The Blog

The election results depress me, though not as much as the liberal triumphalism infuriates. Still, I was able to take away some silver lining: Nine million fewer Americans voted in 2008 than 2012, and the Democrats were only barely able to beat what the World Socialist Web Site has called “a Republican nominee who represents in the most crass and naked form the greed of the financial aristocracy.”

For its part, the punditocracy as well as elected officials rely upon three stock phrases to describe what’s coming: “Bipartisanship,” “reaching across the aisle” and “fiscal cliff.” Translation? Simpson-Bowles is coming. Get ready to pull some extra shifts at work to help grandma afford her cat food.

The most frustrating aspect for me is the inability of liberals to actually confront the policies of Barack Obama AKA the policies of George W. Bush. Precisely what makes Obama so dangerous is that he has deepened and extended the policies of Bush with nary a hair of opposition from the official electoral “left.”

Remember all those protests against NDAA, Bradley Manning and drone attacks? Me neither.

In the spirit of raising consciousness, here’s a list of things that, yes Virginia, you absolutely endorsed on Tuesday:

• The National Defense Authorization Act, which allows for the indefinite detention of Americans in military prisons without charge.
• The illegal detention of Bradley Manning, which might have actually succeeded in forcing a confession out of him.
• The expansion of the “War on Terror” into Yemen.
• An illegal war in Libya.
• Drone attacks in Pakistan, resulting in over 3,000 casualties, many of them children.
• Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-trafficking operation that put assault weapons into the hands of Mexican drug lords. These weapons later killed Mexican children in a massacre.
• The assassination of American citizens for making YouTube videos — and their kids.
• More raids on medical marijuana dispensaries than Bush.
• Monsanto execs as senior advisors to the FDA.
• Continuing the policy of rendition, which kidnaps people and ships them to other countries to be tortured.
• Protection of Bush-era torturers.

On the other side, we’ve got empty rhetoric on marriage equality and scare tactics on reproductive rights. Liberals might be able to comfort themselves by repeating that they “don’t support those policies” over and over again. This carries about as much weight as Republicans who are socially liberal but wanted a tax cut. These are, in fact, the policies that Obama voters have supported, endorsed and marked with their seal of approval by pulling the lever for Democrats.

You voted for it, America.