2012 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: RELIGIOSITY LOST, LEFT WON
Rajasekhar Ramakrishnan
It is an understatement that my family is happy with the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the President of the United States for the second term in November 2012.
Not only did Obama win re-election, not only did he win convincingly, with only a slight decline from 2008 despite all the economic problems and the Republican onslaught backed by big money, he did
so with the exact sort of coalition that the left is interested in – labor, the poor, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays, and women concerned about their rights.
This progressive coalition not only brought Obama to victory, it also elected a bunch of progressive Senators and House members. And it brought about the first electoral wins on the gay marriage issue, winning in all four states where the issue was on the ballot.
We are happy to have contributed to the many progressive Democrats, especially in the context of the hundreds of millions from right wing billionaires.
More and more people no doubt see that the last four years have been quite transformative in US politics to allow us to get past the desperate, and often silly, nitpicking in some left rhetoric. Some of us have some disposable savings, and giving to progressive groups back home as well as here is clearly the best use for the money; to that, we have added supporting progressive politicians here.
Obama’s five-minute thank you speech (http://lybio.net/tag/president-obama-im-really-proud-of-all-of-you-transcription/) to his campaign staff was watched by more than eight million people just at one place. Obama can be seen crying but, for me, the speech is wonderful for the way he links his own political activism and development to what his campaign staff will experience as they go forward, saying at one point that what his followers will do is a source of inspiration to him.