My faith in the American electoral process was largely confirmed last week, and not merely because the candidate I supported for president was the winner.

Specifically, I was heartened by:

* Message trumping money. The likes of Karl Rove and the Koch brothers spent hundreds of millions of dollars through their super PACs in trying to unseat President Obama and get Mitt Romney and other Republicans elected, but they're spending was almost entirely for naught. Voters chose to focus on the positions of candidates rather than be swayed by tear-down ads, and in the end, except for a U.S. Senate victory in Nevada, Rove and the Kochs had nothing to show for their money.
* Voters being smart enough to reject ignorant men who say such things as women rarely get pregnant from "legitimate rape" and pregnancy resulting from rape is a "gift from God."
* The utter failure of Republican efforts to suppress Democratic votes. In state after state, GOP-led governments tried to impose voter ID laws that unfairly impacted minorities and young people — groups that typically vote Democratic — and shorten "early voting" periods in heavily Democratic areas. And in state after state, the courts struck these efforts down.
* The defeat of prominent Tea Party members of the House, specifically Reps. Joe Walsh, Allen West and the Hudson Valley's Nan Hayworth. These people's complete inflexibility, refusal to compromise and "my way or the highway" attitudes have no place in government.Thankfully, these people no longer have jobs in government.
* The repudiation of right-wing positions on social issues, particularly abortion and same-sex marriage. The nation is changing, and if the Republican Party doesn't start to change with it, at least a little, it is certain to become weaker and weaker in coming elections.
* New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, acknowledging the help of Democratic President Obama in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. It was nice to see an elected official, for a change, put people ahead of party politics, regardless of the season.
* The strong turnout at the polls among immigrants. This is yet another indicator of our changing nation and one that all elected officials need to take seriously.
* Karl Rove and Dick Morris making fools of themselves on national TV. Call it schadenfreude if you like. I call it just desserts.
* Nate Silver, of The New York Times' "Five Thirty-Eight" blog, picking all 50 states in the presidential election correctly. (Hey, Nate, wanna go to Saratoga with me next summer? Maybe the Romneys will enter a horse in a race and you can predict the number of lengths by which it will lose!)