THE 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION:

KEBBA JATTA

The presidential election on November 6, as in the rest of the country, confirmed America’s continued shift toward more diversity and tolerance, despite Missouri’s Republican inclination.

The demographic of the 2012 presidential election in Missouri, where the republican challenger, Mitt Romney defeated the incumbent President Obama, is consistent with the national trend. The economy remained an overriding issue. However, healthcare, taxes, women’s issues, education (student loans), immigration reform were all key factors.

Kansas City straddles two states, Kansas and Missouri. Unlike Kansas which is an outright red state (Republican state), Missouri only leans Republican but it is not considered a tossup state. In 2008 however, Missouri received national attention as a major swing state that Barak Obama and Senator John McCain bitterly fought over. McCain in the end won.

Missouri has a large Republican base, particularly in Jackson County and the rural areas. Southwest Missouri, which includes Springfield and Joplin (both predominantly White, nearly 90%), is part of the “Bible belt”-a region largely populated by social conservatives. In contrast, Kansas City and Saint Louis with thriving university campuses and a progressive well-educated population form a strong democratic base in the state.

Although Missouri attracts no significant attention this year as a battleground state unlike Colorado, Ohio, and or even North Carolina; it has been often referred to as a bellwether state. No president has won the White House without winning Missouri since 1904 except on two occasions, in 1956 and 2008.

Missouri has no early voting system. All voting is done on Election Day. Polls opened at 7 A.M. and the lines were long but moving steadily at Central United Methodist Church on 52^nd and Oak Street where this writer visited. Many voters were upbeat and highly motivated.

One voter called Scott said he arrived at the voting station with his wife at 8:45 and encountered no problems at all. Scott disclosed that he was a Republican and so was voting for Romney.  Scott said his main concern was the economy and taxes. This writer also spoke to two young ladies, Theresa and Vickie, as they leave the polling station. They said voting was a smooth process despite the long line. They said they voted at the same location in 2008 and in both occasions voted for the Democratic contender. Both ladies reported their main concern to be student loans and healthcare. James, an African-American man from Atlanta who now resides in Kansas City also said he encountered no problems, and was voting for Obama. His main concern was socio-economic inequality and bad neighborhoods. Susan, a middle-aged White woman, very media savvy, said she voted Democrat and her main concern was women’s issues such as reproductive rights and equal pay. There was one very outspoken voter, Robert Scott, standing in the line to vote. He was approached by this writer for his opinion. Scott claimed he has a master’s degree in mathematics, and did not waste time in launching a vicious attack on the Republican vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan and his ideological goddess, Ayn Rand. Rand was a Russian-American objectivist philosopher whose philosophical views of individualism and self-interest appeals to many conservatives. Paul Ryan himself is an outspoken and controversial figure in his own right. The Ryan budget, which he authored as a congressman, as an alternative to the President’s budget radically reduced government spending and further deepened partisan divide.

President Obama’s victory was assembled largely from a coalition of minorities and progressives- African-Americans, Hispanics, women, young people and other minority groups. This has spelled big problems for the survival of the Republican party that continues to court older, conservative, White males.