Tuesday, November 13, 2012

After the Election: What the Result Means, What Needs to be Done Now, and What is the Future of American Politics?


I think I can speak for everyone, including the President himself, by saying “Finally…the election is over.”  No matter what your political views are, the past 18 months brought annoyance, frustration, pride and hope for all of us.  Some are disappointed with the results of the election, while others are overjoyed.  Nonetheless, we are relieved it is over.

Nothing can be done at this point; President Obama will be back for another 4 years.  I have seem a plethora of tweets and Facebook statuses with cynical remarks by Romney supporters about how this country is doomed, how the next four years will be horrible and how minorities will tear this country apart.  Do not think you’re out of the clear Democrats.  The gloating and rubbing this election into the face of your Republican counterparts gets us nowhere as well.  It was already known, but based off of the results of this election (specifically the popular vote) this nation is deeply divided – almost equally.  Speaking to Republicans, the bashing of the President and Democrats further divides us.  How can we unite if we have two parties that hate each other with a passion? We can’t.  To Democrats, gloating is taking away from the win. Be proud about the win.  Showboating is just as bad as talking down upon the other party. 

Aside from the vote in the presidential race, there were monumental and historical decisions that will shape our future.  In a few states there were referendums such as the legalization of marijuana and same-sex marriage approval in four out of four states, the election of the first openly gay Congresswoman, the first bi-sexual Congressman, the first Hindu-American Congresswoman, the largest minority vote percentage of all time and one of the closest elections of all time.  This is the beginning of an entirely new social revolution that has never been seen before in the United States.  And no one can stop it. 

With our eyes now set on the next four years, we face a rapidly approaching fiscal cliff, social issues, economic issues, environmental issues and just about every other issue one can think of.  Just because President Obama was re-elected does not mean that we are in the clear.  What needs to be done now is TRUE bipartisan effort.  There should be absolutely no reason whatsoever that Congress should not reach across the isle to work with their colleagues and the President.  It was clear that the Republican Congress’ main objective in President Obama’s first term was to assure that he would be a one term president – well that didn’t happen.  It is time to man up and start to get work done.  Not one Congressmen or Congresswoman should be proud of the work that they have done, or have not done, nor should they be proud about the single-digit approval rating that this country has given them.  It is a disgrace. 

In addition to Congress needing to get their act together, there needs to be a drastic change in the way the government addresses social issues.  It is no secret that President Obama was more supportive of the key social issues in this election – gay marriage, abortion, climate change, healthcare, women’s rights, etc.  It is these specific issues that will shape the future of our nation.  This result was an offering of hope to many who were worried about whether or not their voices would be heard.  I was one of them.  In President Obama’s victory speech after the election, he addressed the issue of global warming; to me this was a sign that he may tackle this issue in his next term.  I have constantly stated that this election would be the most important election in our lifetime and the reason for it being so is due to the future of social issues – the issues that many of which went unheard during the campaigns.  I strongly believe that it was these issues, in some ways more than economic factors, which were the deciding factors for many voters in this election. 

Again, what needs to be done now is a coming-together of the Congress and action to be taken by the federal government on social issues.  Many argued that this was an election for the economy, and it was in a lot of ways but very few realize that the economy is directly affected by all of these social and environmental issues. So it in ways was not as much of a question of who was better for the economy, but a question of who is better for all of those issues.  

It will be interesting to see how the issues voted on in this election play out. With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, how will the federal government react to these policy changes?  The country will now reconceptualize how we view marijuana and treat it as a drug. Even with the legalization of marijuana in these states, it is still illegal under federal law.  It will be up to the Obama Administration to dictate how they will approach this; will they 1) pull back on their opposition to the legalization of marijuana and allow this change, or 2) keep with their current stance, oppose it and continue to arrest those that use marijuana.  I have a feeling that they will choose the first option and we will see changes in the federal opinion of marijuana.  Gay marriage was approved in Maryland, Maine and Washington and the constitutional ban proposal in Minnesota was struck down.  This is the first time that gay marriage has won on an election ballot and this was not only a win for the LGBT community, but also for our society.  To me, this was the biggest win last night.  The suppression of millions, who only want to love and marry a person that equally loves them back regardless of their sexual orientation, has ended.  This could very well spark a domino effect as we can expect to see these referendums passed in more states in the future.  

