The Republican party has no choice but to embrace diversity. The rich white, gun-owner, Christian party is in trouble. Continuing with the ‘Sarah Palin - Southern Strategy,‘ in which the obsession with immigrants here illegally is ramped up — blinds them to the opportunity to craft a credible outreach strategy. McCain had a moderate approach to immigration reform but was nominated by a party of immigrant-bashers. He got just 31% of the Latino vote and only 35% of Asians.
Don Campbell Writes:
Why Ga. should be on GOP’s mind
ATLANTA — As Republican strategists ponder the road to resurrection after their party’s election debacle, I’d suggest they come to Atlanta to take a ride into the future, one that just might inject them with a dose of reality.
They should hire a tour bus and head northeast from Midtown Atlanta on Buford Highway, hard by Interstate 85, following it for several miles before turning south toward Stone Mountain on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. If they blocked out everything but the cantinas, taquerias, Asian flea markets, mercados, tofu houses, Thai video stores, dim sum diners, kimchi cafes and pawn shops, they might think they were in Queens, N.Y., or parts of Los Angeles. If they got lost and wandered into the parking lot of one of the largest Swaminarayan Hindu temples outside India, they might be even more confused. In fact, they would be in Gwinnett County, Ga.
GOP Not Feeling So Grand
Wedged between Atlanta’s close-in suburbs in DeKalb County, where the minority turned into the majority in the 1990s, and the leafy, sprawling enclaves of mini-mansions and estates to the north, Gwinnett County is one of the most diverse, polyglot jurisdictions in the country. More than 100 languages are spoken in county schools. A majority of students are minorities. But just 18 years ago, in the 1990 Census, Gwinnett was 90% white, rock-ribbed Republican and Exhibit A in the pantheon of suburban Sun Belt counties that supposedly would mold and sustain realignment to a permanent Republican majority.
Today, it is on the verge of becoming majority-minority, with Latinos, African Americans and Asians in near equal proportions, and the GOP vote is shriveling. Twenty years ago, George H.W. Bush got 75% of the presidential vote. Four years ago, George W. Bush got 66%. On Nov. 4, John McCain drew just 55%.
Taking the long view
“Enduring majorities” often turn out to be tenuous, but my bet is that Gwinnett County is not an anomaly. Twenty miles to the west, suburban Cobb County is undergoing the same transformation. McCain’s narrow win statewide in Georgia and his loss to Obama in Virginia and North Carolina are leading indicators for national population projections: In about three decades, whites will be a minority in the USA. In 15 years, a majority of children younger than 18 will be minorities.
So the Republicans, as I see it, have two options. The short-term — and shortsighted — response is to chalk 2008 up to a bad economy and an unpopular incumbent, repackage the same old political bromides and count on liberals to yank Barack Obama so far left that they’ll generate a voter backlash. Or they can take the long view and figure out how to survive and even thrive as the percentage of middle- and upper-class whites shrinks.
White Christian BIGOTS [ Enlarge Pic ] — Race Mixing is COMMUNISM! | In 2008: Obama is a SOCIALIST! – Ring a bell? 1950s & 60s McCarthyism is still alive in America!
Backlashes do occur. Bill Clinton and the Democrats experienced a sizeable one in 1994 after raising taxes and trying to force-feed nationalized health care. Four years later, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republicans faced a backlash of their own after Gingrich overplayed his hand in a budget showdown with Clinton by forcing a shutdown of the federal government.
I don’t dismiss philosophy or personality, but winning elections is a numbers game, and it’s foolish to think that even a revived party can thrive once its base becomes a minority.
Many years ago, I wrote stories about how Republicans were seriously committed to bringing blacks into their tent. The theory then was that blacks are conservative on issues such as gay rights and school choice. They are devout churchgoers. And as they moved into the middle class and out to the suburbs, African Americans would — chameleon-like — adopt the conservative economic philosophy of their new neighbors. It was a pipedream then, and it’s a pipedream now: Obama’s historic election has merely solidified the Democratic Party’s appeal to black voters.
An opportunity
Other large minority groups, especially Latinos and Asians, should be a more promising target for Republicans. Both groups are known for their close-knit family structures. Both have an incredible work ethic. Both thrive on entrepreneurship. If you doubt that, go to a Sam’s Club and observe who’s rolling out the flatbeds loaded with supplies to stock small shops and restaurants.
