Obama’s America
The Jakarta Post -- WEEKENDER | Sun, 11/23/2008 1:09 PM |
During a typical evening watching the cable news shows — my house is a haven for election addicts—my 4 year-old son asked: “Mommy, is Obama from Africa?”.
Too tired to delve into Obama’s complicated biography, I answered, “No, sweetheart, he’s an American.”
My son persisted. “If Obama is American, am I an American too?”.
I was stumped. My son — born in the U.S. of an Indonesian citizen mother and an American citizen father of Thai ethnicity — has an equally complicated biography.
I chose the easy answer: “Yes, you are an American too.”
On the night of November 4t, as an African-American became the United States’ new president-elect, my easy answer took on new meaning.
If a boy with a Kenyan father who grew up in Jakarta can become president of the United States, then indeed my son is an American, one who will navigate a political landscape both more complicated and simpler than the one we now know.
When we look at the America that broadcasters present, my son asks, why are some parts blue and why are some red? I try to explain the differences between the two Americas, defined and divided by the social issues of the so-called culture wars: race, religion, guns. But I am struck by the absurdity of my argument.
Indeed, the 2008 electoral map shows that young Americans like my son are turning America purple.
The United States of today is what it has been for centuries prior: a mish-mash of immigrants crossing state lines in search of better futures. Where Germans fleeing religious persecution settled in the Great Lakes area, communities escaping political turmoil in Southeast Asia have followed.
And in state after state, Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the population.
Look at Colorado, a Rocky Mountain state. In the year 2000, the Latino community comprised 17 per cent of the population. Today nearly a quarter of Colorado is Hispanic. Colorado has voted for a Democrat only once in 40 years. Yet this year the state voted convincingly for Obama, 53 percent to 46 percent.
A similar story is played out in nearby states Nevada and New Mexico, and in faraway North Carolina — all states with fast-growing Hispanic populations.
Latino communities are mushrooming in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, even Indiana — a once-solid Republican state now turning purple.
That’s a warning to the GOP, who once courted the Hispanic vote with much success. Now, in state after state, the Latino community has doubled its voter participation. And on November 4th, 67 percent of Latinos voted for Barack Obama.
Even a considerable number of third generation Cuban Americans in Florida—stalwarts of the GOP — chose Obama.
In a hotly contested election, any extra sympathy could make or break victory. Indeed, Obama’s biggest wins took place in areas with the most diversity, such as Fairfax County in Northern Virginia and Orange Country in Florida.
Indeed, minority groups voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Again, Republicans beware. The U.S. Census Bureau says that minority groups — Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, etc.— will comprise almost half of the U.S. population by the year 2050, a far cry from the 16 percent share in 1970.
There are not two Americas. There are three, four, five, six Americas, all blending into one.
But the GOP did not listen. Despite the quickly changing demographics of vulnerable red states, Republican Party officials offered no minority candidates this year who could actually win. There are no black Republicans in Congress, and there had not been one last term either.
The electorate paid attention with their votes. Today, there are no Republican house members in New England. If red states are turning blue, then some blue states are deepening in hue.
In the case of Colorado, the electorate is also changing due to the influx of Californians drawn by the state’s tech boom. Virginia’s tech boom in the 1990s also attracted college-educated white professionals, as well as so-called liberals from Washington DC.
Some conservative pundits have lamented that Obama won only some 43 percent of the “white vote” — who make up 74 percent of the electorate, down from 81 percent in the year 2000—making his race an issue in the election. Yet Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Candidate in the 2004 elections, garnered only 41 percent of white voters. Indeed, Democratic Party presidential candidates rarely manage a better percentage with white voters.
Perhaps a more pertinent number represents the self-described “moderates”: voters who are eager to discard debilitating labels such as “liberal” and “conservative”. Many minorities belong to this “moderate” group; some will not even register with any political party, prefering to be labeled ‘independent’.
Obama won this group handily, taking him one step further to realizing his dream of breaking down the blue state and red state divide and rebuilding again a multi-color united states of America.
Living on the East Coast, I have often felt removed from the rest of the country, out of touch with the demarcations of blue state and red state America.Committed to progressive social issues, I have often felt like a freak, as commentators on cable news deride bleeding heart liberals. I have often felt that if my sense of alienation persists, will my children too feel out of place? Will they too feel constricted by the confines of a rigidly colored map?
On November 5, I showed my son the new map, a map now painted blue in the middle as well as on the coasts. Leave it to preschoolers to succinctly sum up a situation. My boy —a son of Asia and America, a child only just beginning to understand the world he will inherit — says nonchalantly: “It looks much better now, Mommy. I like it.”
