There were so many. I’ll just share a handful that jumped out at me.
From the New York Times:
The magnitude of the Democratic wave was amplified by the remarkable spectacle of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in a doomed effort to preserve the state’s Republican leadership. After moving parts of his business empire to Texas, Mr. Musk poured at least $212 million into supporting Mr. Paxton, which was part of at least $224 million devoted to races in the state.“
On Wednesday, from Andy Borowitz (via Facebook):
In another post-election development, an embittered Elon Musk angrily put Ken Paxton on eBay.
The billionaire was hoping to recoup some of his $190 million purchase of Paxton, but in the Texan’s first hours on eBay the bidding for him stalled at six dollars.
Musk refused to answer reporters’ questions about the eBay fiasco as he boarded a rocket for Mars.“
In addition to the scope of the Dems’ victory, historic firsts occurred throughout the nation: first black woman governor (Georgia), first openly gay male senator (New Hampshire), first Muslim Senator (Michigan), and – very likely – the first black senator out of Mississippi since 1881.
It was also worth noting that the new governor of Ohio will be a woman who was raped by her stepdad when she was 12, and who last saw her mother in a courtroom at age 12. That is, until Acton’s gubernatorial opponent, Vivek Ramaslimy (and yes, that’s how I spell his name; feel free to propagate it) featured Acton’s mom in a campaign ad.
My point is simply this: somehow Amy Acton overcame the devastating trauma of her childhood to become the person she is now, and to become the governor of Ohio, and that is amazing.
Starting at the 2-minute mark in this clip, Jen Psaki talks about Acton, and tells a moving story about something Acton told her in an interview. (Just watch from the 2-minute point for about 53 seconds; it’s worth it. Never mind the rest of the clip.)
I’m also moved to big admiration for Josh Turek, the senator-elect from Iowa — born with spina bifida and confined to a wheelchair — for his grace and clarity and strength of character. I think it’s tremendous that he won.
And, though it’s been relatively little remarked upon, I have to say, when I was a kid, it would have been highly unlikely for a divorced single mom of three children to be elected to much of anything, even if she was also a doctor. And in South Carolina yet!
So I say kudos to Annie Andrews! And while I frankly don’t think her victory speech, as a whole, was particularly special, starting right at about the 12:17 mark , when she says: “And most importantly – we had to move this part to the end so I wouldn’t be a blubbering idiot up here – most importantly thank you to my family…” … she holds it together when she takes a few seconds to thank her parents, but when she turns to her children, she loses it a little as she speaks to them for a minute or so, and they are looking back at her with so much love and pride in their mom and they are clearly so happy for her … it brings tears to my eyes too. So I recommend watching that minute and a half, though not the whole speech.
By contrast, I found Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed’s victory speech compelling from beginning to end, and as far as I could tell, he wasn’t even reading anything. You can easily find that speech online, and since I cannot single out a particular excerpt for highlighting, I won’t link to it. However, I do want to call attention to remarks from his fellow Michigan senator, Elissa Slotkin, especially at the 3:06 mark when she alludes to “the idea that the state of Michigan can send one Jewish senator and one Muslim senator…” I like that very much.
Then there were the newscasts. So many adorable moments but I’ll just point to a couple, both from one CNN clip.
Check out Van Jones’s words starting right about 4:34 in this clip; listen for the whole minute that follows.
Later in that same clip, at 11:18, Kaitlin Collins says “I’m just showing John King what the president also just wrote …” Just watch, from that moment, the next 30 seconds or so. Priceless! (My favorite moment is when John King looks directly into the camera and speaks to Trump.)
Happy weekend! Yay democracy!
Leave a Reply