2008 Election Series-- November Edition
Much to everyone's delight, the 2008 presidential election is finally over. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, an impassioned citizenry cast its ballots in what many historians have dubbed "the most important election ever." Many of us then spent several anxious hours vigilantly listening and watching as the winner of each state election was announced and/or flashed on TVs across America. Then the breaking news was broadcast: Barack Obama is our 44th president! Some of us-- myself included-- smiled for the first time in eight years. Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, would not be a repeat of Black Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004. With the electoral vote tally coming to 349 for Obama and 162 for McCain, a new era dawned.
Okay, that's wonderful, but why did Obama win? A brief summary of a Sept. 2008 Yahoo! News article, which appeared in the online version of The Christian Science Monitor and was written by Mike Rose, could perhaps begin to answer that question. In this article, entitled "Blue-collar America is smarter than you may think," Rose argues that working-class Americans are not the ignorant, uneducated yahoos the mainstream media often portrays them as. He explains that these individuals feel that politicians such as Obama actually care about them. According to Rose, the wars and the weak economy have most deeply affected the working class; therefore, Obama and running mate Joe Biden are much more in touch with the people than John McCain and Sarah Palin. In other words, many voters decided that a presidential candidate who owns seven homes isn't really that conscientious of voters' major concerns. Most importantly, after being cajoled into voting for an inept elitist during the last two elections and seeing their friends and loved ones sent off to senseless wars, as well as enduring the devastation of countless natural disasters, voters realized that they weren't better off than they were four years ago. Accordingly, they voted for the guy with the alternate plan: change via health care reform, environmental improvement, economic strengthening through tax cuts for 95 as opposed to five percent of Americans, new job creation, education funding, decreased foreign oil dependence, diplomacy with U.S. allies and adversaries, and a clear Middle East exit strategy.
I've witnessd this phenomenon first-hand while teaching my communications class at Olney Central College. Most of my students represent the working class. They're all female, most are cosmetology majors, and each has endured some form of adversity in her life. They come into my classroom twice a week in order to learn how to essentially become better at serving others by creating beauty out of everyday life's ugliness. In order to help them do so, I gently guide them through lessons about business writing, procedures, and communication. I also subtly incorporate my world view into my teaching. My students have said that I've inspired them (whatever that means!). Apparently, Barack has also inspired them. For example, one student told me that he's the only reason she registered to vote this year. Thus, working-class Americans identify with Obama because he, like they, has lived in the real world. And therein lay the main reason Obama won: His story is America's story.
In 1819, author Washington Irving wrote and published "Rip Van Winkle," a story about a man from New York's Catskill Mountains who falls asleep and misses the American Revolution. He awakens many years later and finds himself in a very changed country. This year there was another revolution, but it is apparent that no one slept through it. Of course, Irving's tale is purely metaphorical. Obama, on the other hand, was the very real wake-up call this nation desperately needed. Lady Liberty's torch has been re-lit and passed to the next generation. She may be tired, she may be poor, but she is forever grateful to her new leadership for bringing her out of her slumber.
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