US Elections:Winner Obama and New America, Loser Republican brand

“I have been thinking that I would make a

proposition to my Republican friends… that if they

will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will

stop telling the truth about them.” 

– Adlai E. Stevenson

On a cold, chilly autumn night in 2008, in the State of Iowa that had less than one percent (1%)

of ‘Black’ voters and before an enthralled crowd that consisted more of college graduates than old hands, Barak Obama stood tall after the Iowa caucus results were announced. Barack Hussein Obama, the Junior Senator from Illinois had just defeated a formidable team of white Presidential hopefuls amongst whom were Hilary Clinton, John Edwards and Joe Biden.

“They said, that this day would never come”

And then he uttered the most historic words that any candidate in a Presidential Primary, either Republican or Democratic, had uttered up to that time. “They said, that this day would never come”. During a Primary season that lasted more than six months, Obama and his brand new electioneering machine, “the Chicago Boys” beat the most formidable ‘election machine’ that America had known at the time, the Clinton Machine and won a grueling Primary campaign for the right to contest the 2008 Presidential Elections against a Republican War Veteran, John McCain.

Bush and Rajapakse

The US economy was tanking and the stock market was on an accelerated course of downward spiraling, causing chaos among the investor-class. America was fighting two wars, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan on a credit card. The Bush administration, like the current Sri Lankan regime, wrapped itself around the national flag, whitewashing every misdeed and misstep with a sugary coating of pseudo-patriotism. Obama and the Democrats held one card and one slogan: “Change we can believe in”. The electorate responded; when they did so it was most positive and decisive and it was overwhelming, to say the least.

“Change we can believe in”

From College campuses to auto-factories, from grocery stores to the Las Vegas casinos, from the middle-class to the poorer segments of society, they lined up the streets to cast their precious ballots, this time for a person whose skin color was not white and whose father was not an native-born American but a Kenyan-born black African and who was brought up by a single mother and her parents. But he had what no white, black or yellow person could take away from him. He had education.

On his journey from Columbia University to Harvard Law School and eventually to be the President of Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama excelled in studies. Yet when he began his working career, he started at the bottom of the career/societal ladder. He started as a Community Leader.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, in her acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, referred to Obama’s first job with utter derision and ridicule. The Republican Party which was predominantly white and ‘rich’, could not grasp the prospect of a Black First Family occupying the White House. The right-wing-dominated radio talk show hosts from Rush Limbaugh to Sean Hannity to Bill O’Reilly made fun of Barack Obama.

Obama gives hope to us all

Obama never allowed them to get under his skin. He rose above the fray. When the people voted, they proved that the so-called white America was no longer white-dominated and no longer unready to elect a black President. The crowds estimated at more than 240,000 that gathered to listen to the new President-elect at Grant Park in his home city of Chicago, Illinois, on November 4, 2008, chanted ‘Obama, Obama, Obama’ to the tunes of Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. Some wept openly, Oprah Winfrey sobbed uncontrollably while Jessie Jackson‘s cheeks were wet with tears pouring down from his eyes. Colin Powel said that he wept the entire night.

White and Black

Barack Obama delivered a very strong message, not only to the United States of America, but to the whole wide world. In America it is possible for a black man to rise to the peak, if he or she had the ambition, drive, the ability and the guts. But that was all four years ago. The Republicans never came to terms with Barack Obama, the black President. They could not reconcile themselves to the progressive policies of the Obama Administration nor were they ready to give him another chance.

One term only

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell openly declared that they would not allow a second term for President Obama. Talk show radio hosts went all out to derail the Obama’s Presidency from the word go. Limbaugh, Hannity and O’Reilly unleashed their airtime to paint Obama as ‘socialist’ bent on bringing down the capitalist-class of America. Affordable-care Act that Obama managed to sign was portrayed as demonic proviso to strangle the rich and wealthy. Their main sponsor, the Insurance Industry, pumped in cash to keep the campaign against Affordable-care Act afloat.

