Post Election Day 2012

If you are like fifty-seven million plus other people, you woke up this morning after the election thinking to yourself what the hell just happened?

Sadly, the truth is that fifty-nine million plus other people superseded your vote. The question is, why?

If it sounds like we have been down this road before, we have.

Surely we are not in the best of times in this country. Despite what many would like you to believe, we are in pretty bad shape. The argument of how we got here is old by now; truth is both sides did equal amounts of damage. If you don’t feel that way I am truly sorry, but it’s still the truth. Lying to ourselves that it was one parties fault over the other is just disingenuous.

Recently someone made what I thought was a very deep observation: “What if the republican and democratic parties are just two wings on the same bird of prey?”

So why did we choose to stay on the same fiscal course, instead of turning the helm over to someone who has a proven track record of good business acumen?

Very simply, the electorate has fundamentally changed. Whatever you might think about the Obama political machine, it is a force to be reckoned with. To be fair, it actually is a democratic machine that seized strongly on the changing electorate. They have made connecting to young people and minorities a focal point of their platform.

Truthfully, even the term minority is incorrect in the way that it has been used. Last May Census Bureau statistics revealed that, for the first time, whites represented a minority (49.6 %) of all U.S. births.  The fact is America is “browning” from the bottom up, and is destined to become the “majority” population in the coming years. The democrats have seized on this opportunity.

At one time it was believed that the economy would be issue No. 1 in the general election. That important minority / youth concerns such as education, immigration reform, gay marriage, and health care would take a back seat to the impending “taxmageddon” and national debt. Those pundits and politicians were sadly mistaken. 

In addition, this younger vote has decidedly different priorities and they get their information from a much different source. They are more likely to be influenced by celebrities then they are from traditional news sources. Considering just how “connected” they tend to be, the issue becomes “to whom are they connected to?”

The fiscal strength of the country simply is not an issue to the youth. The government has promised to provide to them, promised to take from the rich to accomplish it. The promise stuck in their minds when they went into the voting booths. The fact that it is a hollow promise never even registered because they never bothered to look any further beyond the promise, which was delivered in a bling covered package by the likes of Springsteen, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Clooney, and Longoria and tied up in a nice Baldwin and Kim Kardashian bow.

The right was continually mocked by comedians like Maher, Leno, Letterman and Stewart; and equally vilified by the mainstream media that always seemed to be in a perpetual state of slumber when actual news hit.

Do you still wonder why the electorate broke for Obama?

I read a story the other day on the release of the new Halo 4 video game that was being released on Election Day. Some gamers believe that it would impact the election because many would be staying at home eagerly awaiting the delivery of the game. Seriously.

I am inclined to disagree and say that it actually didn’t play an integral role in the election, but the mere fact that it might have is truly cause for concern.

We are living in a changing America. The only problem is what will it look like when the change is complete?

It is clear that what we considered a minority voting block, at one time, became the majority in this country. They put aside some very important issues to vote for someone based on likeability and skin color. To some who may read this, that is not a racist statement; that is simply the truth. One only has to look so far as the social media world, that America’s youth gravitate to, to prove what I am saying. But in the end do these “attributes” take the place of capability?

Four years ago we were given a series of promises that were never fulfilled. Listening to the president’s speech last night I heard a rehashing of the same rhetoric. The problem is that you can’t fix the issues that face this nation with flowery words. At some point you have to stop talking about how hard you’re going to work and actually begin doing the work.

For the republicans, they are going to have to lick their wounds and figure out whether or not they are going to come to terms with the fact that they need to do some serious outreach to the new majority. They’ve lost a lot of ground and to be honest, they are not selling what these kids want to hear.

The values that most of us “older electorate” grew up with are gone. The youth now have a sense of entitlement; they believe the government should provide for them. It doesn’t matter whether they can not, or choose not to, do it for themselves.

Benjamin Franklin said it best: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

What we are living in is a time where politicians will promise anything to get elected, knowing that the money to pay for it comes from someone else. But what happens when the money to pay for those promises come to an end? Who will those voters turn to? More importantly, what will the United States of America turn into?

During World War II the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, put it very eloquently “We are only 3 meals away from anarchy.”

How well do you think we will fare, as a country, when the “promise bubble” bursts and there is nothing left in the coffers to give?