As it relates to the environment, the election of President Obama means more than words can explain to any environmentalist.  Many feared that a President Romney would mean the demise of our environment due to the cutting back of regulations on carbon emissions, the increased production and consumption of fossil fuels, decreasing usage of renewable energy resources and the assurance of a Keystone XL Pipeline.  With President Obama remaining in office through 2016, environmental supporters (and even those who do not place the environment as a high priority) can sleep knowing that we will have a president that will continue to push for regulations on carbon emissions, increasing the production and usage of every type of renewable energy resource and, hopefully, a president that will finally take a stance on climate change.  The assurance is not all there, though.  There is still a possibility that President Obama will sign and allow the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline; the motives for doing this seem to point at an economical boost as well as a temporary increase in a few hundred thousand jobs.  There is no environmental benefit to such an action and just about every environmentalist and climate scientist will agree with that statement.  Going forward with the Keystone XL Pipeline may very well put us past the “Point of No Return” as it relates to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.  More so, this point of no return is the point that if passed means that any effort to combat climate change and global warming will be utterly useless.  If passed, we could go into a downward spiral of environmental and climatic changes that will result in uncontrollable sea level rise, increased major storm activity, droughts, floods and worst of all, famine.  The scientific evidence is there, and it is widely supported by virtually every scientific academy in each nation as well as almost every scientist in the world. 

It is time for climate change deniers to wake up.  No more time can be wasted arguing over an issue that is an occurring reality.  Fossil fuel companies and climate change deniers - such as the Koch Brothers and Oil PAC’s - are spending billions of dollars each year trying to lobby against action combating climate change.  These entities are destroying our nation and our world.  By suppressing action that will inevitably save millions of lives, they are the ones that will be, if no action is taken by politicians to combat climate change, the route cause of the climatic changes that are so close to becoming permanent. 

While these social and environmental issues will most likely shape the future of our nation, there are other issues at hand that will ultimately shape the future of our current political system.  With the nations demographical make-up rapidly shifting, politicians and political parties must now adapt to these changes if they plan on surviving.  In addition, extremist groups that have infiltrated the two main parties, if not eradicated, will be one of the reasons that these parties fail.  In 2012, it was clear which party had adapted to these changes prior to the election – it is clear because they won. 

After the election, Fox News figurehead Bill O’Reilly, said on post-election coverage, “It's a changing country. ... It's not a traditional America anymore. And there are 50 percent of the voting public who want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it. And he ran on it.” The traditional America he is referring to is White America. This can be proven by comments he later made in the same statement, “Whereby 20 years ago, President Obama would have been roundly defeated by an establishment candidate like Mitt Romney, the white establishment is now the minority....” 

It is not only Bill O’Reilly, Facebook and Twitter were polluted with negative and racist comments that emulated O’Reilly’s statements.  It was very discouraging to see that friends of mine, after hearing the election results, took to social media to express their outrage by saying things such as, “Its clear that the white people are now the minority we had a good run we built a great country its time to continue to let others tear it apart..... moving back to my homeland Abruzzi Italy” This seems to be one of the main issues in Right-Wing America, the inability to accept change and adapt to it.  The traditional old-school political views cannot and will not survive for much longer. 

The two-party system in America was created to allow for people to identify with different ideological views on certain issues, to cater to our voting system, and mainly due to two opposing views on how to interpret the Constitution (an issue that is still heavily debated today).  But since the formation of the two-party system by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton some two hundred years ago, our nation has become a polarized mutant of political division. 

Going back to adaptation of the Republican Party, it seems that the actual minorities in this election (Latino’s and African-Americans) have been put off by the current opinions on social issues that the GOP has.  This is even clearer for the women demographic, which seems to be rapidly shifting towards Democratic values due to the issues of contraception, abortion and equality.  These are the three issues that have placed a heavy burden on the Republicans and have not only cost them the women vote, but it has cost them the respect of many Americans and the international community. 

The extreme division in America seemed to start as soon as the 2008 election was decided and Barack Obama was announced President-Elect.  Prior to that, while many heavily disagreed with Bush policies, there wasn’t a massive division of this country, ideologically speaking.  There was still respect given to President Bush by his political opponents and other Democrats.  Once President Obama was elected, there was an overwhelming sense of rage among Republicans in Congress and Republicans all over the country.  Some of this rage was due to, as horrible as this sounds since it is 21st century, the presidents skin color, while others saw his 21st century political views as alien and socialist.  I think that the biggest signal for disgust in the President’s election came in October 2010 when Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”  This to me was the biggest issue and clearest indicator that there was an issue in our political system.  Putting aside the wellness of our nation and most importantly its peoples, Senator McConnell, speaking on behalf of the entire Republican delegation, said that the single most important goal for their party over the next two years was to make sure that the president did not get re-elected.  It wasn’t healthcare, or the economy, or immigration or our national debt, or passing a budget.  No, it was denying President Obama a second term.  In this same year, there was a massive shift in Congress that would shape how the next two years went – the rise of the Tea Party in Congress, specifically the House of Representatives. 

