With the historic second inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States now in the history book, it’s time to take a look at the GOP response yesterday.
While Republican leaders were in Washington urging a “come together” moment, the same wasn’t true around the country. On Facebook alone I noticed countless Republican friends still complaining that Obama had won re-election. GOP officials around the country also seem to share the same sentiment. For example, The head of the Mon Valley Republican party in Pennsylvania decided to send out a common distress signal:
When asked about it, Brent Kovac, the head of the local party said he “don’t regret it” because “our nation is in a horrible place.”
In a horrible place? If it’s so horrible, then why did Barack Obama win re-election so easily over his Republican opponent Mitt Romney and Democrats have a phenomenal election in the House and Senate? Apparently blame is to be placed upon the GOP by the people, and rightfully so.
But the people’s will isn’t what the GOP is concerned about. Instead they are worried only about their own party. Take this little stunt from yesterday as a perfect example of this:
While the eyes of the nation were turned toward President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Monday, the Virginia State Senate managed to hurriedly pass a bill that would redistrict the state’s senate seats.
The vote, 20-19, would have been a tie had Democratic Senator Henry Marsh been present. Marsh, a civil rights leader, was in Washington, D.C., attending the inauguration.
Had Marsh been present, however, the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Bill Bolling, would likely have broken the tie. The bill was reportedly pushed through in a matter of hours.
According to Virginia politics blogger Ben Tribbett, the move could potentially eliminate at least one Democratic seat, the 25th district, which currently belongs to former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Creigh Deeds (D).
The Republicans already retained control of the House mainly due to gerrymandering of the congressional lines. They also made every attempt possible to disenfranchise Democratic voters in the last election, yet President Obama still won, hands down.
We were lucky in 2012, but what about 2014 or 2016? How many more Republican dirty tricks will be pulled to try and steer an election? It’s time we really fight back against this and let democracy rule our nation’s future once again. It’s also time for the GOP to realize that they can win elections without cheating or stealing if only they will listen to the will of the people and not treat the people like they have no idea what they are doing.