800x600

The 2012 Election

            Anyone who thinks the Republican Party is about to lose all future elections wasn't paying attention in the last 10 years. They need to remember the Republican Party had majorities in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 as well as held the White House in 2004. If the United States comes under attack, which is likely to happen eventually, the Republican Party will probably get the upper hand again. That said, the 2012 election was quite enlightening.

            The Republican Party had run almost as far from the center as it could. The slate of presidential candidates was full of extremists except one man who couldn't decide if he was Republican or Democrat, who couldn't decide if he was for healthcare or against it, who couldn't decide if he was anti-abortion or pro-abortion, who couldn't decide if he was for or against anything, and found himself trying to please both moderates and extremists at the same time.

            But I want to make one important point.  Ethnicity is changing the results of the races. 80% of non-white voters cast their votes for Obama. Only 15% of white males voted for Obama. Anyone who says that ethnicity doesn't matter has their head in the sand. In 1960, 85% of all American voters were white. That number has dropped to about 65% and expected drop to less than 50% by the year 2050.

            In 2008, the Democratic Party nominated and ultimately elected the first minority president in the United States, or at least the first person who didn't appear to be a white male. After all, Obama and I share one thing in common. Neither of us are pure white. I have some Native American blood, 1/8 to be exact, and had been told one of my siblings quit studying genealogy when she found she had black ancestors. After all, Obama is as much a white man as he is a black man.

            In 2008, after many years of nominations of women to vice presidential positions and the eventual success Obama, I said, "I don't think we will ever see two white men on American presidential ticket again." John McCain had selected a woman, albeit a crazy woman, as his vice presidential candidate and other women had been nominated as vice presidential candidates in the past, or at least one other woman. I don't remember clearly. But I assumed, albeit incorrectly, no political party would be crazy enough to try to present two white males on a presidential ticket again. I was wrong.

            So what about the future? I will stick by my prediction. I don't think we'll ever see two white males on a presidential ticket for either the Democratic or Republican Party in the United States again. I think, as the saying goes, "the Times they are a changing.’” Any party who is dumb enough to nominate two white males is asking to be defeated. The numbers are simply against them.

            One other changes taking place that's not discussed very much. After World War II a person almost had to be previous military person to win the presidency or even a place in either house of Congress. The military controlled Congress when I was a child. That is no longer completely true, although they do have strong influence in the Republican Party.

            A few years ago, the U.S. Congress passed one of the best laws I've ever seen. Currently, it's being referred to as the fiscal cliff. What it does is something that would have, in the past, been unthinkable. It cuts military spending and everything else in the government by 15%. Republicans voted for it because they never thought it would go into effect, which it won't. But it is an excellent idea. The United States government has been beholden to the military in the past to the point they gave the military many things the armed forces said they never needed. Ships, planes, and many other types of equipment were paid for by Congress because they wanted the local economy in their states or districts to benefit from the construction work. That will still happen and the country will ever go over the fiscal cliff, at least not in the near future.

            But the changes this. Cutting the military is now considered an option at least by some. Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}