4. It has become quite clear that Republicans are not good at math. The Ryan Budget is a farce, but it gives big tax cuts to the wealth, which makes it very popular among the short-sighted and clueless uber-wealthy, while those of sounder mind like Warren Buffet have been sounding alarms and waving flags to call attention to what a bad idea the growing gulf between rich and poor is.

5. The Republicans seem fond of the concept of voter suppression. In moves that harken back to Jim Crow days, where people were prevented from voting based on the color of their skin, efforts are underway even as I write this to cut down on the number of polling booths, poll workers and facilities in neighborhoods where it is feared that the voters would lean Democratic, either for philosophical, cultural or economic reasons. In the meanwhile, Republicans have pounded on drums and blown horns to distract attention away from this widespread conspiracy by trumpeting the theme that voters who are not legally registered will for some reason try to fraudulently vote. As if someone who had not bothered to register really cared? Those claims would be laughable, if they were not dishonestly repeated endlessly by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the various other assets of The News Corporation, aka Richard Murdock (for which see above).

6. Extremism in pursuit of political office is a vice. Many years ago Barry Goldwater issued the famous line "Extremism in pursuit of liberty is no vice". Thanks Barry, that really wrote a bunch of lunatics a blank check, didn't it? Who is permitted to define "liberty"? Each individual has their own definition of it, so Goldwater seemed to be giving everyone in our country permission to engage in "extremism". And again, what is the definition of that? Todays GOP seem to believe that it means they can engage in dirty tricks, slander, serial lies, criminal conspiracy to suppress votes, fiscal irresponsibility and a host of other sins. And if they win, no one will ever, ever be able to investigate and call on them to account for their actions.

7. News Corps tapped the phones of British government officials and members of the Royal Family. The full investigation is continuing, but what is known so far strongly suggests that Rupert Murdock and his organization set out to gain damaging information about powerful figures in the British government, then use that information to "influence them". Some might call that blackmail. When that is confirmed, as seems likely, will anyone assume that such actions were confined to Britain, but were never, ever, ever practiced in the United States, because they would have been soooo, soooo wrong? No, one rather suspects that some outrageous things happened here as well.

And now that all of these things have come to the surface, and Mitt has called our attention to them by being who he is and acting the way he acts, none of what has come bubbling to the surface, like scum on a pond, is likely to be able to stuff back in the bottle again. Presidential Elections can sometimes have unexpected results, can't they? Light is often shone on places that have festered nicely in the dark for years, even decades. And when those areas of rot and corruption are dragged out into the light, they really, really don't look very attractive.

No one in our country will ever be able to forget what they have seen this year.