Congratulations to Obama and his supporters

IMO, this election result shows that identity politics has become the norm for US politics now. Obama didn't win because he had better policies and Romney didn't lose because he had worse ideas. Quite the opposite, in fact. What's happened is that a large enough percentage of the population now votes based on whatever group they identify with and which party promises to do the most for that group that a president with one of the worst records in US history can win re-election purely because he was better able to convince those groups that he was "for them". In the identity politics game, the Left will always have an advantage over the Right simply because it's much harder to convince people that a small government platform benefits their group more than a big government platform will. Let's face it, it's pretty hard to convince a group of people that the government *not* giving them stuff is really better for them.


The ironic thing is that unless this trend can be reversed, the claims of the left about the republicans will become truth instead of just rhetoric. Right now you've got a political Right that believes in and strives for small government, and a political Left which characterizes that within the framework of their own identity based political viewpoint (ie: Republicans aren't really for small government at all, but use that as an excuse to push a pro-white/male/rich/religious agenda). But if a party can't win on small government and must pander to identity groups to have a chance, you will see the Republican party change. Which groups it may choose to pander too may not be quite what the current Left expects, but it's reasonable to expect that our politics will become more partisan, more dividing, and more expensive. And along the wayside will go any hope of a system which keeps government small in order to prevent it from playing favorites in favor of one in which each party attempts to pander to enough groups of people to reach 51% of the population.


I think that'll be a tragedy, but by all means you all go ahead and clap yourselves on the back for your victory. But ask yourselves what you really won.