Realignment Has Started

Winograd & Hais were right. Technology, along with the war in Iraq and the current economic crisis, has lead Americans craving for change. And Obama is the one they have chosen as the one to lead them into the prosperity that the United States was once globally known for, an image that has recently lost its luster. Obama clearly showed he understands how to reach the voting and non-voting citizens, especially the millennial generation. Through innovative tactics and eloquent speeches he managed to win over a population of many who had lost confidence in their governments ability to make proper decisions and to serve the citizens in the best way possible. Hopefully Obama can restore the confidence to those who didn't approve of the governments incompetence.

It remains to be seen whether or not this will cause a full realignment in future elections. On one hand, you could think that if Obama won what seemed like an insurmountable goal, any other Democrat could follow in his footsteps and win. Or you could say that it took a candidate with this much diversion from the average candidate to capture an entire nation's attention and propel him to the White House. It also remains to be seen whether Obama's time in office will close the racial divide. As Obama said in his "A More Perfect Union" speech, racism still exists but we have come a long way. Slavery and the civil rights movement were not that long ago but since then, racial equality has greatly increased as evidenced by the fact that a black man could be elected president by American people, including whites. I know the election of Obama won't affect how some black people disdain whites, and how some whites don't trust blacks. It won't affect any of that. But perhaps having a black man in office will inspire other blacks and other races in general to step up and take the chance at running for the White House. Only when a few non-whites have been elected will racial equality begin to show amongst the people. Because the most important diversity in this world is not race, it's intellectual diversity; how people think and how people perceive events and life. For the moment, most non-white races still perceive the power of white privilege with contempt and are willing to support a non-white candidate for the fact that he is not white. But when multiple non-white presidents have been elected, they will be able to see that their respective races are equally looked upon by America as a whole and the idea of white privilege will become a thing of the past. In turn races will be more comfortable with each other of different races, because they see that each race can trust the other race enough to elect him president. Obama's time in office will not change any of that, but his election was necessary to pave the way of others who follow him on the path to presidential diversity.

Congratulations to both President Obama and Senator McCain, and here's to the hope that there really is change we can believe in.