Browner, Smarter, and Younger

So what shall we make of this historic election. Scripture says by ye fruit we shall know ye”. If one ascribes to the theory that it is much too early to get our collective arms around this election, then perhaps the better question is what is the fruit of the historic Obama victory? Pulitzer Prize author Thomas Friedman said the earth is “Hot, Flat and Crowded”. Keeping with that spirit, one may describe the fruit of the Obama coalition as Browner, Smarter, and Younger. In the afterglow of Barack Obama’s transcendent election, much is being said about the composition of the voters that were the cornerstone of his victory. Their vote speaks equally to the politics that it rejected as it did the politics that it embraces. While much was made of issues both real and nonsensical, what this election may have turned on was one word – Competence. Leaders have led this nation to war and/or opposed aggression, when a majority of Americans favored isolation (see Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt) but an assertive competent, case was made for intervention. During war, Presidents have stripped freedoms as sacred as Habeas Corpus, but they were supported by sound competent doctrine. (See Abraham Lincoln) - Thus the post 9/11 actions of the Bush Administration were not a historical aberration, but a constitutional nightmare. What has given Americans pause, if not downright outrage was the manner in which those decisions that were made, the lack of transparency, national security policy based on lies, and faulty documentation which has become the basis for American blood spilled in on foreign soil. Americans understand that the road to good intentions may have bumps in the road, but what she will not suffer - is incompetence.
Beyond the malignancy of competence lay three critical demographics. Brown, young and smart. Engaging this group is the Republican Party's 3 A. M. call. In 1984 the first year they had exit polls to capture the youth vote; those youth went GOP by 20%. Those 25-30 year olds are now almost 60. They are the core of the GOP coalition. An aging narrowing slice of the electorate. In essence, the Reagan Revolution planted the seeds of the generation of Republican voters which is now on the decline. If history repeats itself an Obama victory marks a reverse shift in power. To understand the roots of the Reagan Revolution – it was competence. Jimmy Carter the last Democrat prior to Barack Obama to get more than 50% of the vote was ousted politically due to a perception of lack of leadership at home with the energy (although his energy stances now seem to be vindicated) and the Iranian hostage crises. Young voters ironically went for the older Ronald Reagan, rejecting the perceived bumbling of the Carter Administration.
The heirs of Reagan, both named Bush failed to broaden his coalition, and one can safely say in terms of the younger Bush, constricted it. Now a generation later that coalition of Reagan is in tatters.
What can be gleaned from this? Reagan governed from the center right, but had a vision, while many can debate his triumphs and failures, none can say he failed to have an impact. Yet the Reagan victory gave rise to a longing within the Republican Party to reclaim the power of the Executive Branch lost during the Nixon years. Ronald Reagan gave rise to a rebirth in the imperial presidency, but it was the Administration of Bush 43 that revived it. The Reagan coalition supported by the hyper active Religious Right saw the, dalliance of President Clinton as an example of the erosion of the moral fabric, and 9/11 attacks as an attack on Christian values. They ultimately leveraged that latter emotion into the invasion of Iraq, the horrors of Gitmo, and the Patriot Act and other intrusions on American life. After the 2001 election the divide in America was more real than imagined, the Bush Administration's response to Katrina allowed for such intellection offerings such as “ would this have been allowed in Kennebunkport?’ – As Americans were shamed with an utter lack of competence, coupled with mind numbing disconnect by its leaders.
The candidacy of Barack Obama said enough - enough of division, enough of malfeasance, enough of incompetence. This election was not about small things, this time in our history is not about small things, this election is about deciding what really matters, and in 2008, it is the fruit of the Obama victory those who are Browner, Smarter, and Younger are the “deciders”. They have decided resoundingly that politics rooted in ideology won't work - a warning to both the right and the left - politics that is not competent and lacking transparent governance won't fly, politics that ignores the rich diversity of this country is outdated, and finally politics that continues to marginalize, and mortgage the youth will be rejected. In the moment it may not draw comparisons to the Boston Tea Party or Appomattox but as they say among the young, brown and smart - "don't get it twisted" we have witnessed a Revolution - Don't sleep on it.