An editorial from the Iowa State Daily Editorial Board recently stated that “It has become apparent demographics and demographic changes drove this year’s election cycle.” The Editorial Board agreed with Mitt Romney that Barack Obama won because he showered the electorate with “gifts” such as “student loan interest forgiveness, contraceptives, health care and the like.” This premise is wholly rejected by progressive Americans. Surely our country is becoming more diversified with a record number of Americans of non-European descent voting in this year’s election.

The winner of this election is not the result of the Democratic Party’s attempt to “gerrymander” as the Editorial Board puts it. No, this election was a referendum on American values.

Americans firmly decided that gays deserve equal rights in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. Americans rejected the 1950s-style arguments against equal rights.

Americans agreed with 97.4 percent of climate scientists that climate change is real. Americans rejected the idea that the science community is faking data so Obama can raise your taxes.

Americans said yes to a responsible path towards economic recovery and the debt. Americans rejected a swath of Republicans that said that they would not agree to a “10-to-one” spending cut to tax increase.

Americans embraced women’s rights. Americans rejected Todd Akin’s statements on “legitimate rape” and the Republican Party’s platform of disallowing abortion even in the cases of rape and incest.

The Editorial Board griped about the vast array of minority group buttons and stated, “Where were the ‘Americans for Obama’ buttons?” Well you know what? America’s values are now those of women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, nurses, Jews, gays, lesbians, veterans, students and environmentalists. Long gone are the days when “American values” are the values of just white Anglo-Saxon men. The values of America reflect a movement away from values of The Grand Old Party’s platform and a movement towards a value set that is representative of its people.