What An Obama Win Would Mean For America

Sometimes your political foes, while attempting to hurt you, make a simple argument for you.

“If ‘ObamaCare’ is implemented, if the foreign policy of this president continues, we will live in a world and in a country that is fundamentally different than the one that we have lived in for the past.” –Rick Santorum 9/15/2012

While speaking at the Value Voters Summit (read: the place where a bunch of people who think overturning Roe v. Wade is more important than feeding the millions of hungry people already born and starving in this country), Santorum included the above quote in his speech. He of course was using the tried-and-true Republican election mantra of “They are different.” This tactic has been around for decades, used with great effect by the likes of Richard Nixon when he employed his “Southern Strategy,” which essentially played on the fears of older, Conservative white people in the South that the black man was going to take over their country.

What Santorum didn’t realize, and ultimately what the GOP and its faithful followers don’t realize, is that this country has already fundamentally changed, and it wants more. Or at least that will be one of the many lessons we learn should President Barack Obama turn the expanding leads he has in the polls up to this point into a victory and a second term. Santorum was absolutely right; if Obama wins, and Obamacare stands, this country will be fundamentally different, and here’s how.

Things Are Changing

Poor Conservatives. Throughout history they’ve done everything in their power to stand in front of societal evolution and block it. Conservative Southern farmers wanted to preserve their agrarian lifestyle with its built-in cost saving measure known as slavery. Conservatives in the early 20th century tried to keep women and black people from voting. And Conservative Democrats (remember that party affiliation means nothing once a party changes its platform) in the 1940s and into the 1960s tried unsuccessfully to keep interracial marriage illegal and the races separate but equal. Conservatives lose these social issue battles because they are on the declining side of the important issues.

They cite worries about societal decline when they warn about how terrible things are to come should Progressives get their way, and some new minority finds their rights protected by Federal law. But all we have to do is look at something like the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and we can see that despite warnings from Conservatives, the armed forces hasn’t turned into a gang of horny gay people, undermining the might of our military. Nothing has changed, except for the fact that some very brave men and women no longer have to hide an essential aspect of who they are as people. 

Though there is still much resistance to the Affordable Care Act, there are key components of it that just about every American understands are important for the future of our nation. Things are changing already. Despite many Presidents’ efforts in the past to pass legitimate health care reform, President Obama succeeded. As the ACA stays in place, and as more and more people discover the good it’s doing, and the good it can do with further expansion towards true, single-payer or public-funded health care, it will go down as one of the single most important advances in American history.

The biggest change that we’d see as a result of Obama’s second term would be a return to Democratic economic theory. No more top-down, no more trickle-down. But what about those Republicans in Congress? They’ll still be there. And they won’t stand for that kind of change.

Congressional Republicans Will Be On Notice

By all accounts, the House of Representatives stands to stay in the clenches of the GOP, despite how bad Romney-Ryan is making it for their chances to take control of the Senate. But an Obama victory in November means that every Republican in Congress should feel a little pinch. It would mean that despite their efforts to vilify Obama’s policies, that despite their work to block every single effort Obama made to try and get America back to work, the country still re-upped Obama’s contract. The American people, should they choose to re-elect Obama, will have effectively chosen a side for the next four years.  

If by the time the 2014 midterm rolls around the GOP is still dragging their feet, having been completely exposed as obstructionists in this election, it will be like 1998 all over again. In case you forgot, in 1998 the GOP had its ass absolutely handed to them after they spent the better part of the year chasing the Monica Lewinsky Blowjob in the White House scandal. The message was clear, work for us, or get out. Look for a repeat of that message, perhaps even in this election, if the Democrats are able to either hold or even slightly expand their majority in the Senate.

Reaganomics Will Be Dead

The one economic theory the Romney-Ryan ticket has been pushing is Supply Side economics. It makes sense since that’s what their party has bought into entirely. They are firmly entrenched in their belief that you should pool as much wealth at the top as possible and allow those benevolent job creators to shower down the droppings onto us all. Unfortunately for them though, a Barack Obama victory would mean that the country, by and large, calls “bullshit!” on Trickle Down. An Obama victory means that most Americans do believe that food, shelter and medicine are basic human rights, and that yes, Mittens, we are all entitled to them. Maybe we’re not entitled to champagne and caviar, but we’re entitled to not starve on the streets.

A victory for the President would mean that Americans do understand how deflated the Middle Class has become, and that they don’t believe Romney and Ryan’s plan of austerity and tax cuts for the rich would do anything to fix it. The message will be clear: rich people do not deserve special treatment simply because they are rich. A win for Obama on November 6th means that the majority of Americans feel that feeding, housing and healing our citizens is every bit as, if not more, important than bombing oil-rich countries. It means that socially-conscientious programs are not offensive to most Americans. That we’re not afraid of becoming a country of people sucking off the teet of taxpayers, because Democratic economics works. It creates millions more jobs, and grows the Middle Class into a force to be reckoned with. The best way to give people a hand out of poverty, in other words, is to give them something to climb up into. Right now, the line between poverty and the Middle Class is blurrier than it’s ever been. A win for Obama means the country is ready to define that line once more.

From Silent Majority To Silent Minority

This last point is probably the most scary for Conservatives. This is what they’re really fighting for Romney for. They don’t like him so much as they truly fear their way of life being threatened. But the truth is that the country is already starting to marginalize them because of how extreme and obstinate they are. I don’t begrudge anyone their spiritual faith. But the fact remains that this country was founded on the idea that religious sycophancy will not take the place of reasoned debate and legislation. An Obama victory means an important statement on social issues.  Birtherism will die finally, or at least be so marginalized that it’ll remain the topic of conversation in hushed circles of out-of-touch rednecks and ignorant fools who bought the conspiracy theory, hook, line and sinker. 

The fear of socialism will be further pushed to the shadows of American politics as well. The Left knows that social programs are important because they are used as  constructs by which we can improve our infrastructure, educate our children, and encourage scientific research. All of those things truly do breed innovation and industry. The space race was a socialist program; think about it. Our tax dollars paid for scientific research that wound up not only putting us on the Moon, but it gave us valuable technological breakthroughs that served not just Americans, but all mankind. What are socialist programs if not programs for the betterment of all society?

An Obama victory in the Fall means that the country, as a majority, doesn’t see the president as a black, Kenyan Communist/Socialist/Marxist/Sharia Law enforcing interloper. It means that we truly are one step closer to being in a post-racial world. It means that on average, we do believe that any adult should be able to marry and love without shame any other adult they want. Finally, it means quite simply that despite their best efforts the Republicans could not and did not destroy the two most important promises that Candidate Obama made in 2008.

Hope and Change.