Does Obama’s Big Win Signal A ‘New America?’
In case you hadn’t heard, President Barack Obama was reelected last night.
And it wasn’t even that close, actually. Obama took 303 electoral points to Romney’s 206.
And now everyone is trying to figure out what it all means. According to Howard Fineman, Obama’s reelection signals the ascendancy of a “New America;” one typified by diversity, a global 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 Obama Campaign’s slogan “FORWARD” perfectly reflected this idea; a focus on moving America into a diverse, inclusive future.
Meanwhile, the GOP’s approach went up in flames last night. How they change to adjust to this changing America – if at all – remains to be seen.
Thoughts on Obama’s victory?
Are we seeing the dawn of a “New America?”
Sound off below!