‘Change’ election marks emergence of new American electorate

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When America elected Barack Obama president, the nation signaled a break with its past in ways beyond smashing the racial barrier.

His election marks the end of the baby boomer presidency and emergence of a new, 21-century American electorate the likes we’ve never seen before: It’s young, increasingly non-white and embraces a different kind of politics.

This election, social scientists and political observers say, points to the arrival of a coalition of voters who value action over partisanship, favor consensus over ideology and believe government can be a partner, not the enemy.

Goodbye to 60s-style politics that shaped the baby boomers, punctuated by idealism and polarization, and the anti-government conservatism of the 1980s Reagan era.

“We are at one of those turning points we encounter periodically in our history where people have lost faith in the old order and are looking for something new,” said Morris Fiorina, a Stanford professor of history and Hoover Institution fellow who studies changing voter habits. “And it’s often a generational change that leads to it.”

The change, identified by Democrats and many Republicans, is not just an Obama phenomenon. And it’s not just young voters. Blacks and Latinos, who came out in record numbers on Tuesday, are long believers in activist government, and the nation’s immigrant communities, including a growing Asian electorate, hunger for a break from policies that penalize instead of welcome newcomers.

The economic meltdown, say those studying the trend, is hastening a shift from the laissez-faire attitude toward government. A broad swath of voters support new regulations in the wake of the near-collapse of the nation’s financial industry and as Congress ponders a massive infrastructure-improvement plan to create jobs.

So when John McCain called Obama a socialist and derided him for wanting to “spread the wealth,” instead of bolting from Obama, many voters said hey, maybe that’s not such a bad idea, said Mike Hais, co-author of “Millennial Makeover: My Space, YouTube and the Future of American Politics” and a fellow at the New Democrat Network.

This emerging generation sprung into action this election cycle, as technology and politics melded to form a powerful virtual megaphone, allowing them to bypass mainstream media and build online communities to push their agendas. The consensus-style, researchers say, comes from a desire to get things done, instead of getting bogged down in partisan politics.

Tuesday’s results indicate that the Me Generation is ceding to the We Generation.

“Young people led the movement into the Reagan coalition of the 1980s. And now with two-thirds under 30 voting for Obama, we see them leading the movement the other way,” said Stanford’s Fiorina. Such sweeping demographic changes “are not good for the Republicans,” he added.

Many Republicans agree they have to rebrand the party to meet the coming tidal wave, find younger candidates, shed their government is bad mantra, and embrace the digital age head-on.

Some parts of the Ronald Reagan playbook can be salvaged, said Bill Whalen, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Republican analyst, but “it has to be adapted for the 21st century. You can still stick with lower taxes and anti-communism becomes anti-terrorism, but the third rubric has to change - Reagan’s suspicion of government.”

Those who study what’s dubbed the Millennial generation, loosely defined as those born between 1982 and 2003, say both parties need to be ready to respond. By 2016, they will make up one-third of the electorate. The minority vote, including Latinos, blacks and Asians, also tilts young and is firmly in the Democrats’ column. Nearly 40 percent of Obama’s votes were cast by minorities, compared with just 10 percent for Republican nominee John McCain.

Latinos continue to be a growing political force. Turned off by immigration battles and concerned about the economy, Latino voters moved heavily back to the Democrats’ side this election, supporting Obama by a 2-to-1 margin.

While Latinos have emerged as a powerful bloc in California over the past decade, they are only now making themselves count on the electoral map. Nationally, they increased their turnout by 30 percent over 2004 and voted in large enough numbers to help Obama secure victories in the battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, Indiana and New Mexico. And he won Florida, where a majority of Hispanics voted for the Democrat for the first time, due to an influx of non-Cuban Latinos and second-generation Cuban-Americans moving away from their parents’ strong loyalty to the Republican Party.

They too believe in an activist government. “Latinos may be social conservatives because of their religion, but they are not anti-government conservatives,” said Louis DeSipio, who head Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California-Irvine.

The immigrant-issues coalition is expanding to include other ethnicities. Former California controller Steve Westly, a Silicon Valley Obama fundraiser, said he witnessed new participation among a number of affluent business leaders originally from India, Pakistan and Iran. In part, he said, it was appreciation for Obama’s multicultural upbringing but also a rejection of the Republican-led “demonization” of immigrants, particularly of Muslim backgrounds, in recent years.

He also noted how well Obama did among digital-age workers in Silicon Valley, a group that while once decried government, now embraces policies to boost investments to spur technology and alternative energy advancements and create a better-trained work force.

Will Obama as president be able deliver what the emerging powerful coalition of can-do voters want?

He’s under enormous pressure to solve the economic crisis and wind down the war in Iraq in a Washington environment mostly still run by those weaned on partisan politics.

Concluded Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California and formerly a Republican strategist: “Candidates don’t cause realignments, presidents do. Candidate Obama has certainly created the conditions for potential realignment, but it’s going to be up to President Obama to govern in a way that can make that happen.”