Sunday, 11 November 2012

2012 Election


The 2012 election didn’t change much on the face of things for America, the Democrat-Republican vote differed acutely to that of the 2008 election, after spending 6 billion dollars on campaigning, all to result in Barack Obama being decisively re-elected, with Republican control of the House of Representatives and the Democrats the Senate. Thus ‘the nation that has re-elected its leaders this week is the same nation that thinks its government is on the wrong path.’ Political analysts this week have suggested that one reason for the re-election is that American voters were unprepared to face spending cuts and higher taxes, so voted for a progressive leader and a fiscally conservative Congress, hoping that the two will work together moderately. However since 2012 the more realistic outcome has been Deadlock.

Many have found it difficult to understand why America in its current economic state, and unemployment levels reaching record highs, have voted for continuity, in what has ended up as one of the most immobile status quo election results for many years, although it cannot be denied there was a moderate shift to the right in voting patterns, however as the results show it was significant enough, to change anything.  Thus it is very clear that in America, incumbency is extremely high.

What is interesting about the 2012 election is the significantly growing gender gap; women remain the earthwork of the party of the left, whilst men vote for the right. Furthermore probably the most significant feature present in the 2012 election result is the significance of the Hispanic popular vote, which will reshape 21st century America in the next century. Remaining one of the few groups that moved even further left in its support for Obama than in the 2008 election, with 75% support nationwide compared to that of 67% in 2008, Obama owes a lot of his success to the wins in New Mexico Colorado and California all of which are majority Hispanic votes. Hispanics also saved Obama this week in places such as Florida and Virginia, highlighting that their growing influence could eventually affect even the most republican states, such as Arizona or Texas. In which case one thing that has been extensively highlighted in the 2012 election is that if nothing changes the future of the Republican Party looks weak.  Republicans need to respond to the growing Hispanic population or risk suppression.




 

1 comment:

  1. Good work here Jodie in the way you think through significant changes. You could have directly referred to your newsvine link a bit more. The NY Times link is the same as that used on the LN. You have also used a British source (The Guardian) rather than an American one, so you need to give a rationale for this choice.

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