For real? Yes. What did you think was going to happen?

Rick Santorum won the Super Tuesday election in Oklahoma. No joke. Romney barely came in second, separated from Gingrich by 1,605 votes. That comes out to about 1/2 a percentage point. The fact that this surprised anyone genuinely surprised me. Disappointment is one thing, but that's how Oklahoma elections go for anyone who would be disappointed by Santorum taking the cake. Surprise, however, no. What did anyone, Republicans alike, think was going to happen?

Santorum is straight on with the atrocities that have been making their way through the house and senate here. I recently posted on the Personhood Act(s), and since people in Oklahoma have been voting for the legislators writing such legislation, it seems a natural thing that they'd vote for someone who talks like he's writing those piece all the live-long day. According to him and his zero tolerance for abortion, it would be best for women who become pregnant as the result of rape to accept their pregnancy as being what God had in store for them. Does that make rapists kind of like heavenly messengers? Please PLEASE! someone tell me how one can be pro-life and pro-death penalty.

And there's a fun twist: I'm Mormon. Did you know that? Did I just rock your world? And not rocking it because I'm Mormon but because I'm a left leaning democrat Mormon. Yes, I said the d-word and the m-word in the same sentence. Mormons can be liberal dems, and there are more of us than you think, we just don't frequently out ourselves in Mormon circles where majorities are still overwhelmingly conservative.

Back to point - There are many surprised/disappointed Mormon Romney supporters here in OK, and the same above paragraphs apply to them, but there is great irony. Most of them are very conservative. Like WAY more conservative than Romney, he is the moderate Republican option, remember? And I think it's soooo laughable. Yes, I said laughable, that they can't understand what Oklahoma was thinking when in reality, the peeps in OK who voted for Santorum were thinking what they (really conservative Romney supporters) are always thinking with the exception of having any investment in a Mormon candidate. We're the reddest state in the nation, of course the rightiest right uberest of uber conservative would win. If you take pride in/contribute to the color of your state, you can't be disappointed/surprised when the "moderate" doesn't win.

In all fairness, Romney broke my heart several years ago. Way back when my voter registration card still had an "R" on it, back when Romney was actually moderate. I was really excited about him, in hopes that he could save the Republican party from the severely right "Christians" who were ruining the party I was still trying to justify. A post from way back when. Those darn super PACs and a certain movement identifying themselves as a "party" within my former party. It's so unfortunate that politicians have to sell their idealistic souls just to get elected. Nothing new with that thought, no more surprises, right?

Have you read the Audacity of Hope yet? Please do. I need to read it again. Until then, I leave you with this poem by Lauren Zuniga (it's one I previously shared, and the words that made me okay and not want to pack up our home and move back to Hyde Park after the last Oklahoma gubernatorial election):

A poem to progressives plotting mass exodus

Do not let them drive you away. Here is where you are needed the most.

There is a sick pit in your stomach.
A plantation in your front yard.
The static flicker of black and white.
An absurd talking picture,
where sepia skin is now villain.
You are not sure who to trust anymore.
Everyone walks backward in your neighborhood.
You are surrounded by billboards with hate-sized font.
You are looking for a secret handshake.
A fish with feet drawn in the sand.
Blue paint on the door frame.
You resent even the dirt for being so damn red.
At night you are a furious search engine.
Screaming down the track toward
some kind of Shangri-La.
Portland has no jobs.
Canada doesn't want you.
You hear property is cheap in Costa Rica.
Even Cuba seems safer than your next PTA meeting.
Anywhere is better than here.
But here is your home.
Here is where you chose to raise your kids
because the people are so friendly.
Do not let them drive you away.
Here is where you are needed the most.
Here is where the sunset stretches its arms wide as forgiveness across stolen plains.
Here is where Clara Luper sat down at the Katz lunch counter and asked to be served.
Here is where black and white soldiers fought alongside each other for the first time.
Where Kate Barnard was elected before she could even vote.
Where hippies squatted in Paseo until it became an art district.
Here is where Charlie Christian learned guitar.
Where Wayne Coyne keeps the bubble.
Where Woodrow Wilson Guthrie played the harmonica for sandwiches.
Here is where the healing has to take place.
Tell them you are not moving.
Oklahoma is worth the wait.
Sometimes evolution feels like
the stinging cramp in the back of your knees when you grow too fast for your outdated bones.
Sometimes it feels like a house in the city
with three goats, 10 chickens and 12 wild kids.
Tear up the sidewalk.
Plant a garden.
Bake a squash casserole and invite
all your terrified neighbors over.
Say "As-Salamu alaykum" to everyone you meet.
Fill out all government forms in Español.
Check all the boxes for your race.
Ride your bike to work. Make art in the streets.
Feed people without a license.
Go to city council meetings.
Sit in at the state House and Senate.
Wear a purple boa. Don't apologize for your presence.
Write love letters to mothers and fathers in prison.
To the wardens, the police officers, the judges.
Write love letters to queer kids and their bullies.
Tell them you are staying here for THEM.
Kiss a Republican on the cheek.
Show them how to love someone you don't understand.
DO SOMETHING with that tight fist.
That broken heart.
That liberal mouth.
Progress is a series
of small bold moves.
Don't leave.
Here is where
we need you.

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