What America Will We Pick?
WASHINGTON — This election is only tangentially a fight over policy. It is also a fight about meaning and identity — and that’s one reason why voters are so polarized. It’s about who we are and who we aspire to be.
President Obama enters the final days of the campaign with a substantial lead among women — about 15 points, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll — and enormous leads among Latinos and African-Americans, the nation’s two largest minority groups. Mitt Romney leads among white voters, with an incredible 2-1 advantage among white men.
It is too simplistic to conclude that demography equals destiny. Both men are being sincere when they vow to serve the interests of all Americans. But it would be disingenuous to pretend not to notice the obvious cleavage between those who have long held power in this society and those who are beginning to attain it.
When Republicans vow to “take back our country,” they never say from whom. But we can guess.
Issues of race, power and privilege are less explicit this year than in 2008, but in some ways they are even stronger.
Four years ago, we asked ourselves whether the nation would ever elect a black president. The question was front and center. Every time we see the president and his family walk across the White House lawn to board Marine One, we’re reminded of the answer.
The intensity of the opposition to Obama has less to do with who he is than with the changes in American society he not only represents but incarnates. Citing his race as a factor in the way some of his opponents have bitterly resisted his policies immediately draws an outraged cry: “You’re saying that just because I oppose Obama, I’m a racist.” No, I’m not saying that at all.
What I’m saying is that Obama’s racial identity is a constant reminder of how much the nation has changed in a relatively short period of time. In my lifetime, we’ve experienced the civil rights movement, the countercultural explosion of the 1960s, the sexual revolution, the women’s movement and an unprecedented wave of Latino immigration. Within a few decades, there will be no white majority in this country — no majority of any kind, in fact. We will be a nation of racial and ethnic minorities, and we will only prosper if everyone learns to give and take.
Our place in the world has changed as well. The United States remains the dominant economic and military power; our ideals remain a beacon for those around the globe still yearning to breathe free. But our capacity for unilateral action is diminished; we can assert but not dictate, and we must learn to persuade.
Obama’s great sin, for some who oppose him, is to make it impossible to ignore these domestic and international megatrends. Take one look at Obama and the phenomenon of demographic change is inescapable. Observe his approach to international crises in places such as Libya or Syria and the reality of America’s place in the world is unavoidable.
I’m deliberately leaving aside what should be the biggest factor in the election: Obama’s policies. It happens that I have supported most of them, but of course there are legitimate reasons to favor Romney’s proposals, insofar as we know what they really are — and the extent to which they really differ from Obama’s.
In foreign affairs, judging by Monday’s debate, the differences are too small to discern; Romney promises to speak in a louder voice and perhaps deploy more battleships, but that’s about it. Domestically, however, I see a clear choice. I consider the Affordable Care Act a great achievement, and Romney’s promise to repeal it would alone be reason enough for me to oppose him. Add in the tax cuts for the wealthy, the plan to “voucherize” Medicare and the appointments Romney would likely make to the Supreme Court, and the implications of this election become even weightier.
Issues may explain our sharp political divisions, but they can’t be the cause of our demographic polarization. White men need medical care, too. African-Americans and Latinos understand the need to get our fiscal house in order. The recession and the slow recovery have taken a toll across the board.
Some of Obama’s opponents have tried to delegitimize his presidency because he doesn’t embody the America they once knew. He embodies the America of now.
Eugene Robinson’s email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com. (c) 2012, Washington Post Writers Group
Share This
Related Posts
-
Is This Democracy?
Posted on Apr 24, 2013
-
Something America and China Could Do Together
Posted on Apr 22, 2013
-
Tail-gunner Ted (Guest Voice)
Posted on Apr 21, 2013
-
John McCain Defends President’s Speech After Gun Vote
Posted on Apr 19, 2013
“When Republicans vow to “take back our country,” they never say from whom. But we can guess.”
bingo..
And while I am ‘just another white guy’… let me assure you, they mean people like ME too when they say they want to take the country back. Don’t let my ghostly white appearance fool you.
I don’t care what tint your skin is, a fellow (gal) tends to take this kind of thing personally.
I Like this country just as it is, I don’t want someone to ‘take it back’.
They mean take it back from me too chas. I’m a white male but I came of age during the sixties and my sensibilities were forged in the counter-culture. Nevermind that I’ve worked and payed taxes for four decades, I’m still a liberal, pro-choice, a believer in environmentalism, and I’m overdue for a haircut. That’s enough to make me enemy to today’s legion of paranoid reactionaries.
\
Excellent column by Mr. Robinson. I think he’s exactly right in his views.
