By Larry Durstin
Make no mistake, this was a seismic election and one that will be talked about for decades and decades. No, it didn’t “change America” in the same manner that so many elections have claimed to do in the past. More significantly, it was the glorious manifestation of a Changed America from which there is no turning back.
We all know about the demographic shift that has been inching along and slowly rearing its electoral head for the past few decades: Minorities (especially the exploding Latino vote), young people with a radically different social perspective than the much older folks who lean Republican and the growing clout of women in every aspect of society. Well, last week “here we come” turned into “here we are.”
The numbers in support of President Obama among the above-mentioned voting blocs were absolutely staggering, as were the numbers in his favor in the key battleground states that ultimately decide elections. With this year’s outcome, the Democrats notched their fourth victory in the last six elections, during which the two winning Dems (Clinton, Obama) averaged 361 electoral votes as compared to George W’s two victories, which averaged 279 electoral votes.
In only one election of the last six has the GOP won the popular vote, and the average totals in these half-dozen contest show the Democratic candidates with a six million vote edge. Based on these results, it’s not much of a stretch to argue that the Republicans came within a whisker (one state in 2000 and 2004) of losing all six races. As far as presidential contests go, the GOP may not be dead, but it certainly can be argued that it is on life support. Hell, exit polls even showed that the majority of voters were in favor of raising taxes, an issue the Republicans have owned seemingly since time immemorial.
Oh, they’ll continue to bray and bluster and come the 2014 mid-terms, they will perform fairly well — as happens all the time in these elections where the national turnout is around 40% as compared to the 60% in presidential years and most of the energy is on the side of the party out of power. But, unless there is drastic repositioning on issues like abortion, immigration and economic equity (changes that will touch off a civil war within the party) these mid-term triumphs will be fool’s gold, lulling the GOP into believing it has a real mandate for its reactionary positions.
In contrast, Obama is in position to be not only a historical figure (which he already is) but a truly transformative president by building on his impressive first-term accomplishments of saving the auto industry; appointing two progressive Supreme Court justices; beginning the once-thought-to-be-impossible reform of the health care system and immigration laws; and championing the civil rights of gays and equal pay for women.
In his second term, he has the opportunity to further the successful policies of his first four years and also possibly alter the insane drug laws that have destroyed millions of lives and lined the pockets of the prison industrial complex; cement true immigration reform into law; make advances in the area of climate change and green energy; strengthen unions and the rights of working people; make progress (based on his balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) toward peace in the Middle East; appoint another one or two progressives to the Supreme Court along with dozens of federal judges; and finally put a nail in the coffin of the greed-is-good, lock-em-up, let’s-wiggle-our-wizened-tools-at-the-rest-of-the-world Reagan Era.
And speaking of that dark and disturbing right-wing “revolution” which began with the 1980 election and put into motion policies which have led to massive income disparity, much of the credit for bringing that grotesque trend to public awareness must go to Occupy Wall Street, an incredibly small group of people who – starting in the early fall of 2011 – managed to change the national dialogue on the wealth gap by talking about the 99 percent. So, by this past summer when Obama began mercilessly hammering away at Mitt Romney for being a poster boy for the “one percent,” the foundation for the president’s argument had been put in place by OWS, leaving the GOP whining about “class warfare” – once a surefire winner for the R’s that was ground to dust by the efforts of the Wall Street protestors.
The publicity, excitement, righteousness and “coolness” of OWS raised the consciousness of millions of young people whom the GOP were counting on to lose the enthusiasm-fueled energy that produced record-setting turnout for Obama in 2008. Instead, they showed up in comparable numbers this year and voted overwhelmingly to re-elect the president. As did those, mostly, African Americans who heroically stood in line for hours and hours in order to throw the Republicans’ voter suppression efforts back in their pasty pusses. (In Ohio, the turnout among blacks went from 11 percent of the electorate in 2008 to 15 percent this year – an astonishing 36 percent increase in the face of the GOP’s well-financed efforts at voter repression and intimidation).
Turnout also exploded among Latinos, union members and their families and, of course, women — all of whom won’t soon forget about the self-deportation, anti-collective-bargaining and legitimate-rape garbage that was hurled at them.
It can certainly be argued that this year’s election victory is much more significant than 2008 because of the obstacles faced by Obama. Four years ago, with the horrid state of the economy at the end of the Bush years and the ineptitude of the bizarre McCain-Palin ticket, just about any credible Democrat would have been elected. Not so this time around, with Obama having to deal with – from day one in office – a devastated economy, lingering high unemployment, Congressional obfuscation by Republicans and, literally, a billion, race-baiting, fear-mongering, truth-distorting dollars thrown at him non-stop. Yet, he still won going away and now has a chance to become the stuff of legends.
But what about that hope-and-change promise that Obama made in 2008 and that the Republicans smugly scoffed at during the campaign? Well, here’s a news bulletin: the hope is still alive and the change in America – as shown by this seismic election – is already a done deal.
Mission accomplished.
Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com
3 Responses to “A Changed America Roars for Obama”
IndyCA35
What change? Two states (Indiana and North Carolina) changed from 2008.
This despite $300,000,000 of Obama ads claiming Romney eats babies for breakfast.
The only thing that did change was that Romney was not very popular with Republicans. 3,000,000 fewer registered Republicans came out and voted for him vs. McCain. Do you honestly think that an Obamunist can win next time if Obama’s abysmal failure list continues for four years?
BTW: More than half the congressional districts in the USA voted for representatives that OPPOSED Obamunism.
Larry Durstin
That Bojangles was one helluva tap dancer
Theodore
Why all the roaring? Did you not notice that Obama received several million LESS votes than he did in 2008? And once the real expenses of this party come due and the promises turn out to have an expiration date, what then? Diminishing turnout and coming disappointement do not bode well for either party, and the real bill will still have to be paid. And the “1%” don’t have anywhere near that much money. Have any of you progressives stopped to wonder why the Chinese have adopted capitalism and now have a very healthy economy, while both the left and right standard bearers here have embraced socialism, whether for the “community” or the corporation, and the economy continues to fade here. The left is even more clueless than the right, quite an accomplishment. Third World America? Yes, here it comes. You like the idea, you won’t like the reality.