Now that it's over: Happiness and the Election of 2012
Posted 11-08-2012 at 03:18 PM by furyu
I am happy.
I am happy because I believe the best person was elected President of the United States.
I am happy because this election demonstrated that money cannot buy many things; the most important thing being the ability to think for ourselves.
I am happy (thrilled!) to realize that the Supreme Court's Citizens' United decision ("Corporations are people, my friends...") didn't work in the way that we most feared it would. It proved not to be the golden opportunity for the mega-rich who created their SuperPacs, intent on purchasing the White House and congressional seats. It didn't work. Why? Because people—most people, enough people, the majority!—know a lie when they hear it, and they won't reward lying. The majority of people understand what freedom means, what personal rights mean, what the pursuit of happiness means, what economic stability means, and they wished to preserve these things. The majority of people didn't respond with knee-jerk psychology to the negative ads that attempted to play on their emotions, and invoke their fears, and manipulate their judgments. The majority thought for themselves, sifted through the political debris on both sides, and decided what was right, what was truthful, and what wasn't. They recognized sincerity when they heard it, and wondered when they didn't. It all came together in ways few of us predicted (yet one exceptional statistician did just that, exactly). Then the citizens voted and chose the best persons to represent them, even if it took them seven hours of waiting in lines to do so.
I am happy to state I was wrong, that the election wasn't "stolen" as I feared and often stated it would be. Although certainly there were attempts to do that, those attempts turned out to be ineffective in the overall. I am happy to believe that the people behind those acts of "would-be-fraud" (voter ID restrictions, election machine tampering, voter suppression, poll watchers' intimidation, and all the stated and repeated exaggerations, obfuscations, and outright lies which are, in no small way, forms of fraud) are today feeling deflated and useless. Poorer.
I am happy because I believe that our country will weather, as it always has, any attacks on its foundation of individual freedom, and democracy; and that the citizens of its diverse states will consistently arise to whatever occasion necessitates their action, good judgment, and intelligence. It's a matter of will, and the citizens of this country proved they have that will, in abundance.
The machinations of the political campaigns this past year nearly destroyed my faith in our government and its political process, and the integrity of our voting system. I am hopeful that the results of this election, having taught lessons, will change the way in which our candidates and their organizations and supporters approach the electorate, that it changes their tactics and their tone. If that is the ultimate result of this election, and we see a decrease in manipulative approaches and an increasing in truthful, issue-based campaigning, then ironically, this election will prove to be an exceptionally positive one.
And for that, we will all be happy.
~P C Niles
November 8, 2012
I am happy because I believe the best person was elected President of the United States.
I am happy because this election demonstrated that money cannot buy many things; the most important thing being the ability to think for ourselves.
I am happy (thrilled!) to realize that the Supreme Court's Citizens' United decision ("Corporations are people, my friends...") didn't work in the way that we most feared it would. It proved not to be the golden opportunity for the mega-rich who created their SuperPacs, intent on purchasing the White House and congressional seats. It didn't work. Why? Because people—most people, enough people, the majority!—know a lie when they hear it, and they won't reward lying. The majority of people understand what freedom means, what personal rights mean, what the pursuit of happiness means, what economic stability means, and they wished to preserve these things. The majority of people didn't respond with knee-jerk psychology to the negative ads that attempted to play on their emotions, and invoke their fears, and manipulate their judgments. The majority thought for themselves, sifted through the political debris on both sides, and decided what was right, what was truthful, and what wasn't. They recognized sincerity when they heard it, and wondered when they didn't. It all came together in ways few of us predicted (yet one exceptional statistician did just that, exactly). Then the citizens voted and chose the best persons to represent them, even if it took them seven hours of waiting in lines to do so.
I am happy to state I was wrong, that the election wasn't "stolen" as I feared and often stated it would be. Although certainly there were attempts to do that, those attempts turned out to be ineffective in the overall. I am happy to believe that the people behind those acts of "would-be-fraud" (voter ID restrictions, election machine tampering, voter suppression, poll watchers' intimidation, and all the stated and repeated exaggerations, obfuscations, and outright lies which are, in no small way, forms of fraud) are today feeling deflated and useless. Poorer.
I am happy because I believe that our country will weather, as it always has, any attacks on its foundation of individual freedom, and democracy; and that the citizens of its diverse states will consistently arise to whatever occasion necessitates their action, good judgment, and intelligence. It's a matter of will, and the citizens of this country proved they have that will, in abundance.
The machinations of the political campaigns this past year nearly destroyed my faith in our government and its political process, and the integrity of our voting system. I am hopeful that the results of this election, having taught lessons, will change the way in which our candidates and their organizations and supporters approach the electorate, that it changes their tactics and their tone. If that is the ultimate result of this election, and we see a decrease in manipulative approaches and an increasing in truthful, issue-based campaigning, then ironically, this election will prove to be an exceptionally positive one.
And for that, we will all be happy.
~P C Niles
November 8, 2012
