A good night

The president was re-elected - and it looks like he'll win every one of the critical swing states, except North Carolina but including Florida (and Pennsylvania, despite the suppress-the-vote attempts there). The policy of thuggery and blackmail, endorsed by pundits such as David Brooks, has failed. Moneyball beat the scouts - Nate Silver and others like him beat the feelings and experience of Gingrich, Rove, Will and their ilk. Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Tammy Baldwin, Angus King, Claire McCaskill, Chris Murphy, Joe Donnelly, Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester, Mazie Hirono, and Bob Casey, among others (including most likely Heidi Heitkamp), won hotly contested Senate seats, mostly against lots of money and/or Tea Party Republicans. Bernie Sanders, who I think of as my senator, though I don't live in Vermont, and my actual senator won reelection pretty easily. A record number of women are going to the Senate.

And there is now a sea change for gay rights: Maine and Maryland turned the tide by putting gay marriage to the voters and winning for the first time; Washington is projected to follow. In Maryland, especially, the vicious tactic of pitting black and Catholic churchgoers against their gay neighbors failed spectacularly, as our Catholic governor fought back hard, recruiting even Southern Baptist preachers to the cause of civil equality. Seven states sent their first out gay representatives to the House: Florida, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Tammy Baldwin became the nation's first out gay senator. Minnesota refused to enshrine bigotry in their constitution; Iowa voters retained Judge Wiggins (who'd upheld Varnum v Brien, which made same-sex marriage legal there). The older way of thought is passing.

It was a very good night indeed.