A New America Emerges

 One of the most notable takeaways from last week’s election was the demographic breakdown of the increased voter turnout. While the vote of white constitutes increased 5% from 2016, the vote increase of POC increased dramatically. The Afro-American vote increased at a rate of 20% while the Latino vote soared to historic levels of participation: a 62% increase from the previous presidential election.

As many from the MSM were focused on the relatively modest Latino support for Biden/Harris in Florida, they largely failed to report the overwhelming increase in participation elsewhere throughout the country from the Latino community. The overall percentage of Latino support for the Democratic presidential candidate stood at nearly 65%, which compares favorably with past tallies but the significant upshot from the statistical breakdown remains the substantial increase in total turnout volume. 

Together with the increase in Afro-American turnout, the clear signal going forward is that the demographic change long predicted to become a real factor in American politics has taken a giant leap forward to the extent 

that the voice of POC no longer will be regarded as an interesting element of the political landscape but rather an ever-increasing majority influence that will determine and help shape an emerging reality in American life...just now clearly visible on a newly-illuminated horizon.

Progressive Influence

 Recent suggestions by moderate Democrats that the progressive wing of the party had cost votes and ‘nearly lost the election of Joe Biden’ were as inaccurate as they were politically shortsighted. Abigail Spanberger and James Clyburn were particularly vocal in this condemnation while echoing similar centrists attitudes frequently voiced by the likes of Pete Buttigieg, Claire McCaskill, James Carville, Paul Begala, and erstwhile Republican John Kasich, to name a few. 

In point of fact, the progressive ideas as espoused by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, just to name two, regarding focus on equitable pay and a living wage ($15 minimum), serious attention to the increasing environmental crisis (The Green New Deal), racial justice and reconciliation through sensible police reform and reallocation of funding, and a comprehensive restructuring of our health care system as reflected in Medicare for All are all widely popular programs supported by a clear majority of the electorate. It was wise therefore for the Biden/Harris ticket to incorporate these ideas and programs into their platform thereby rallying the support of the much needed 18-32 demographic in order to secure their margin of victory over Trump. It would be therefore a fatal error to interpret this result as an endorsement of centrist ideology generally or Joe Biden in particular and instead view it as an unifying expression of distaste for a singularly incompetent incumbent.

In the immediate wake of this election and especially while looking forward, it is foolhardy and myopic to disregard the progressive influence in bringing about the recent victory over incipient fascism and, moreover, to alienate the very same portion of the electorate that will comprise the vast majority of the Democratic base in the critical years to come. When DNC chairman Tom Perez praises his party as having ‘a big tent’, he is well-advised to take a long look as to who will occupy its interior going forward. It’s is the progressive voice of millennials and generation X/Z together with their forward-thinking ideas and energy that in large part determined and influenced the outcome of this election and will provide the way forward in the ensuing decades. Either the current centrist-minded Democratic establishment recognizes this political reality and takes steps to cede power and vision to the next wave of vibrant democratic expression or it will lose its ability to permanently repel the forces that created the specter represented by the outgoing administration.

Perspective

 While the record number of votes cast for Biden/Harris is celebrated, it might be useful to keep in mind that the total vote count for Trump also set an all-time record, nearly 8 million more than he collected in 2016. 

The will of the people on both sides of this particular argument was announced loudly and clearly and must also be heard, respected, and even possibly reconciled with a bit of time, patience, and deep understanding.

Celebration and a Call to Action

 Tonight is a time to celebrate the assertion of the democratic will of the people to place in abeyance incipient fascism in America while also overcoming the profoundly archaic and deeply un-democratic electoral college system whereby we determine who is to occupy the highest office in the land.

Should we be happy that an attempt to endorse autocratic rule in ‘the land of the free’ has been repelled?...unequivocally, yes; pleased that two center/center-right politicians are set to take up residency in the White House?...maybe not so much. 

Progressive activists together with a broad coalition of forward-thinking Americans have propelled Biden/Harris into a place of sacred leadership. Starting tomorrow, during this interim period until inauguration on 1/20/21 and throughout the tenure of the next administration, we must go to work to ensure that the campaign rhetoric supporting progressive change on the issues of climate change, the right to universal health care, a comprehensive plan to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control, the restoration of economic justice for all Americans, a genuine reckoning with ongoing systemic racism, and a serious reordering and prioritizing of our use of public resources is followed by policies that will transform lofty promise into concrete reality.