The midterm elections have come and gone.
The Republican Party made significant gains around the country, picking up six seats in the Senate, nine governorships and control of the House. Neither the hailstorm of fire and brimstone liberals thought nigh, nor the songs of Hosanna conservatives-anticipated have come to pass.
The day after the election looked pretty much like the day before it.
I’m pretty happy with the results. Although some of the races didn’t go the way I’d hoped—Russ Feingold will be sorely missed—but most of the candidates I was rooting for pulled through.
That’s not the way many of my friends see it.
When I signed onto Facebook last Wednesday morning, I thought the world must have come to an end without my knowing it. My friends’ statuses were many and varied, but they all boiled down to one general theme: America had just shamed itself by voting in a bunch of ignorant fools.
Now, there certainly were some ignorant fools elected—my home state is now governed by a man with no real qualifications, a highly questionable ethical past and a mother he once sent to stand in for him at a debate. But victories like Rick Scott’s were the exception.
Overall, America rejected the crazies.
Stephen Broden, who suggested a violent overthrow of the federal government might soon be appropriate, lost in the Texas 30th Congressional District.
Christine O’Donnell, who actually had to begin a campaign ad with the words, “I’m not a witch,” lost her bid to become the next senator from Delaware.
Despite the sheer ineptitude her rival, Harry Reid, had shown as Senate majority leader, Sharron Angle, who invented a town in Texas that she claimed was governed by Muslim Sharia law, still went down to defeat in Nevada.
Linda McMahon, the former WWE executive whose family yacht is named “Sexy Bitch,” lost her Senate bid in Connecticut.
And my favorite candidate of this election cycle, Alvin Greene, who was nominated for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, despite the fact that he’s facing felony obscenity charges and that his job creation plan involved hiring people to make action figures of Alvin Greene, was handily defeated by Jim DeMint.
Call me sentimental, but I have to feel a little bit proud of the American people. They may have condemned the federal government to impossible gridlock for the next two years, but they had the good sense to keep Broden, O’Donnell, Angle, McMahon and Greene out of Washington.
That’s got to count for something.
Nathaniel French is a senior theater major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
