I always feel bad for the losers when it comes to a highly contested and highly anticipated contest.
As a basketball fan watching the NBA Finals last year, there was a moment when Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant left the court crying into the arms of his mother after losing against LeBron James and the Miami Heat.
I said, ‘Damn, that guy gave it all he had and came up short; he’ll come back next year stronger, smarter and better, he’ll do something that will progress his game to the next level to become a champion, just like LeBron did.’
LeBron figured it out – whatever it was he did – to get what he wanted.
That’s the hope I have for the Republican Party tonight. Not for their sakes’, but for the sake of the country. Hopefully one day, they’ll figure it out.
Republicans buried themselves last night as President Barack Obama sealed a second term. But what was the most important thing about Obama’s victory? It was well deserved.
Remember all those Senate Republicans who shared their thoughts on rape, abortion and women’s rights? Well, they lost; Claire McCaskill “legitimately raped” Todd Akin and Democrat Joe Donnelly won a Senate seat in Indiana against Richard Mourdock, the guy who called a child born of rape a “gift from God.”
The GOP has some soul searching to do. Are they going to continue to let the likes of Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Hannity polarize the party, while small-minded individuals Akin and Mourdock somehow weasel their way into positions of power?
This is the GOP’s chance to change their rhetoric that has been taken over by the Tea Party ever since President Obama took office. The social tide is changing in America and this election proves it. Once white men in power start to explain to women what rape is, it’s over, there is no more civility, you’ve drank the Kool-Aid, GOP’ers.
Even up to the minute on Election Night, Conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly makes a horrifically racist statement about the makeup of America:
“The White establishment is now the minority…a tremendous Hispanic vote will go for President Obama, an overwhelming black vote for Obama and women will probably break President Obama’s way. People feel they are entitled to things and which candidate between the two are going to give them things…”
Whenever I hear people speak like this, I go to the truth and heart of their words. Here’s what I’m hearing from O’Reilly:
“White Republicans have lost their way and we are not trusted by women, people of color and poor people, but they trust Obama and for the life of me, I can’t understand it and it makes me angry.”
O’Reilly forgot the gays! They want things as well, they want to be able to get married just like you and I and now, they’ll have a better opportunity to do that after Wisconsin Democratic Representative Tammy Baldwin made history on Tuesday by becoming the first openly gay U.S. Senator, defeating former governor Tommy Thompson.
Or how about the fact that when it comes to raising money, the biggest donors are the LGBT community? … So it’s no surprise Rufus Gifford, who is gay, was finance director for Obama’s re-election campaign.
According to latinovotemap.org, Arizona’s Hispanic voter population grew 72 percent over the past decade. If current trends continue, Hispanics could make up 24-26 percent of the state’s electorate in time for the next presidential election, thus making it a swing state, along with Texas and Florida.
Either Republicans will get better at voter suppression, or they’ll be forced to welcome the changing tide with open arms.
Democrats are thinking about the next 20 years, not just 2012, as the old school-thinking baby boomers will soon become irrelevant.
And with rising stars like Democratic San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro climbing the political ladder, the Latino voices will be heard louder than ever in elections to come.
This is the new America, and Republicans should heed Obama’s words from his acceptance speech last night:
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.
I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.”
Word to the GOP wise: if this attitude of decisiveness and exclusion by Republicans continues into 2014, they’re in trouble, they’ll lose once again, and they’ll go home crying to their mamas.
Shaka Griffith is the News/Politics Editor for GlobalGrind.com Follow him on Twitter and send your thoughts, rants and outbursts to @Darealshaka
