NEW YORK -- President Barack Obama did not just win reelection tonight. His victory signaled the irreversible triumph of a new, 21st-century America: multiracial, multi-ethnic, global in outlook and moving beyond centuries of racial, sexual, marital and religious tradition.
Obama, the mixed-race son of Hawaii by way of Kansas, Indonesia, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, won reelection in good part because he not only embodied but spoke to that New America, as did the Democratic Party he leads. His victorious coalition spoke for and about him: a good share of the white vote (about 45 percent in Ohio, for example); 70 percent or so of the Latino vote across the country, according to experts; 96 percent of the African-American vote; and large proportions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The Republican Party, by contrast, has been reduced to a rump parliament of Caucasian traditionalism: white, married, church-going -- to oversimplify only slightly. "It's a catastrophe," said GOP strategist Steve Schmidt. "This is, this will have to be, the last time that the Republican Party tries to win this way."
The GOP chose as its standard-bearer Mitt Romney, whose own Mormon Church until recent decades discriminated officially against blacks. His campaign made little serious effort to reach out to Hispanics voters, and Romney hurt himself by taking far-right positions on immigration during the GOP primaries. He made no effort whatsoever in the black community.
Obama reached out not only racially and ethnically, but in terms of lifestyle. Analysts made fun of, and Republicans derided, his campaign's focus on discrete demographic and social slices of the electorate, including gays and lesbians. But the message was one about the future, not the American past.
U.S. Census numbers tell the story. In the first decade of the new millennium, the Asian-American population rose 43.3 percent, the African-American population 12.3 percent, the Latino community 43 percent -- and the white population just 5.7 percent.
To be sure, the president won because of his stand on the issues -- health care reform, Wall Street regulation, the auto industry bailout, among others. But his victory is something more: a sense that we are all in this together as a society, no matter who we are or how we live our lives.
I saw this new America at the heart of the Obama reelection effort, in their campaign offices. In one office in Virgina, for example, the local campaign manager was Pakistani-American, the volunteers were of every race and background, the people heading out to handle the signup drive were Hispanic, and the event they were working on was a concert by Bruce Springsteen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/barack-obama-reelection_n_2085819.html
That was the talk of all the talking heads on tv. This nation is changing and if the republican party wants to survive it HAS to adapt.
A new America? Nothing has changed. There needs to be change in order for it to be new.
Take a sociology class.
Quoting Godgaveme4:A new America? Nothing has changed. There needs to be change in order for it to be new.
Took one. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Quoting glitterteaz:
Take a sociology class.
Quoting Godgaveme4:
A new America? Nothing has changed. There needs to be change in order for it to be new.
how long ago? I took one recently a lot has changed demographically
Quoting Godgaveme4:Took one. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Quoting glitterteaz:
Take a sociology class.
Quoting Godgaveme4:
A new America? Nothing has changed. There needs to be change in order for it to be new.
Yes, taking a sociology class in 1964 does not count! Lol.
Quoting glitterteaz:
how long ago? I took one recently a lot has changed demographically
Quoting Godgaveme4:
Took one. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Quoting glitterteaz:
Take a sociology class.
Quoting Godgaveme4:
A new America? Nothing has changed. There needs to be change in order for it to be new.
It must of been the 50's Wellesley girls school
Quoting peg2000:Yes, taking a sociology class in 1964 does not count! Lol.
Quoting glitterteaz:
how long ago? I took one recently a lot has changed demographically
Quoting Godgaveme4:
Took one. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Quoting glitterteaz:
Take a sociology class.
Quoting Godgaveme4:
A new America? Nothing has changed. There needs to be change in order for it to be new.
I wonder if the Koch bros. kept their receipt.
Quoting Sisteract:You know, when you can not carry: your home state, your birth state, the state that you governed, your VP's state, any state save 1 that you've lived in, you're not going to win many elections-
Vocal anti gay marriage, award winning far right historian kills himself inside Notre-Dame Cathedral
- _Kissy_
on Nov. 7, 2012 at 2:12 AM