A victory for the 99 percent.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Comment - United States presidential election - Viewpoint essay

November 6 was a great day for progressives. M1 across America, voters resoundingly rejected the party of millionaires who dismissed as "freeloaders" the tens of millions Americans who depend on Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and college loans.

Women voters came out in force to defeat the Congressional candidates who crawled out from under a rock to try to redefine rape and relitigate our right to control our own bodies.

And appeals to racists and xenophobes went down to defeat. "Romney self-deported from the White House," said Republican analyst Ana Navarro on CNN.

Historic ballot initiatives giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry passed in Maine, Maryland, and Michigan, and Minnesota defeated a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited it--landmark progress on one of the great civil rights battles of our time.

President Obama was reelected with a message that emphasized progressive values. At rally after rally, he talked about ending wars, preserving Medicare and Social Security for our seniors, and defending the right of people not to be denied coverage if they have a preexisting condition. He talked about helping kids out of poverty by making college more affordable and building "sturdy ladders" to the middle class, making the rich pay their fair share of taxes, supporting a woman's right to choose, upholding gay rights, and battling the entrenched interests in Washington whose only concern is to cater to the most well off.

As he told a crowd in Madison, Wisconsin, on the day before the election, "I am not going to kick some poor kid off of Head Start to give me another tax cut." He added: "The folks at the very top: They don't need another champion in Washington."

Mitt Romney was their champion. He was the candidate of the 1 percent. This was a victory for the 99 percent.

For us in Wisconsin, the sweetest moment on Election Night was seeing Tammy Baldwin defeat Tommy Thompson in that hotly contested Senate race.

The crowd at the Tammy Baldwin victory party at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in downtown Madison was euphoric. All night, the returns rolled in on giant screens in the ballroom. As Democratic victories piled up in state after state, the crowd cheered wildly. Newly elected Congressman Mark Pocan kissed his husband, Phil, to the delight of his constituents. The room exploded as the news from Ohio arrived, and Baldwin took the stage.

That a Dane County...