But the Republicans’ obsession with immigrants here illegally blinds them to the opportunity to craft a credible outreach strategy. McCain had a moderate approach to immigration reform but was nominated by a party of immigrant-bashers. He got just 31% of the Latino vote and only 35% of Asians.
It’s an absurd position for a party in decline. Most of the 10- or 11- or however-many-million illegal immigrants in this country aren’t going anywhere. Rather than whining that Democrats are protecting illegals because they see them as voters-in-waiting, the GOP should be fighting tooth and nail to get them legalized, to get every immigrant registered to vote, and to tirelessly recruit them to the Republican cause.
A political party on a collision course with demography has no choice but to embrace diversity. You can do the math, or you can eat, drink and shop your way up Buford Highway.
About The Author: Don Campbell — teaches journalism at Emory University in Atlanta and is a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors.
Don Campbell’s 30-plus years in journalism included nearly two decades as a Washington reporter, editor and columnist for Gannett Newspapers and USA Today.
He also served as director of the Washington Journalism Center and of a fellowship program for journalists newly assigned to Washington.
He taught journalism at Northwestern University, the University of Oregon and Arizona State University before he coming to Emory. Author of “Inside the Beltway: A Guide to Washington Reporting,” Don is also a freelance writer.
Giving Up on God — As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.
I’m bathing in holy water as I type.
To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.
Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth — as long as we’re setting ourselves free — is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.
Summary: On Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt rehashed the discredited claim that President-elect Barack Obama is to blame for recent declines in the stock market. In fact, analysts have cited economic data on dropping retail sales, increasing unemployment, and other significant factors to explain recent stock-market declines. This sick syphilitic pest won’t give up!
On the November 14 edition of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity and syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt rehashed the discredited claim that President-elect Barack Obama is to blame for recent declines in the stock market. As Media Matters for America noted in response to Hannity’s earlier, similar claims, analysts have disputed the assertion that the market decline is attributable to Obama’s election, citing other factors such as economic data on dropping retail sales and increasing unemployment.
Yes, it’s Fox News — the premier media playing ground for the syphilitic goons, perverts and hypocrites of the ReTHUGlican party……and a handful of House-Negroes, e.g. Mr. Michael Steele of Maryland.
Barack Obama serves up a “Facial” on McCain. The “Republican bigot world” is stunned, as a black man, “THE ONE,” is set to lead them out of the “Dark Ages.” The extremists — The “American Religious ‘Taliban’,” “Fox News’ Maniacs,” Right-Wing Bigot Radio, the KKK, Neo-Nazis and misc. FILTH, are shell-shocked as the Obama train rolls into the White House.
Barack Hussein Obama: “It’s been a long time coming, but change has come to America”
At the beginning of this campaign, I had faith — faith that finally a black man would lead this great nation. Even though my faith was shaky at first, in Barack Hussein Obama, I saw a brilliant “tribesman,” an intelligent and capable man, a “superb brain” like his troubled father was. I saw an exceptional human being with outstanding qualities. I saw a great American story and a great prospect for the ultimate prize in politics — The Presidency of The United States.
Exactly two years ago, I wrote: “The six year cesspool of a mess presided over by the Bush administration might not be in vain after all. It has made America hungry for a messenger with a message of hope.”
My faith in Barack Obama has been richly rewarded.
On the other side of things, the rotting corpse of the Republican Party is stinking up the United States from top to bottom. The people of America have “atrophied” the GOP into nothing more than “a very is a sick joke.” McCain, Palin and the GOP totally underestimated the fact that America has changed, and continues to do so.
In 1963, after being elected governor of Alabama, the epicenter of segregation, DixieCrat George Wallace declared: “I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation for ever.”
Since then, America has waddled through racism slowly but surely. While George Wallace’s Democrats did a one hundred and eighty degree turn in the ’60s, and embraced the Civil Rights movement, the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln(who introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, by issuing hisEmancipation Proclamationin 1863), slid into the so-called Southern Strategy, a racist scheme in which Republican candidates ignored black voters and exploited racial tensions of the white majority, in order to win elections.
To a large extent, John McCain implemented this strategy, and it fell flat on its face!
The “big-ticket” Republican “scare-issues” like outlawing abortion, gay marriage, “we can clobber the whole world” — have largely fallen into deaf ears, except into those of idiots like Joe The Plumber.
