Politics Should Represent the Real American Voter

In the aftermath of this marathon election — when the confetti has been swept away, the pollsters silenced, the ad war mercifully concluded and the McCain campaign reduced to a circular firing squad — we pause to reflect on the passing of many a tired election cliché.

We say goodbye to the soccer moms, heading en masse to the polling places, Gatorade and goalies in tow. So long to their aggressive reincarnation, the hockey mom, the Palinites high-sticking and elbowing media elitists and egghead economists as they drive down the line to Nov. 4. Adios to those NASCAR dads, parking their pickups with the Yosemite Sam mud flaps and the racing stripe in a neat row at the local precinct. Rest in peace, Joe Six-Pack — you blue-collar scion of the Reagan Democrats, you hardscrabble Budweiser man, you salt of the earth.

When elections are close, the noble men and women of the Fourth Estate immediately subvert the democratic process by telling us what middle-America voting clique really decided the race. But this election was so decisive, so complete, so totally for Obama, that maybe we can finally get beyond the last eight years.

Because the truth of the matter is that these election stereotypes never represented any of us. It’s a curious thing about American politics that, when over 80 percent of our population lives in metropolitan areas, every four years we’re subjected to a particular brand of hokey homespun populism.

Whether it’s Clinton taking shots in a Pennsylvania bar, Obama’s sad attempts at bowling or McCain placing the self-proclaimed queen of hockey moms on the Republican ticket, this election saw its fair share of naked, shameless pandering. This ridiculous ritual drives the myth of the American Heartland — the small towns are where you’ll find the true Americans, the ordinary people standing up to the moneyed interests, the amber waves of grain, etc. And while Obama wasn’t above a populist appeal or two, John McCain’s down-and-dirty demagoguery awed even his Republican compatriots. YouTube a McCain-Palin rally. You might come away thinking Obama was the 20th hijacker.

So what, you might say. So the Republicans are good at turning even the wealthiest, most privileged candidates for office into Barney Fife. The result of the quadrennial dog-and-pony show is the cheapening of our politics — and both parties are to blame.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that by setting up “the people” against “the elite,” you’ll probably breed plenty of contempt and stoke up a culture war. The populist’s preference for common sense and plain speech can transform into a frightening anti-intellectualism. Love of country is diminished to empty patriotic signaling to base. And candidates talk about the issues that appeal to heartland voters — shuttered mills, intelligent design, ethanol and flag pins.

All the while, the eight in 10 Americans in metropolitan areas are lost in the battle for Middle America. Most of us have never seen a shuttered mill; if there’s one in your city, it is probably well on its way to becoming luxury condominiums or a high-end commercial development. But the problems of urban areas — alarmingly bad public schools, crime, invisible poverty, gentrification, congestion and environmental issues — almost never get covered in a presidential election. To really appreciate the consequences of this, consider a tale of two bridges.

In 2007, while Sarah Palin was backtracking from her campaign promise to build the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska (the “Real America”), a heavily used and old bridge collapsed in the city of Minneapolis. Suddenly, the sagging infrastructure of our cities deserved some national consideration.

So maybe the best outcome of Obama’s landslide victory will be the end of Joe and Jane Six-Pack’s stranglehold on American politics. Maybe because we all came together to elect a president, we can come together to address the issues which stagnate in our urban areas. The Washington Post dubbed Obama the nation’s first “metropolitan” candidate back in October. Let’s hope we’ll have our first metropolitan president.

Sebastian Johnson is a junior in the College and is studying abroad at London School of Economics in England. He can be reached at johnson@thehoya.com. Tale of Two Cities appears every other Monday on www.thehoya.com.