Political Party: Celebrate Good (Election) Times, Come on!

It was nail-bitingly close there for a while there last night, but the results are in: Obama will wear that POTUS hat for four more years, at least 19 women will serve in the Senate, three more states voted for same-sex marriage (or as it’s sometimes known, “marriage”), and two states legalized it. Yahtzee!

Put your hands up!

That hangover you’re nursing right now was worth it: Feminists have a lot to celebrate! Not only did women crush it last night (hey New Hampshire ladies!) but rape apologists/deniers/ignorers got their asses handed to them. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, guys!

Rape exists. DEAL WITH IT.

As is the case with any victory (or New Year’s party) worth celebrating, I’ve spent the majority of today reliving last night’s awesomeness. Join me! Some ways we can do this include:

• Rewatching/reading Obama’s acceptance speech (and recrying during the part where he says, “Michelle I have never loved you more”)
• Joining the world in its celebration of “Hair Flag Lady”
• Delighting in the shit show that is Donald Trump’s Twitter feed
• Looking at photos of all of the women in the Senate
• Laughing at Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s warning "not to break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly” when the weed starts flowing
• Glowing with pride that the US elected its first openly gay politician to the Senate, its first Asian American (and Buddhist) woman to the Senate, its first Hindu American congresswoman, and its first disabled woman to the House. (The fact that two of these kickass women are named Tammy surely hasn’t escaped Ron Swanson’s attention, either.)
• Reading this New Yorker article on how we're entering "the Malia generation"
• Binging on celebration photos like this one of a ridiculously cute Maryland couple who got engaged last night

Congratulations you two!

Of course, the US is far from perfect and last night’s election results can’t fix all of our problems (see: the racist response to Obama’s victory last night, for starters). We’ve got work to do, sure, but we have reason to be optimistic. For the first time in recent memory, it feels like the tide is turning. The War on Women was unsuccessful because the majority of US citizens don’t want to tell women what to do with their bodies.The sexism, racism, homophobia, and ableism that have been the political norm in this country lost big because--maybe, hopefully--they aren’t the norm anymore. As President Obama put it last night :

What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on Earth…. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight.

For the first time in a long time, it feels like he might be onto something.