent and off-putting. She always came off snippy, like she knew better than everyone. Go back to your modern gladiators, Linda.

It was the Senate where most of the good news comes from, and illustrates how the Tea Party gambit didn't always work. Four candidates who defeated moderate Republicans in the primaries lost, and they were all scary: Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada, Ken Buck in Colorado, and Joe Miller in Alaska (this last isn't determined yet, but he will likely lose to the Republican he vanquished in the primary, Lisa Murkowski, but I'll take it, considering this will be a personal defeat for Sarah Palin). Patty Murray survived in Washington, as did Barbara Boxer in California. The real stinger in the Senate results was Russ Feingold's defeat in Wisconsin. Feingold, though a liberal Democrat, didn't always toe the party line, and in many ways should have appealed to the Tea Party mentality, but he's gone. Let me be the first to suggest Feingold in '16.

Other good news: Rich Iott, the congressional candidate who likes to play Nazi, was defeated, as was Ilario Pantano, who as a soldier in Iraq killed two unarmed men. On the other hand, Rand Paul was elected.

I think the result that gladdened my heart most of all was the victory of Jerry Brown, returning him to the governorship of California, which he held thirty years ago. He was the youngest governor in that state's history and now, at 72, he is the oldest. Brown was one of my first political heroes--a young, shoot-from-the-hip guy who dated Linda Ronstadt. If he had entered the 1976 presidential race from the beginning, rather than near the end, he may have actually won the nomination. He then ran two more quixotic campaigns for the White House (his run in 1992 was certainly entertaining). In the years since he has led a peripatetic existence, holding varied offices such as Mayor of Oakland and California Attorney General. In all that time, I don't think he's lost one bit of his principles, which are overwhelmingly liberal. How, in a year that saw the right strike back, did we see the return of Governor Moonbeam?

I suppose it had something to do with the lack of appeal of his opponent, Meg Whitman, but perhaps, at least in California, there's a sliver of that part of almost all of us, who sees the power of good that the government can accomplish. Maybe it was just the appeal of Brown, who, if anything, is incorruptible. For those of us on the left, it's something to hang our hat on, however small a peg.