The Democratic Angle: Post-Election 2012
Tuesday night was a huge win for the Democratic Party. This year’s presidential election was expected to be an extremely close race that ended in a close tie with one candidate narrowly beating the other. However, this was not necessarily the case.
The shocking results showed that President Obama managed to win nearly all of the swing states in this election. He carried the states of Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin along with all of the states that were expected to vote for him. Even in Florida, where results are still being counted and recounted, Obama shows a narrow margin of victory.
In this election, Obama managed to keep his hold on the female voting base, but he struggled in the demographic of white males more than he did even last year. However, many believe that one of the major components of Obama’s win in this election has to do with the Hispanic vote. Allegedly, due to some remarks that Romney made against illegal immigrants during the primaries that related to self-deportation, the Hispanic population voted in a surprising show of support for Obama.
The official announcement of which candidate wa
s projected to win was made by most of the major networks at 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday night. To many, this was a surprise. Most expected any projections to be made much later in the night. Now, it is expected that Obama will continue on with his plans for health care and his plans for immigration reform that he has been working towards for quite some time. Obama has been given a second chance, and it is now his time to take advantage of it by continuing forward with the improvement that we have begun to see in the past year.
Of course, Obama faces a divided country after this election. He has the benefit of the Senate being in Democratic control, but he must face a House of Representatives that remains in the control of the Republican Party. Truthfully, this does not show too much change in formation from the 2008 election: Blue president, blue senate and red house. Of course, the Democratic Party had several other important victories during this election.
Democrat Tammy Baldwin won a senate seat in Wisconsin and became the first openly gay member of the U.S. Senate. In Massachusetts, Democrat Elizabeth Warren won
back the “Kennedy” Senate seat from Republican Scott Brown. “Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that whi
le our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up,” Obama said in his acceptance speech.
Obama even placed emphasis on how he looked for
ward to working with Republicans like Mitt Romney and to continue to move the country forward. Obama also spent much of his speech thanking everyone who was involved with his campaign, especially those in the field.
“We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet,” Obama said
.. “We are greater than the sum of our ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America,” Obama said. Obama asked that, during these times, everyone should remember that it is essential for us to come together. We cannot let our country be divided by red and blue if we wish to see our country move forward.
The future looks bright for Democrats and the nation as a whole. As Obama said in his acceptance speech, “And together with your help and God’s grace we will continue to journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth. Thank you, America. God bless you, God bless these United States.”