Moving On with Barack Obama
“I want you to know that this wasn’t fate, and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen,” wrote President Barack Obama to his supporters on the day after his stunning victory. “You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed forward.”
Yes, for the hard-pressed supporters who had hoped against hope that Obama would get another four years to complete the architecture of their dreams, it is morning in America. Not a golden sunlit surreal morning but morning nevertheless, tinged with the chilly reality of the world as it is. This victory is a remarkable coming together of different people and races, reflective of the changing face of the nation, the browning of America.
According to the Pew Research Center, nationally, nonwhite voters made up 28% of all voters, up from 26% in 2008, and Obama won 80% of these voters: “Obama’s support from nonwhites was a critical factor in battleground states, especially Ohio and Florida. In Ohio, blacks were 15% of the electorate, up from 11% in 2008. In Florida, Hispanics were 17% of the electorate, a slight increase from 14% in 2008. While minority compositional gains were not huge, they offset a strong tilt against Obama among white voters. Nationally, Romney won the white vote, 39 % to 59 %.” You can read the full report here
Obama’s supporters included women, young people, gay and lesbians, many minorities with small dreams and big aspirations. In Romney’s America, they would have been building these dreams on quicksand, and that is why they braved the ravages of Sandy, dark and unheated homes and gas shortages to wait on long lines to vote.
It is a changing America alright – The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers points out the largest number of women ever will be serving in the 113 Congress – an all time-high of 20 women in the Senate, and 76 women in the US House. Maggie Hassan became the Governor of New Hampshire – the first state to have all women holding all of its top elected posts.
Women, half the population of America, have made other notable gains this election. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) becomes the first Hindu-American in Congress; Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is the first openly gay person in the US Senate; Mazie Hirono (D-HI) is the first Asian/Pacific Islander woman elected to the US Senate and the first US Senator born in Japan. Also four states have elected women to the US Senate for the first time.
It is the vision of a level playing ground for everyone, the inclusive nature of America that Obama conveys that won him the victory. “I believe we can keep the promise of our founding — the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or where you love — it doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white, or Hispanic or Asian, or Native American, or young or old, or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight — you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.”
What supporters have always loved about Obama is the hope he conveys, the possibility that we can all reach out to our better natures. “I’m not talking about blind optimism — the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path,” he said in his remarks on election night.
“I’m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us, so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.”
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