Last night was historic, not only in terms of the quasi-magical symbolism of an Obama victory but also because the youth vote finally turned out after years of failure and false promise. Chris Bowers notes the promise of the moment at Open Left, writing:
Obama attracts his support predominantly from younger voters, well-educated voters, urban voters, non-Christian voters, and African-American voters. These demographics are disproportionately grouped into the generations that have followed the Baby Boomers. Even leaving his rhetoric aside, the simply fact is that Obama represents those voters from a demographic and cultural perspective that no other candidate can match. Tonight, he won because he turned those voters out in record numbers. Pundits scoffed at such high turnout projections, probably because they had seen every previous such claim from a campaign fall flat. Well, tonight Obama succeeded where all other campaigns have failed in the past.A hagiographic 1995 piece from The Chicago Reader explains why Obama runs, though he more or less told us himself last night.
They said this day would never come.
They said our sights were set too high.
They said this country was too divided; too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.
But on this January night – at this defining moment in history – you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do; what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days; what America can do in this New Year. In schools and churches; small towns and big cities; you came together as Democrats, Republicans and Independents to stand up and say that we are one nation; we are one people; and our time for change has come.
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