Editor:
 
Obama wins. That surprised a lot of people, apparently including many significant Republicans that predicted a large victory by Romney. Some said that the “Frankenstorm” kept the vote down. But that is what Republicans were already doing in Democratic leaning districts all over the country.  
 
Some say that the “paleface” party can no longer win against the multi-ethnic party. You only had to watch the TV shots of the crowds at the respective acceptance/concession gatherings if you had any doubts about the demographic reality. 
 
What continues to surprise me is not that the Democrats can eke out a win (and with a black candidate in a very racist country), but that some 58 million people will vote Republican. They might as well be voting for the tooth fairy. Republican politics are a giant con, a multi-faceted scam.  There is only one goal: The rich get richer, and the richest of the rich get richer faster. 
 
Statistics tell us that the 1 percent have “made out like bandits” in the last few years. They have pocketed something like 60 percent of the gains in income since the recession began. Of the major developed nations, we have the greatest disparity of wealth. The big money that flooded Romney with hundreds of millions should love Obama. 
 
So how do the R’s get millions of white working men and women to vote for a party that wants to fleece them of their very last dime? Fear. Listen to a Glenn Beck rant for five minutes and you will hear that the country is being destroyed; that you will need to get all the guns and ammo you can get; that your lives are going to turn to crap; that the “others” are just trying to take everything you have got; and the “others” are not good, hard-working, God-fearing white people like you are. Of course, an alien, Muslim, black president hates everything about you.
 
The political challenge in America today is to bring people together to achieve our common goals and defeat the forces that try to tear us apart. 

Patrick Hunter
Carbondale