Although polls leading up to the election assured us an Obama victory, few of us could release the breath we’d been holding for months until the incredible results began flowing in.
Obama’s win is the crest of a wave that has been building for a year and a half across the country. The surge in enthusiasm for politics and a politician will subside as the cold realities of our economic downturn and the limits of what one administration can do settle in. However, this democratic surge should not conceal the underlying changes in the American electorate that allowed Obama to gain the White House.
Youth To Power
Over half of registered young voters cast their ballot, nearing the historic record of 55% set in 1972.
Who did they vote for? Voters under 30 picked Barack Obama over John McCain by a 2-1 margin. There has never been such a dramatic difference between the preferences of older voters and younger voters since such things were recorded.
There are some other great stats on youth turnout here, but one that caught my eye was that young voters in states with a high campaign presence turned out at a higher rate than voters who lived in "battleground" states that weren’t targeted. This means that when you reach out to young voters, they respond. Obama’s campaign had an unprecedented level of direct contact with young voters through their registration efforts, email and text message communication, and the traditional calls and knocks.
And guess what? Voting’s a habit, and there’s no better predictor of future voting than voting in the previous election. Republicans, welcome to the new America.
A Voice For Cities
While Americans continue to collect in dense urban and suburban areas, fleeing collapsed rural economies to centers of new technology and growth, America’s presidency has not paralleled this shift.
Campaigns at the national level continue to act as though there is a balance between urban and rural populations, and that suburbs consist of 1950’s style white picket fences and apple pies on the windowsill. In reality, nearly 80% of Americans live in or very near an urban area.
Presidents W. Bush and Clinton embraced their small town rural roots, no matter how tenuous, playing them to their advantage. In Clinton’s case, his smooth drawl was a powerful weapon compared to George Senior’s patrician New England nasal twang.
But Barack Obama will be a voice for cities. Although raised in Hawaii, he found a home in Chicago and New York’s jam-packed neighborhood furnaces that meld diverse cultures; the so-called "melting pot." Barack Obama has taken subways in Manhattan, stood frozen on Chicago’s South Side El platforms, and no doubt knows the pain of cabs passing him by due to the color of his skin.
With less than 2% of Americans employed in the rural agricultural economy, it’s important for our President to understand the source of jobs and wealth: our cities. Without investment in infrastructure, from roads and trains to high speed internet, our economy can not grow. We’ve seen the effects of an administration that refuses to invest in our country over the last eight years- jobs bleeding overseas, the disintegration of urban infrastructure, and the plummeting quality of education and health care.
World Class Education
Obama broke down the doors of institutions that long served merely as conduits of power from one generation of the privileged class to the next. George W. Bush was one of those "legacy" students, using his family’s name and fortune to secure a spot among the mediocre elite. He has now secured a different legacy for himself in history, of which the pithy "Worst President Ever" provides an efficient summary.
Our next president will understand that education is a tool to achieve success, not just a sign of success. This understanding will shape policy that directs more resources into the struggling communities that need it, not the affluent schools that succeed already.
Our nation is doomed to fail if we do not make the fundamentals of success available to all Americans- solid education, guaranteed health care, legal equality for all, and a sound structure for business both big and small.
I do not expect Barack Obama to fundamentally change the country or the world in his time as President- that’s up to us. But I do expect that he will provide the strategic nudges in every policy area that will allow this country to head back towards the path that we’ve always hoped, always dreamed, that it was on.