Shall we call it fight the power? Some have already referred to this photo as the affirmation of Black Power, although it's actually Obama's infamous fist-bump (or fist-pound) as opposed to the more up-in-the-air raise of the fist that was the original signal of "Black Power". But either way it is affirmation of a re-elected President whose power cannot be taken away from him, unless he has a sunken moment like Clinton's impeachment trial over lying about Monica Lewinsky, or LBJ's realization that he had lied to the public about our success in Vietnam and the realization that the war was not winnable, or (god forbid) Nixon's Watergate, or Reagan's Iran-Contra Affair.
We are all happy, indeed the world is happy, that this great man has won re-election over a mean-spirited opposition (which is still there, albeit quite wounded and muted) and an empty suit who wasn't suitable to even win over his primary opponents, let alone worthy of being fit to be elected President. American, you made the right choice. Or at least 47% of you did, plus an additional 3% of you that also objectively saw the light or agreed with the 47%. But not 100% of you did, indeed 47% of you didn't. Those 47% class are never going to change their vote, but perhaps they can realize over time that the right person at the right time got elected in 2012. That will come to light eventually as over time their racism eases, and they join the rest of us in 21st Century America in leaning forward. And it is racism, nothing else, that is driving their hate and fear. No more dancing around the issue, we have heard it from pundits, from call-in citizens to talk shows, from constant and increasing statistics about the importance of getting the Latino an women votes, and in general the shift in numbers increasing the leverage of non-white voters and white voters becoming the minority by mid-century (if not sooner). THERE IS A FEAR THAT WHITE VOTERS WILL NO LONGER BE SUPREME IN DETERMINING WHO RUNS THIS COUNTRY. How much that will negatively impact their lives, if at all, is a matter of more focused debate than the simple numbers poked around today suggest.
For example, two of the highest per-capita populations in America are American Jews and Asian-Americans. In fact, the latter has highest median income in the nation. The latter is also growing in number and political influence. The former still holds strongly to liberal values in part because of their past and even current fears of anti-semitism, although there is a conservative element that has grown in their ranks in recent years. Their strength is not in numbers but in economics, and political history (Israel, the Holocaust, Nazi Germany) that maintains a hold on America, although that latter strength was weakened by an arrogant, possibly racist, Israeli leader who now sits naked like a loser at a strip-poker table after betting his pot on the wrong horse. Conservative Jews may not like or trust Obama, but they have no choice but to work with him or nothing at all, considering their miniscule numbers in society which in my opinion cannot be overcome by economic strength. As this recent election proved, you cannot buy the electorate (at least not this time); people vote in their best interests, not yours.
We also learned corporations are NOT people, as Romney and the Supreme Court had alluded. Oh they may be the collective of real human beings, or considered "persons" by the tax code, but despite the Citizens' United legal decision, the will of the people prevails in the end, not the will of Justice Scalia. And shareholder's interest is not the interest of the people, who need safe streets, health care, jobs, economic and educational opportunity for their families, repair of infrastructure, and many other things in their daily lives. As Shakespeare once wrote "Kill all the lawyers first". Perhaps he should've have added the shareholders second.
On that note, going forward is a disturbing trend regarding the business community. They greatly supported Romney. They oppose the tax increases on the wealthy. They were prime donors to the political campaigns. They are sitting on at least $3 trillion in offshore cash they are not paying taxes on. They cry that they can't find workers trained in the jobs they have open, but want no part in paying for training or re-tooling workers or citizens for those jobs. Then they blame those same persons for not getting the training (at their own expense, of course). They claim Obamacare will cause them to lay off workers because of the cost, which hasn't even kicked in yet, yet would move to kick them off the payroll as soon as possible if they got sick. They claim lowering taxes would allow high-income citizens, those so-called "job creators", to create jobs, yet their "trickle-down" theory has not yielded jobs in the past with prior tax cuts, such as the current ones from Bush. They don't want to pay you a living wage, but have no problem moving their businesses to China, and then demonize the Chinese as a dangerous economic adversary. The business community claims to be pro-American, and in the past they certainly were. But these days, I think their allegeance is detrimentally misplaced. We must evaluate this trend carefully, and start making plans to economically protect ourselves.
Finally, what did the GOP learn? I hope for their sake they learned that intolerance, and basing election on referendum against someone, is a losing strategy. Intolerance won't work in an increasingly multicultural society, and you can't win by being against someone unless you give people a credible and solid reason to vote FOR someone. Romney was clearly not that person; Republicans themselves were tepid on him in the 2008 primary election, which in the end he lost the nomination to McCain and for that matter Huckabee. 2012 was really no different; he nearly lost to Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum. And he easily beat Rick Perry because he too was an empty suit, showing that a better empty suit can beat an even emptier suit. Running a campaign of intolerance, where you say fuck the niggers, deport all the spics, burn the faggots and dikes, men tell women what to do with their bodies, and Christianity is the only acceptable way to view the world in our Anglo-based society, is a loser from the start. As it stands, this strategy has guaranteed the Democrats will control the White House through at least January 2021, since Hillary will easily win if she runs and in my opinion will also win re-election in 2020. I'll be a grandfather by the time another Republican has a viable shot at the White House. Advice to GOP: don't make it any worse for yourselves than it already is. CHANGE!!
For now, let's hope that no crisis arises in the second term of Obama that could derail HIllary's shot at 2016, or mar his Presidency like those examples I gave at the top. On the other hand, LBJ, Reagan, Clinton and even Nixon were revered as great presidents as time moved on. There's always HOPE :)