The Tea Party is an extremist, far right, newly formed party that radicalized the entire base of ideologies in the Republican Party.  I believe that this was the worst thing that could have happened to the Republican Party.  The opinions taken by these newly elected leaders seemed as if these Congressmen and Congresswomen came right from the 1920’s.  In what seemed to be an overnight transformation, these views infected almost every single Republican member of Congress.  From 2010, when the GOP took control of the House, to 2012, we saw nothing but gridlock, hate, and a Congress with a single digit approval rating. 

On November 6, 2012, the people spoke; many of those Tea Party members that were elected in 2010 were gone and in many of these elections, a Democrat took their spot.  In just those two years, our nation seemed to have taken a step backwards – actually more like 100 steps.  The Republican Party stuck to their tradition beliefs on key issues (that in many ways became radicalized), while the Democratic Party accepted the change that was taking place in America and adapted their entire political ideology to them. 
Here is where the issue comes in for the Republican Party, just like climate change, in politics, when there is rapid social change going on in a nation, there is a point of no return for the party that does not conform to accept the changes taking place.  This is what is happening in America.  Democrats are ahead of the game and Republicans in Congress are standing still, and actually moving away from the change.  This is not just my opinion, but after the election, many Republican correspondents and activists expressed this same concern.  I propose two solutions to the Republican Party that they should do if they expect to have a place in American politics in the future. 

The first is straightforward: Change and Adapt.  The reason you lost this election was because of minorities, the youth and women.  Many are offended by the fact that you have discriminated against them and demoralized them with your stances on equality, immigration, women’s rights, and environmental issues.  It is clear that the GOP’s extreme and old school views are not wanted nor are they warranted in modern society.  In order for this party to still be competitive, drastic reconstruction needs to be done from within the party, starting with the leaders.  Even former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested that the GOP broaden its views on issues.  This can start with the people that are elected into the Republican Party.  Which brings me to my next suggestion:

Split from the Tea Party. 

This is essential for the survival of the entire Republican Party.  Their view caters to such a small percentage of the population, yet they have had such an influence on how that party runs.  There is no longer such a thing as a Moderate Republican in Congress; you are both firm and far right, or you are shunned from the party and labeled as a traitor of what it means to be a Republican.  Think I’m crazy? Ask Republican Senator Dick Luger, who served in Congress as the Senator of Indiana for 36 years and was beloved by his party and his state.  Luger lost in the Primary Election to the State Treasurer – and Tea Party Member - Richard Mourdock.  Mourdock is the same person that said babies born from rape were part of God’s plan.  Mourdock went on to lose the general election to Democrat Joe Donnelly.  Lugar is just one case; from 2010 to 2012, this happened numerous times to some of the most prominent figures in both the Democratic and Republican Parties. 

In 2012, Tea Party incumbents and candidates cost the Republican Party many seats that were lost to Democratic nominees.  After just two years, and after some of the best Republican politicians lost their seat, America voted these narrow-minded, extremist, “Americans” out.  In just two years, the reputation of the Republican Party - once strong and willing to work with Democrats, and a party that has put some of the best and most famous presidents in the White House - went from good to bad.  The Tea Party brought Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman (the laughing stocks of the Party), Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin, and Donald Trump and the Koch Bothers into the national political spectrum more now than ever before.

With a combination of these two solutions, the Republican Party can regroup and become a stronger more likable party that will be able to compete with the Democratic Party in the future.  If they do not do either of these, they will not have a future, at least not a future where they are competitive party for the presidency.  They must accept the changes that are taking place in our nation and conform their policies to them.  While they do not have to completely take a liberal approach to everything, with certain historically red states starting to turn more liberal and becoming purple states (Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, etc), it will become harder for Republicans to compete for the presidency in an Electoral College Voting System. 

By accepting and not discriminating peoples (whether they be constituents or those in Congress) that believe in climate change, gay marriage, equality for women and men, abortion, the Republican Party will be able to have a better chance of not only surviving as a political party, but they will also be able to recruit the youth, more women and minorities.  With these demographics becoming the future of American politics, as well as becoming the majority demographics in future elections, the Republican Party does not have much of a choice at this point.  It is crunch time for them; only time will tell what they choose to do.  

No comments:

Post a Comment