"Obama won Virginia and Florida and narrowly missed victory in North Carolina. But he also polled as well in Georgia as any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, grabbed 44 percent of the vote in deep-red South Carolina and just under that in Mississippi -- despite doing no substantive campaigning in any of those states."
Which suggests again the subject of race. Right after the election, Chris Hayes at MSNBC had a perceptive commentary that began with the overwhelming support one racial group gave President Obama--but probably not your first assumption. Asian Americans. Among Asian Americans are a substantial number with high incomes, but they did not vote very much for Romney. Still, what do all these people in this category have in common--with roots in China, Japan, Korea, Pacific Islands? Not a lot, Hayes said, no more than many members of other racial groups. That's because, he said, race doesn't exist. It's a construct, a category. There may be similar cultural backgrounds, but that's not the same as race.
Race is essentially maintained by racism. What turned non-white individuals into racial voting blocs, Hayes said, was the race-based hostility and disrespect Romneyryan and the Republicans showed to President Obama and various non-white communities.
It's a profound point, and one that TPM is humanizing with reader responses--for example, here and here. So it's the other side of dog whistle politics: the groups being dissed hear them, too, loud and clear, and as one of these readers wrote, race-based disrespect to a black President reminds them of their own experiences with racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice.
Meanwhile, the Obama army is not disbanding, even though they've gone home. They're being mobilized on behalf of the President's agenda, starting right away. As the NY Times reports: "The president is planning rallies in influential states to remind supporters of the need to keep the pressure on lawmakers during the fiscal talks. And should negotiations break down, Mr. Obama’s team is arranging for Republican lawmakers to hear from of tens of thousands of riled-up activists through angry Twitter posts, e-mails and Facebook messages."
But it won't stop there: Obama aides view keeping their grass-roots supporters energized as important to the president’s second-term success on broader tax changes, an immigration overhaul and efforts on climate change.
Chris Hayes, by the way, had one of the better tributes to the Obama army organizers and volunteers--starting with his brother.
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