Race and the 2012 Presidential Election

Prior to the results of the 2012 Presidential Election, Washington Post journalists Jon Cohen and Rosalind Helderman summarized how predominantly "White" Mitt Romney's "base" was in a recent article.

The 2012 election is shaping up to be more polarized along racial lines than any presidential contest since 1988, with President Obama experiencing a steep drop in support among white voters from four years ago.

The Post journalists briefly note the longterm implications of such voting patterns for what is effectively the “white party,” the Republican Party, of the United States:

Dismal support for Republicans among minorities is a long-term problem for the GOP in a rapidly diversifying nation. Fully 91 percent of Romney’s support comes from white voters.

Even post-election, the obvious politicized whiteness of the Republican Party clearly will doom it to eventual and permanent minority status, if the dramatic trend to whiteness is not soon curtailed.

With moderate Republicans like Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, former chair of Joint Chiefs General Colin Powell, and Powell’s right-hand man, retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson supporting Obama, the handwriting is on the proverbial wall. Wilkerson recently made this strong and barbed comment on the Ed Schultz television show:

My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people — not all of them, but most of them — who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that’s despicable.

I agree with this statement and also see that the Republican party would be a lot better off if it were more inclusive. The fact this last election was largely racially divided is not a good thing. The term 'minority' is outdated, offensive, and may not even hold up to its title because soon Caucasian will be a minority in this country. A person should be judged on the content of what is inside and not the color of their skin.