Once again the circus they call the American Presidential Election is over, and as Canadians we can poke fun at the stupendous cost, the endless hoop-la that, in the end arrived at ….. you got it, the status quo. Obama is back in the White House, the Democrats control the Senate and the Republicans control the Congress. Nothing has changed. Yet, it fact everything has changed. The demographic mathematics have kicked in and it may be the beginning of paradigm change in American politics.

In previous presidential elections the party who garnered 60% of white male vote usually took the election. Once again, in this election, the Republicans took 60% of the white male vote BUT THEY LOST. It is just simple mathematics. There are less white male voters and there are many, many more Black, Hispanic, Female and younger voters. These are voters  who  do not share political sympathies with white males or the Republican party. And why should they? Republican hopeful Mitt Romney sloughed off the 47% of  voters who he considered were so unimportant that there was no point trying to win their vote. The Republican anti-immigrant stance and their position on women’ issues certainly didn’t encourage support for the party. His position wasn’t helped by the incredible number of right-wing nuts (Donald Trump please stand up)  in his party that had surfaced in the years running up to the election. The election results cemented the notion that the party is out of touch and living in a fantasy land that no longer existed (if it ever did exist). The right wing seems to have a strangle hold on Republican thinking and the  situation isn’t likely to change. The number of minorities will continue to increase as a percentage of the population and this will continue to favor  the Democrats.

Here is a little interesting blow back from the election. Within days of the Obama win 30 US states launched citizen petitions to secede from the union. It’s not going to happen of course, but the possibility does raise some interesting scenarios. What if the USA union did disintegrate? Would that necessarily be a bad thing? Hmmm, one wonders, doesn’t one?

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