Also, the cruel xenophobic campaign by Republicans to rid the “homeland” of immigrants, last year, turned toxic for the GOP. Hispanics and other minorities eligible to vote cast their votes for Obama in droves. Young whites devoid of their parents’ prejudices flocked to Obama in swarms.
The nativist zeal in political rhetoric, with which the Tancredo led Republicans approached this sensitive issue, has proven costly, and to John McCain, who abandoned his previous reasoned approach in favor of the “Lou Dobbs Fear & Loathing,” “get them all outta here” anti-immigrant hate-mongering, it must be extra painful — for I am sure the Hispanic vote was decisive. Sixty six percent of Hispanic voters (12 million eligible) cast their votes for Obama.
Obama brilliantly co-opted the Republican theme — “Cutting Taxes” into his economic strategy. At a time when the American economy is suffering, it fit so nicely that John McCain could only fumble and stumble on the issue. The “moderate maverick” was forced to campaign like a right-wing nut-bag, with an agenda of fear — Bush-Style. Little did he know that the majority of Americans, after eight years of “murderous rule“, by George Bush the GOON, didn’t want any more of that crap.
Barack Obama’s win validates the work of civil rights activists in the last century. It is also proof that America is “evolving… trying to reach for the best part of itself,” a former activist says. Even a segregationist’s daughter chimed in: “I think Obama will be one of the best presidents.” … [READ MORE HERE]
I strongly agree!
A new era in American politics has just been ushered in, and with proper management, Obama and the Democratic majority in both houses can ensure that the right-wing fringe bigots of the Republican party remain in their “southern holes” for a long time to come.
Full Results
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Barack Obama’s Victory Speech in Chicago
Civil-Rights Icon Jesse Jackson Breaks Down
A Kenyan Savors Obama’s Victory
Martin Luther King JR.’s — “I have a dream” Speech
In Kogelo, Kenya — Villagers lined up to cast a mock ballot next to a poster of Barack Obama in Kogelo, the town in Kenya where Obama’s ancestors are from.
Also, Blood flowed as Election Day dawned in Barack Obama’s ancestral village in western Kenya.
The presidential candidate’s half-brother Malik tied a bull to a tree, then hobbled it. The beast’s head was then held to the ground as he drew a machete across its jugular.
“Hold this guy down now,” said Malik, 50, eyeing the animal’s horns as blood poured from its throat like an open tap.
“He could kill me now.”
After five minutes, the blood flow began to slow, and the fight went out of the animal, which stopped kicking and lay still, breathing heavily. “O.K., it’s over,” said Malik. “Fine animal too.” — [MORE]
Full text: Obama’s victory speech
Democrat Barack Obama has become the first African-American to win the White House. Here are his remarks as prepared for delivery to a huge crowd in his home city of Chicago:
CHANGE HAS COME
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.
PARTNERS IN THE JOURNEY
I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice-President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation’s next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.
And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics - you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.
VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington - it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.
It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to this cause.
It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organised, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth.
This is your victory.
THE TASK AHEAD
I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.
REMAKING THE NATION
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
ONE NATION, ONE PEOPLE
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.
Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours: “We are not enemies, but friends? though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.
AMERICA IN THE WORLD
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you.
And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
A HISTORY OF STRUGGLE
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbour and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome”. Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.
THIS IS OUR MOMENT
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can.
Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
3.McCain Loses as Bush Legacy Is Rejected — Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.
4.The Next President — Barack Obama won the election because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens.
8.A Case for Barack Hussein — An Obama presidency would change the way the Middle East sees America, argues the editor of a Moroccan newsmagazine.
9. “The election of Mr. Obama amounted to a national catharsis — a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.” — ADAM NAGOURNEY, New York Times
12.Tuesday’s Second Biggest Winner: Democracy — Let’s start with Hispanics, who accounted for the most dramatic swing. In 2004, Kerry outperformed Bush with Hispanic voters 59 percent to 40 percent. In 2008, the Hispanic vote went 67 percent for Obama, and only 31 percent for McCain — a net improvement of 17 points.
Backlashes do occur. Bill Clinton and the Democrats experienced a sizeable one in 1994 after raising taxes and trying to force-feed nationalized health care. Four years later, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republicans faced a backlash of their own after Gingrich overplayed his hand in a budget showdown with Clinton by forcing a shutdown of the federal government. 
About The Author: Don Campbell — teaches journalism at Emory University in Atlanta and is a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors.
poster of Barack Obama in Kogelo, the town in Kenya where Obama’s ancestors are from.
