What the election settled | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Wow! Elections do have consequences. Even before the inauguration, America's future is different.

1. Because Barack Obama was re-elected president, America now will have universal health insurance. Gov. Mitt Romney really did plan to dismantle it on day one.

By the time another Republican is president (after Hillary Clinton in 2016), Americans will be as uninterested in junking it as they are in abolishing Medicare.

2. After the shellacking from America's ever-growing Hispanic population, Republicans now talk about comprehensive immigration reform. Even conservative Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity says he has "evolved": "It's simple … you control the border first. You create a pathway for those people that are here — you don't say you've got to go home."

Maybe Sen. Orrin Hatch will recant his abandonment of his proposed DREAM Act.

3. After voters in four states — not state legislatures or supreme courts — favored gay rights, it's hard to imagine Republicans who want to win elections opposing equal treatment for citizens who happen to be gay. Increasingly, voters think otherwise.

Eight years ago, President George W. Bush mobilized voters by championing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. That couldn't happen now.

This election settled some issues.

Robert Johnson

Salt Lake City