2008 was not a drill. President Barack Obama was re-elected Tuesday night and it was not even close. It’s the old adage in politics that political division is the result of “crowded spaces versus empty spaces.” Obama won in almost all of the battle ground states – what I like to call Obama’s Big 10 firewall of Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin. He also took Florida from Gov. Mitt Romney’s column. But now what? What does this mean?
We learned a few things Tuesday night that the Republican Party should take note of if they plan on winning an election anytime soon.
First, moderation prevailed over extremism and tolerance reigns over intolerance. Todd Akin “legitimately” lost his bid for Senate as did Richard Mourdock.
White voters do not make up the same percentage of voters that they did when Reagan came to Washington on his white stallion.
The times have changed as have the demographics. Republicans isolate themselves from several large voting blocs.
At some point the G.O.P’s war on women will get old and the Republicans will have to address his reality.
Gays vote and they aren’t voting for Republicans. In Maryland, Maine and Washington, voters voted in favor of a measure to have same-sex marriage, in addition to the already six other states that allow this measure.
Minorities vote, especially Hispanics, so Romney’s plan to make life so miserable for illegal immigrants that they would engage in self-deportation may have rubbed more than a few in the Hispanic community the wrong way. The hostility Republicans show towards Hispanics and immigration is insulting, especially in a nation full of immigrants.
David Brooks wrote during the South Carolina Republican Primary, “I sometimes wonder if the Republican Party has become the receding roar of white America as it pines for a way of life that will never return.” I guess Republicans have another four years to figure it out.
But with re-election come thoughts of what Obama will do in his second term as president. What will Obama’s legacy be?
On the home front, Obama has to get this country’s fiscal house in order. The fiscal cliff debate will rage on until the first of the year as both parties try to wrestle with how to fix our debt problem.
Unemployment hovering around eight percent simply isn’t good enough. The auto- bailout probably saved around one million jobs and helped Obama carry Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
It appears Obama’s health care reform is here to stay. This signature piece of legislation from Obama’s first term will not go fully into effect in 2014, but there are already a number of provisions that are popular with Americans such as the provision on pre-existing conditions and kids on their parent’s health care plan until they are 26 years old.
It won’t be easy on the home front for Obama, but what will be demanded him internationally won’t be any easier.
His administration has done nothing about the conflict in Syria and we have strained our relationship with Israel with Obama’s refusal to take a hard line on Iran. Speaking of Iran, they have finally asked to sit down at the negotiating table because of the success of our crippling sanctions over their “nuclear program.” And our decade- long war in Afghanistan will come to an end too as the United States will begin its draw down of the remaining troops in 2014.
Obama came to Washington in 2008 riding the wave of hope and change. Obama and America are no longer drinking this Kool-Aid and have wised up to the reality of Washington, so Obama was re-elected not to change Washington, but instead to make Washington function again.