In the days after a presidential election, vitriol and hate from the disappointed side is to be expected. After all, they just lost an 18-month, $1.6 billion contest.
Smugness and gloating from the winning side is also spewed reliably. And who can blame them, either? They just won a hotly contested, highly spirited marathon.
You can’t have an election without aftermath, especially one in which the nation split nearly down the middle. Editorials and opinion pieces about “America divided” are being churned out almost as quickly as Facebook posts by people who suddenly plan to move to another country.
Hyperbole is an easy reaction to disappointment. People who supported Mitt Romney for president have a right to be upset, and the way many have chosen to express their feelings is through claims that the country is now on the express train to ruin.
It’s an overreaction, but there is nothing wrong with venting about how the country committed suicide Tuesday (that’s real — it was posted on cincinattiteaparty.com). And talk of secession is a natural — if excessive — way to cope with anger at roughly 50 percent of the country.
But not all of the hellfire and brimstone talk is totally unprovoked. Some Barack Obama supporters have gotten a little overzealous with their celebrations. A blog called “White People Mourning Romney,” while a fairly entertaining source of schadenfreude, seems almost designed to spur a reaction from the people it depicts in tears.
Other Obama supporters have taken a less passive method of showing their glee: directly targeting upset Romney fans. After Donald Trump went on a Twitter tirade about the state of the country, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams called him out live on TV, and thousands of less famous people berated Trump in unison.
Neither camp can be faulted for going a bit crazy after such a long, emotional campaign. And even though the next month or so will be fraught with Republicans blaming the “liberal media,” and Democrats laughing at Republicans, it will all calm down eventually.
Then, finally, the country can get back to arguing about important things. Like Dancing With The Stars.
Joe Fox is the associate editor of The Post. Email him at
jf250409@ohiou.edu.