Insurance companies vs Obama

Obama’s principle achievement during his first term was this Act. It provides, among others, 30 million uninsured with medical insurance as under the Act, no Insurance Company can deny insurance to those by applying pre-conditions. The individual mandate was portrayed by the Republican Party as a heavy assault on individual freedom. But when the Supreme Court rendered a favorable decision on the Act, all air went out of the Republican bubble. The Republican Senators were hoping and praying for a reversal of Obamacare and they didn’t get it.

Republican extremists

When the Republican Primaries arrived, their closets were exposed. Among a collection of some extremists like Gingrich, Santorum and Cain, Mitt Romney stood like a moderate. Yet, instead of embracing the center that was seemingly leaving the Republican Party, Romney in order to win the ticket had to resort to extremes so much that he had to declare himself as a ‘severe’ conservative and almost disown his own Healthcare reforms he had introduced in Massachusetts when he was the Governor in that state. The constituency understood the mind of the Republican candidate when he selected a rightwing pet like Paul Ryan. He would do anything to come to power. Not so different from those politicians in Sri Lanka!

Mid terms

The Republicans drew enormous strength from the mid-term elections held in 2010 in which the Republicans were led by the Tea Party extremists. They not only overestimated their own strength; they underestimated the opponent. They ignored the demographics of the electorate. Over-dependence on the white vote proved to be their strategic mistake. Even after a disastrous performance by Obama in the first Debate; despite a clever piece of propaganda of a mythical wave towards the Republican candidate, despite the battering that Obama received from hackneyed politicians of yesteryear like John Sununu and Sarah Palin, when the Election Day arrived, the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign unleashed one of the best ground-games that were ever unleashed in the history of American Elections.

“Best campaign team in political history”

The micro campaign they planned and plotted to get the sure votes to the polling stations worked with clockwork precision. The whites, blacks, Hispanics, single moms, union members and teachers comprising the foundation of the Party delivered a devastating blow that left the Republican pundits dumbfounded. Their crests were fallen, their cheeks were wet and the hopes were dashed in one single night.

Drubbing

The American electorate gave Barack Obama another term. In the last one hundred years, only four other Democratic Presidents have been given this chance. The changing landscape of the American demographics made sure that there is still room for reasonable men and women; there is still room for accommodation and compromise. The so-called purists of the Republican Party were rejected. The victories of Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth in Illinois and the drubbings that Tea-party favorite congressman, Alan West in Florida, Akin in Missouri and Mourdock in Indiana got, gave a clear signal that extremism in American politics is short-lived, indeed.

John Sununu

The Republicans had no surrogate to equal or even come anywhere close to what the Democrats had in Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren. The Republicans, time and again sent John Sununu whose face was a picture of anger, contempt and ridicule (John Sununu was one time Chief-of-staff for President George H W Bush). US Presidential Elections proved yet again that a campaign that is well-financed and professional, managed to the last detail can hardly be beaten by a flip-flopping candidate who changed his political message to suit the audience and location. The Super Pac money spent under the close supervision of Carl Rove, the architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 went bust. Now it is being called the ‘billion dollar bust’. An increase in the awareness of ‘liberalism’ among mainstream Americans has paved the way and it delivered a decisive victory for Obama.

Brand suffered

What suffered most on November 6, 2012 at the American Elections is not just a set of policies or a bad campaign of one single idea. The Republican brand suffered a loss that might last for another term or two unless they do some adjustments not only to their electioneering methodologies, but some serious soul-searching with an honest intention to embrace the ever-pervasive internationalism that is invading the suburbs and cities of America, Hispanics are there to stay. You either come to terms with them or get buried by them. The new America that is emerging may be a frightening spectacle for the old die-hards of the Republican Party, but unless and until the Party makes a serious effort to identify it as serious and constant, they will face defeat after defeat in future election cycles.

 

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