After Obama won the election, Mitch McConnell vowed to “make him a one term president”. That’s before he even had a chance to do anything! The tea party Republicans have blocked everything the president has tried to do, even to the point of bringing America to the brink of a depression. This congress has done nothing to help the president and I don’t believe it has so much to do with the changing world as it has to do with a non-changing view. Republicans want to regain power and control, and to that end will do just about anything to get it, up to and including suppressing one of our fundamental constitutional rights..voting. They are playing dirty at every turn and will not stop their constant attacks until they win. Certainly the world has changed, and will continue to change, but this new element of vitriolic opposition coming from the right is something I don’t wish to see become part of our changing world. I hope most Americans agree.
That really gets to the nitty gritty sheknows. As if the sheer level of hate and ugliness for a sitting president should be rewarded in a society that used to be as great as ours once was. It would be one thing if the president was deserving based on performance, but this one is a democrat and is black. That is enough. The Mitch McConnells of the world and all thier idiot fodder have worked long and hard to make America a land of the mean and poor not just in economy, but in spirit and stature as well. It is shameful and disgusting.
Sheknows said it all in a nutshell.
Apparently,judging from the onslaught of the outrageous and hysterical lies that were aimed directly at the President just for trying to deliver on the promise of increasing our access to health care which was made during the 2008 campaign, I’d say America is in extreme danger if it is “taken back” by the right.
Obama tried for at least a year to reach some bi-partisan support for the ACA, and he tried beyond the point when his own party advised him to get rough instead. When Democrats possessed control of both houses during the first part of Obama’s term, they could have rammed through any number of measures designed to help them force the passage of Obamacare. But instead Obama continued seeking elusive bi-partisan support in vain, while enduring one of the most vitriolic and fact lacking attacks that almost any President has ever endured. But,the reason we are not coming out of the depression fast enough to satisfy Main street, is largely due to Congressional Republican’s and their extreme Obstructionist policies. For God’s sake, they swore long ago to do whatever it took to bring him down! Agreeing in advance, NOT to negotiate over taxes!
Romney may have sincere moral beliefs that justify his strategic brand of nebulous politics–making it difficult to really pin him down on any issue. And the Conservative wing of the GOP may actually believe themselves to be perpetuating this fight as part of a larger moral principle, but frankly, I am at a loss when it comes to understanding how they consider providing health care for more than 30 million extra Americans to be some sort of fascist plot.
I think Obama’s got it right when he defined this election as a battle between rugged, “I built this,” individualism, and the need to help everyone achieve a prosperous life. He may not have accomplished all that he promised, but I don’t believe any President would consider themselves to have accomplished such an ambitious goal. For all the rotten greed and power-driven ways of Washington and Wall Street, he has been one of the few President who seriously tried to change the status qou—however insufficiently.
Although Republicans raged against the passage of a health care bill through the use of reconciliation. They used the exact same legislative tactic to pass BOTH of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Let’s face it, this election is about the acquisition of wealth and power by the lying and financially entrenched elite. they may really believe that morality is on their side, but I would prefer it if, the rest of us would simply read them the riot act, and prevent them from making this the United Corporate states of America! Their America is farther removed from any real definition that actually ensures life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for ALL of us! Give it back to ALL of the people!!
The financially entrenched elite do not believe in morals. They believe in the almighty dollar and that is their right. The problem is the moral Americans that have been sucked into believing that these people care about them or their Christian morality.
“When Republicans vow to “take back our country,” they never say from whom. But we can guess.”
Is it possible they mean from progressives? Can a conservative oppose the progressive ideology without being smeared as a racist? If so, how?
On the subject of morals, I am reminded of an excerpt from a book I read recently called “Lincoln and Obama” by Gene Griessman. In it, he tells of a story when Lincoln was practicing law. A man walks into the office and wants to bring suit against a widow with 6 children. “After hearing the man out, Lincoln replies, ‘Yes, we can doubtless gain your case for you…We can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars for which you seem to have a legal claim…We shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing…We would advise you to try your hand at making 600 dollars in some other way.”
I know Obama is not perfect. But he’s not a homophobic, hetersexist bigot either. I can’t stand the homophobic rhetoric shrouded in “christian morals.”
Our country’s politics are deeply flawed. Our economy is shit and our healthcare is so poor our infant mortality rate is comparable to that of CUBA. However, I will NEVER vote for someone that promotes hate, regardless of what he can “do for our economy” (if anything). I am not a Christian, but I do have morals. I believe in caring for those who cannot care for themselves, I believe in investing in people, not corporations. I also believe in equality and justice. I do not believe in hate. Obama has his mind on what is important, much like Lincoln did when that man walked into his law office over 150 years ago.