+ Dini Djalal
Too tired to delve into Obama’s complicated biography, I answered, “No, sweetheart, he’s an American.”
My son persisted. “If Obama is American, am I an American too?”.
I was stumped. My son — born in the U.S. of an Indonesian citizen mother and an American citizen father of Thai ethnicity — has an equally complicated biography.
I chose the easy answer: “Yes, you are an American too.”
On the night of November 4t, as an African-American became the United States’ new president-elect, my easy answer took on new meaning.
If a boy with a Kenyan father who grew up in Jakarta can become president of the United States, then indeed my son is an American, one who will navigate a political landscape both more complicated and simpler than the one we now know.
When we look at the America that broadcasters present, my son asks, why are some parts blue and why are some red? I try to explain the differences between the two Americas, defined and divided by the social issues of the so-called culture wars: race, religion, guns. But I am struck by the absurdity of my argument.
Indeed, the 2008 electoral map shows that young Americans like my son are turning America purple.
The United States of today is what it has been for centuries prior: a mish-mash of immigrants crossing state lines in search of better futures. Where Germans fleeing religious persecution settled in the Great Lakes area, communities escaping political turmoil in Southeast Asia have followed.
And in state after state, Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the population.
Look at Colorado, a Rocky Mountain state. In the year 2000, the Latino community comprised 17 per cent of the population. Today nearly a quarter of Colorado is Hispanic. Colorado has voted for a Democrat only once in 40 years. Yet this year the state voted convincingly for Obama, 53 percent to 46 percent.
A similar story is played out in nearby states Nevada and New Mexico, and in faraway North Carolina — all states with fast-growing Hispanic populations.
Latino communities are mushrooming in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, even Indiana — a once-solid Republican state now turning purple.
That’s a warning to the GOP, who once courted the Hispanic vote with much success. Now, in state after state, the Latino community has doubled its voter participation. And on November 4th, 67 percent of Latinos voted for Barack Obama.
Even a considerable number of third generation Cuban Americans in Florida—stalwarts of the GOP — chose Obama.
In a hotly contested election, any extra sympathy could make or break victory. Indeed, Obama’s biggest wins took place in areas with the most diversity, such as Fairfax County in Northern Virginia and Orange Country in Florida.
Indeed, minority groups voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Again, Republicans beware. The U.S. Census Bureau says that minority groups — Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, etc.— will comprise almost half of the U.S. population by the year 2050, a far cry from the 16 percent share in 1970.
There are not two Americas. There are three, four, five, six Americas, all blending into one.
But the GOP did not listen. Despite the quickly changing demographics of vulnerable red states, Republican Party officials offered no minority candidates this year who could actually win. There are no black Republicans in Congress, and there had not been one last term either.
The electorate paid attention with their votes. Today, there are no Republican house members in New England. If red states are turning blue, then some blue states are deepening in hue.
In the case of Colorado, the electorate is also changing due to the influx of Californians drawn by the state’s tech boom. Virginia’s tech boom in the 1990s also attracted college-educated white professionals, as well as so-called liberals from Washington DC.
Some conservative pundits have lamented that Obama won only some 43 percent of the “white vote” — who make up 74 percent of the electorate, down from 81 percent in the year 2000—making his race an issue in the election. Yet Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Candidate in the 2004 elections, garnered only 41 percent of white voters. Indeed, Democratic Party presidential candidates rarely manage a better percentage with white voters.
Perhaps a more pertinent number represents the self-described “moderates”: voters who are eager to discard debilitating labels such as “liberal” and “conservative”. Many minorities belong to this “moderate” group; some will not even register with any political party, prefering to be labeled ‘independent’.
Obama won this group handily, taking him one step further to realizing his dream of breaking down the blue state and red state divide and rebuilding again a multi-color united states of America.
Living on the East Coast, I have often felt removed from the rest of the country, out of touch with the demarcations of blue state and red state America.Committed to progressive social issues, I have often felt like a freak, as commentators on cable news deride bleeding heart liberals. I have often felt that if my sense of alienation persists, will my children too feel out of place? Will they too feel constricted by the confines of a rigidly colored map?
On November 5, I showed my son the new map, a map now painted blue in the middle as well as on the coasts. Leave it to preschoolers to succinctly sum up a situation. My boy —a son of Asia and America, a child only just beginning to understand the world he will inherit — says nonchalantly: “It looks much better now, Mommy. I like it.”
+ Dini Djalal
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