Yesterday, like everyone else, I was watching the US election, wondering whether Republican cheating and vote suppression would be enough to give them the White House. It wasn't. Some people think Obama's re-election made the world a better place, but they're fools. In case anyone has forgotten, Obama is pro-war, pro-torture, pro-drone-strikes, pro-extrajudicial murder. Yes, Romney was even more in favour of these crimes, but at best Obama's re-election has not made the world any worse than it already was. The fact that this is all we can expect from "the leader of the free world" at the moment is a sad commentary on the state of US politics and its attitudes towards the rest of the world.
There was however some genuinely good news yesterday, which did show that America, and the world, was becoming a better place: Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington all voted to legalise same-sex marriage. And voters in Minnesota, faced with a proposed amendment to their state constitution which would outlaw same-sex unions, rejected it. The tide of bigotry and hate in the US appears to be turning. And that, rather than the re-election of a failed President, is a genuine reason for hope.