Barack Obama's America is our America -- get used to it

(Guest post by Zachary Geballe)


For more than four years, many members of the Republican Party have explicitly attempted to portray Barack Obama as un-American. Whether it was his name, his family history, his religion, or his politics, it was all portrayed as in some way out of line with what America was. After his re-election it’s clear that no one better represents what America is and will be.


The message that many in the GOP seem unwilling to hear is that America is changing. It is not a nation of white men and women. It is not a nation of conservative Christians. It is not a nation where most people live in homogenous communities that look and act and think and vote alike. According to the 2010 census, 71.2% of Americans live in Urbanized Areas of more than 50,000 people. Another 9.5% live in Urban Clusters (2,500 - 50,000 people). Less than 1/5th of the American population currently lives in what is classified as a rural setting. In 1950, the spread was 64.3% in urban areas, 35.7% in rural.

It’s a pet theory of mine that living in cities or other urban areas, at least in modern America, requires a certain amount of tolerance. Not that every city is a liberal haven, but by and large cities and other large population groups are far more liberal than the areas around them. The reasons for this are manifold, but a couple stand out. First, minorities have tended to flock towards urban centers, as those have offered more in the way of employment opportunities. Second, living in close proximity with lots of other people, many of whom are quite different from you, requires a certain capacity for tolerance.

For all the criticism the Left receives for being in a “bubble”, it appears that it’s now the Right that has an illusory view of reality. The remaining strongholds of the Republican party are either sparsely populated states or former members of the Confederacy (or both). The remaining rural communities in America are vastly more racially, ethnically, and religiously homogenous than the country as a whole, and they reflect a version of America that, if it ever existed, is never coming back. Only people who live in communities with little or no diversity could view Barack Obama as “un-American”, and of course it turns out that they’re the ones who no longer reflect modern-day America.

(Image cc-licensed: "Barack Obama in Mansfield - August 1" by Barack Obama)