I saw insidious / inadvertent voter intimidation in PA – clueless workers looking at photo IDs "because it’s easier to find your name" giving people at back of line impression they were requiring IDs…Spend Election Day with The Nation! | The Nation

EarlG:                          

Some Americans may seem complacent regarding their voting rights, but they will fight like hell when someone tries to take it from them.  Those voter suppression efforts motivated people to resist that suppression.  And, as for Blacks and Latinos, it reminds us of our ongoing fight against racism in this society.  Despite the advances made by millions of right-minded, and pure-hearted Whites, there remains pockets of ignorant racists in our country.  They are the ones to who bigoted and cynical leaders make their appeals in order to retain the divisiveness that allows such leaders to hold on to their diminishing political power.How the GOP’s War on Voting Backfired | The Nation

It didn’t backfire just among minorities.  I’m one of those white married women who were supposed to vote Republican. I’ve always voted (sometimes Republican even) but never volunteered or did other work than that.  Pennsylvania’s voter ID law got me out and volunteering with the Democratic party to register voters and get out the vote.  Voter suppression laws ought to be deeply offensive to any American regardless of party.How the GOP’s War on Voting Backfired | The Nation

DONE. RT @thenation: Obama wins Ohio, game overSarah Zabrenski

@thenation WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO Now I can go to bed! Contrary to what Republicans think, I work for a living and I vote!!GLORIA

I can sleep tonight.Glenn Bristow

Thank you Missouri. I’m legitimately proud of you.Sandy Clark

Good, now let’s never waste another moment of our lives thinking about this person.Rhonda Tucker

This is really persuasive; in my recent forays into the conservative blogosphere, the main reaction I’ve seen has been flabbergasted incomprehension: "this isn’t America!" Many of the people concerned have been narrating the America they want, where people without jobs are just lazy and only evil sluts get raped. Who (they think, in their insulated mindset) would bother to argue with this logic? Only extremists! Radicals! No one who contradicts them can be representative or legitimate; they’re part of a nefarious fringe group that wants to be "pandered" to. And so the silent majority watches, and listens, and votes.Women: The Silent Majority? | The Nation

Failure to understand math and numbers is pretty endemic.  When people put those bumper stickers like "Planned Parenthood kills 1 million babies a year!", never mind that they are not babies, but: Do they think one woman is getting all of those abortions?  Or two women get 500000?  Is it the same million women each year getting all these abortions, year after year? As JV points out, the numbers add up pretty fast. The silence issue reminds me of something Harvey Milk said about the closet:  If everyone came out, they win.  It may be optimistic and naive of me  to think this, but I’d like to think it’s true about abortion and rape:  If every woman came out about it, everyone would realize how widespread it was and we could take honest steps to changing things. I won’t hold my breath though.Women: The Silent Majority? | The Nation

The voters seem to have said this is a "we" society, not the GOP’s "me" society.  We can all hope that Obama understands and acts on what the voters said and that he will not continue with this nonsense about a "Grand Bargain" with Republicans to further undo the great progressive works of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.  Some how we all need to find some way to make sure that Obama takes to heart this message of the voters.The You’re-on-Your-Own Society | The Nation

Beautiful essay. Thank you.  I want to come back to one point in particular that you make re: the impact of grounding planes after 9/11.  I’ve been wondering whether someone could calculate the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from hurricane Sandy causing loss of power across a large swath of the northeast as well as canceling flights to the area for several days.  I think that showing a positive effect would give us grounds to promote voluntary reductions in power usage, such as drive-free or power-free days. (I vaguely recall that some time last year residents of LA were told they could not drive on a particular highway or some such; everyone predicted people would resent the constraint, but lots of flexible residents took to their bikes instead and seemed to enjoy themselves.) One of the interesting things my neighbors and I talked about here in lower Manhattan during the week without power was that, except for the dropping temperatures, going without power, by itself, wasn’t that big of a deal. (At least for those of us able to climb stairs.) It was an inconvenience. An inconvenience that would be easy to put up with on a limited basis to preserve our planet. And surely much less inconvenient than trying to piece a life back together after having everything swept away in a storm. The main sources of fossil fuel dependence, however, are not individuals, but industries. If it seems inconceivable to ask some industries to reduce operations or production by a small amount, consider that even the stock market takes a two-day break every week. (Given their role in the financial crisis, one might wish they took a week-long break for every two days of work.)If We Ignore Climate Change, We’re All on a Sinking Ship | The Nation

@thenation let’s hope him "thinking big" doesn’t mean a "grand bargain" on social program cuts, but that’s the most likely outcome.Andrew Epstein

The only good news to be found in this election is that Romney was defeated.  I voted for Obama only because Romney had to be defeated.  The race was close for two reasons.  First, there is still a great deal of racism in this country, especially amongst older, white men.  Second, Obama has been a huge disappointment to those who support him in the last election, to those who believed he would bring real change to our government.  Not only has he failed to do that, he does not appear to be interested in doing that.  That challenge facing all good Americans is convincing Obama to do the things he should.  Oh, and, of course, overcoming Republican obstructionism.  No small challenges.  Who will lead this fight?A Progressive Surge | The Nation

I’m grateful that Mitt Romney will not be POTUS. That said, I hope the next time around we will find a presidential candidate willing to ‘look back’ and prosecute the war crimes of past administrations. Wishful thinking from out here on the left coast. Thanks all (especially to The Nation) for being here. Peace and prosperity to you all in the coming years!Spend Election Day with The Nation! | The Nation

@thenation Robin Hood tax and ending drone strikes would be wonderful. So would prosecution of Wall Street crooks.Lucas Schleicher

Hard work pays off…Now to insure the electorate doesn’t think that its job is over. Gotta stay engaged…because the other side never sleeps.John Kretzschmar

It is a good day for those of us that continue to see that many of our problems stem from Wall St. and the devastation they have caused through their mbs schemes, their lobbying efforts to deregulate, etc. But now the fight is that we have to push hard to get Congress and the Prez Admin. to push for the 99%. The fight really, is just beginning.Spend Election Day with The Nation! | The Nation