Outrages & Insights

There are a lot of reason why Barack Obama won the presidential election, and pundits will no doubt pulverize us with the details in the hours, days and weeks ahead. Dubya's ineptitude, the economy,  war(s) etc. had a lot to do with it, and McCain and Palin did not help themselves.

But I think there's something else that played big, something very fundamental and lasting, and I come to that conclusion largely by listening to my two college-age kids.

They, and a whole lot of young Americans, don't see thing as their elders do. Black-white, gay-straight, red-blue, the distinctions and divisions don't mean much to them. They are the hangups of their elders.

While there will be many skirmishes in the future, I view Tuesday as the final major volley in the culture wars that have been a basis of American politics since Richard Nixon fashioned the "silent majority" en route to victory in 1968.

Since then, the right has won many a political battle. Heck, they've occupied the White House 28 of the past 40 years.

But along the way, the right has lost the culture war whose roots date to the 1950s, one part Birmingham Jail, one part Jailhouse Rock.

Civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, reproductive rights. Americans under 30 take these as givens.

Likewise, the culture is in a very different place than it was a generation ago. The barriers have been breached, the lines have been blurred. I may not like the rap music blasting out of my kids' laptops any more than, say, Todd Palin does, but I realize that ship has sailed. I take comfort in the fact my son also appreciates early Kinks.

That's the way it is with so many of those who traipsed to the polls for the first time Tuesday. Their world isn't red-blue, it's a lot of colors. So when they went to the polls, they didn't see it as a matter of race, middle names or the like.

Instead, they saw it as one guy who text-messages the masses and another guy trying to get the hang of this new-fangled e-mail thing. One guy who finished near the top of his class while the other barely scraped through. One guy who cut his teeth as a community organizer in the 'hood, while the other signed up a running mate who thinks Mayberry RFD is where it's at.

Translation: Obama is black -- big whoop.

Mind you, this election was fairly close, at least when it came to the popular vote. Obama won 53-47. But I think the vote represents a tipping point.

The silent majority is dying off. Exit polls show McCain won only with the 65 and older crowd. Voters between 18 and 29 went for Obama 66-32. But it wasn't just the young whipper-snappers.

Exit poll data shows that, while McCain managed to win the white vote, Obama did better with this demographic than John Kerry, Al Gore or Bill Clinton.

In other words, Barack did better with Bubba than Bubba.

There are other reasons to think a page was turned yesterday.

The face of the Obama coalition -- as evidenced on television last night, live from Chicago's Grant Park -- reflects the changing face of America. The Census Bureau projects that those now categorized as "minority" will become the majority by 2042.

Then there's Obama himself.

If history is any indicator, he's probably got the job for eight years. The times will test him, and he may fail. But my hunch is that he'll do OK. He's smart and level-headed, and a competent presidency will further erode the mindset that Obama managed to transcend on Election Day.

My college-age daughter reminded me last night of a conversation I had with her one day long ago when we were waiting for the school bus -- when she was in kindergarten. Bill Clinton had been elected president the night before and I told her it was an historic day in America.

I told her last night that this election was a whole lot more historic.

It's not just because the nation elected its first black president. But because a whole lot of people like her and her brother look at the world differently, and what that means to the country as we move forward. Finally.

I was going to end this post with a Bob Dylan video -- The Times They Are a Changing -- but I think this one is more appropriate.

The kids are, indeed, all right.