Today on Meet the Press Ohio Gov Kasich said, “What I know is over the last four years we had lost 400k jobs and since jan 2011 we’re up 112k jobs” It sounds like testimonial to the fact that we are on the right track and better off than we were four years ago. Go Ohio!
Emily, thank you for that insightful comment. You hit the nail on the head re many issues. I think that even the Republicans who respond here know in their hearts that the Republican party today is just not what it used to be and has become a very distasteful lot. All of our real problems began when the radical right tea party got voted into office. They became incalcitrant and childish, demanding and uncooperative willing to hold a nation hostage and to hold not THEIR breath but the nations til it turned blue. I say fire the lot of them and lets get some decent, hard working Republicans if office who actually CARE about this country and not these little whining babies who don’t know how to share!
zuzai,
I don’t think I have ever claimed that anyone who opposes progressive ideology is really a racist. However I have heard plenty of tea baggers and conservatives claim that Obama is a hater of white people.
I think that most Republicans do not consider racism to be part of their political ideology—however, so many of us have grown up in a racially polarized world, that most of us probably have emotional vestiges of such bias.
To counter an argument based on the claim that progressives have taken away our country, I can only point our that liberals are staunch defenders of individual rights and religious freedom–even though from a conservative perspectives we are probably considered unprincipled freeloaders or impulsive hedonists (somebody correct me if I am wrong).
If anyone’s freedom of religion or, freedom to marry, were violated, the ACLU would be all over the perpetrators so quickly that it would make your head spin. It doesn’t matter if the people they defend are Democrats or Republicans—But the denial of constitutional liberties is clearly a crime!
Although I am probably affected by my own DFL upbringing and may have some prejudiced attitudes I need to face, I can’t help feeling that Democrats are the ones who lie less frequently and less blatantly during campaigns. The best party is the one that needs outrageous lies the least, and that is certainly NOT true about the GOP!
Most Republicans undoubtedly have moral convictions, but seem less bound by the concept of ethical politics such as an implied “social contract.” They are willing to take more outrageous and disgusting actions, if those actions will elect their candidates. I have seen nothing from them that implies that this characterization isn’t true!
In this respect, when they talk about taking back the country, they are clearly speaking of only their own interests, but somehow feel righteously offended because Democrats dare to threaten even the smallest part of their often hard earned wealth. No thinking, feeling person can do things that they cannot rationalize or justify, But the real issue for me, has more to do with resisting those mentalities that promotes individual accomplishments in an extreme way. I’m not talking about Communism, but I am talking about social Darwinism. Truly No man is an Island, and those who really understand this sentiment, rarely vote exclusively for their own pocketbooks or positions of power.
And oh, my fellow Dems, I am not in favor of a Republican dominated house and senate by any means so don’t misunderstand. But I realize the necessity for balance…hey lets be honest guys…we DO have a small spending problem. The last thing we need though is for these current yahoos to be making anymore self-serving, economic and religious decisions for everyone.
Petew,
“even though from a conservative perspectives we are probably considered unprincipled freeloaders or impulsive hedonists (somebody correct me if I am wrong)”
Do you socialize with any conservatives? I live in a very progressive state so naturally many my friends are liberals/ progressives. I was at a Christmas party and was looking at some interesting pictures a gal had of a venue where a progressive fund raiser was held and I told her I was conservative. She was a little surprised but nailed it on the head when she said that we all want the same thing, good schools etc but disagree on how to achieve it.
“I can’t help feeling that Democrats are the ones who lie less frequently and less blatantly during campaigns.” I just can’t imagine that there is anything innately different between the politicians of the two parties that would cause a statistically significant difference in behavior. I think a perceptual bias may be a likely explanation. We tend to think the best of our own side and the worst of the other.
And BTW, tea bagger is a very derogatory term. This if from a Tea Party website:
The Tea Party Patriots’ mission is to restore America’s founding principles of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.
I don’t understand the nonstop vitriolic attacks on the Tea Party.
Z.. just in response to your question ” can a conservative oppose a progressive without being smeared as a racist. If so, How?” Well, one way would be for the racists to stop aligning themselves with the republican party so blatantly.
Please read todays article on Anti-Democrat violence in Texas. The author, a conservative himself expresses very clearly the anti black sentiment and his actual fears for our presidents safety, saying ” if he wins, it will only get worse.”
“Z.. just in response to your question ” can a conservative oppose a progressive without being smeared as a racist. If so, How?” Well, one way would be for the racists to stop aligning themselves with the republican party so blatantly.”
So I guess the answer is no.