Ross Douthat, a conservative, Republican-supporting columnist in the NY Times, a columnist who bought the unskewed polling bs and believed Romney would win, has gone throught the 5 stages of grief quickly and arrived at some degree of acceptance.
When you do it once, it’s just a victory. When you do it twice, it’s a realignment.
The coalition that Barack Obama put together to win the presidency handily in 2008 looked a lot like the emerging Democratic majority that optimistic liberals had been discerning on the political horizon since the 1990s. It was the late George McGovern’s losing coalition from 1972 finally come of age: Young voters, the unmarried, African-Americans, Hispanics, the liberal professional class – and then more than enough of the party’s old blue collar base to hold the Rust Belt for the Democrats.
[He goes on to talk about doubts whether 2008 was real or related to Bush and the crash, but concludes that November 2012 shows that the realignment is real]
In this sense, just as Reagan Republicanism dominated the 1980s even though the Democrats controlled the House, our own era now clearly belongs to the Obama Democrats even though John Boehner is still speaker of the House.
snip
But getting there [back to victory for Rs] requires that conservatives face reality: The age of Reagan is officially over, and the Obama majority is the only majority we have.
NY Times, Russ Douthat, The Obama Realignment
It's an interesting article to read, and I love the conclusion:
The age of Reagan is officially over, and the Obama majority is the only majority we have
I voted against Ronald Reagan in 1980 (for Carter) and 1984 (for Mondale). I truly believe the core problems of the last 32 years can be traced in large measure to the inequality his policies helped bring on. Never liked him, opposed him for years and still oppose his policies.
I love to hear these words:
The age of Reagan is officially over, and the Obama majority is the only majority we have
There are plenty of struggles ahead, but we finally are beginning to turn it around. Many deserve credit for this, but much should go to Barack Obama. I think he will go down in history as an FDR-like figure. We don't always see it now because we live day-to-day, but America is changing. That gives me great hope!