Women and Minorities Won and Many White Male Republicans Lost in the 2012 Election (Blog)

Political party wins depend on how big each party's tent is. If, as Republicans did, you exclude minorities in your policies and declare war on women, you will lose. Proof of that is in who won and who lost:

Senator-to-Be Elizabeth Warren (D) beat incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown (MA) in a decisive 54-46% victory that was especially sweet to me. Why? Because Wall Street poured $6.2 million into the race to keep Warren out of the Senate. Wall Street spent more money to defeat Warren than on any other Congressional race in 2012. When Warren beat Sen. Scott Brown, women, consumers, and workers won big and Wall Street lost.

Money doesn't buy every election, but it sure helps. I repeatedly sent small donations to Sen.-to.-Be Warren, and I'm sure lots of other little people did as well. I sent Warren the largest donation after Pres. Obama decided not to nominate her to become head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that she championed as a consumer advocate to protect consumers from shoddy financial products. Doubtless, Obama did that because Wall Street made it clear they didn't want her, and Obama often bows to Wall Street in craven surrender of principle. I'd like Obama to stop giving in to Wall Street and compromising with Republicans when they give back so little in return. I know that Sen. Warren has the spine that Obama doesn't seem to have when it comes to Wall Street's corporate criminals. 

To my surprise, Senator-to-Be Tammy Baldwin (D) became the first openly gay Senator in the nation's history Nov. 6th and also the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin.

Iowa, of course, still hasn't sent a woman to Congress, just like Mississippi, the only other pariah state for women running for higher office. Christie Vilsack (D) may not have been a very strong candidate with her sort of prim, schoolmarmish demeanor, but Rep. Steve King (R) is such a mean-spirited, ignorant, and embarrassing candidate that he shouldn't have won so decisively. But hey! Western Iowa got what western Iowa wanted, good and hard.

Interestingly, the Humane Society Legislative Fund poured $750,000 into Vilsack's campaign against King, more than any other Congressional race.King's positions on animal cruelty like dog-fighting and exposing children to animal cruelty are just some of the things that embarrass civilized people (or in my case, half-civilized people).

Democratic Senator-to-Be Heidi Heitkamp, formerly North Dakota's state attorney general, narrowly defeated Republican Rep. Rick Berg. Heitkamp supports Big Oil and the National Rifle Association, so she's not your typical liberal Democrat. Maybe she takes positions that are necessary for a woman or man to win in North Dakota.

Improbably, incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who billed the federal government for flights to political events on her own and her partners' corporate jet, beat foot-in-his-mouth warrior against women Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO). McCaskill was considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators. She was behind in the polls for much of the campaign until Akin brought up the issue of rape and his belief in women's ability to "shut that whole thing down" ("thing" refers to women's reproductive system) and not conceive a baby in the event of a "legitimate rape."

Senator-to-Be Joe Donnelly, who currently sits in the U.S. House, beat Republican state treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana after Mourdock made himself infamous by declaring that conception following rape is "a gift from God." Shortly after the "gift from God" comment, Donnelly developed an 11-point lead over Mourdock. 

Mourdock became the Republican candidate after he handily beat respected statesman Sen. Richard G. Lugar, a six-term moderate, in a Tea Party primary seeking ever more extreme Republicans. Some thought Mourdock meant rape itself was a gift from God, but I knew what he meant. Mourdock had a better grasp of women's biology than Todd Akin, but the deathly pallor of both men accurately reflects the imminent death of their ideas in American politics.

Representative-to-Be Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs overseas, beat Republican Joe Walsh, who shot himself in the foot with his vicious attacks on Duckworth, a veteran in a wheelchair. My husband and I are sure that like most handicapped workers, Duckworth will work very hard. Like Elizabeth Warren, she will fight for the middle and working classes, who have lost ground in this economy as the rich have received 93% of the gains during the recovery. She will also work hard for veterans, since she is a veteran herself and knows what it means to sacrifice for your country.

Have I left anyone out? Of course I was also happy to see Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown win in Ohio. Sen. Jon Tester squeaked out a win to beat challenger Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg in Montana. I sent both of them money as well.

Many political pundits don't want to talk about the women's vote in explaining why Pres. Obama and the Democrats won and gained ground in the Senate and the House. They talk about how important the Latino vote is.

Of course, at least half of all Latinos are Latinas. Single women of all races strongly supported Pres. Obama while married women were more likely to vote for Republican Mitt Romney. In Ohio, women vastly preferred Pres. Obama, although toward the end of the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was beginning to close his double-digit gender gap with women somewhat.

I didn't give a dime to Pres. Obama or Sen. Clair McCaskill this time, unlike last time when I gave money to both twice. I'm glad they won, considering the alternatives, but I didn't feel that either deserved my active support. I don't give to Democratic committees either after the way Hillary Clinton was treated by the Old Boys Club in the U.S. Senate and the Democratic Central Committee in 2008.

Susan B. Anthony said that no woman should support a party that doesn't support her, so I give money, time, and shoe leather or phone calls to individuals running for office depending on merit.