2012 Election Results: The Mandate
Jesse Jackson

Elections have consequences. President Obama's stunning re-election victory came dramatically from the same emerging majority coalition-- a rainbow coalition -- brought him to the presidency in 2008.

At its heart are minorities (exit polls report the president won 93 percent of black votes, 73 percent of Asian-American votes and 71 percent of Hispanic votes), young people (the president won 60 percent of those under 29), single women (the president won 62 percent of the unmarried vote) and union households (the president won 66 percent of union members).

What do they want? These voters reflect America's diversity. But they share one thing in common: They were the hardest hit by the recession and have had the hardest time recovering from it.

Although it gets little attention in the press, the president's vote directly tracked income levels. He won a large majority of those making less than $50,000 a year and lost a majority of those making over that amount. Romney was clearly the candidate of the 1 percent. Obama was the candidate of middle, working class and poor Americans; those in the middle class and those aspiring to get there.

What do they want? They want action on jobs. They want action on wages, with overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage. They want investment in education and opportunity, so that their children can get a good public education and can afford to go to college. They want high-speed rail public transportation put back on the table, which was rejected by the governors in New Jersey, Florida and Wisconsin. We can connect the jobs to where people live. We can make the steel, make the rail, lay the rail. The cost of energy-efficient transportation will reap many rewards. We will all benefit and be made more secure.

These are the most vulnerable of Americans, so when Washington talks about a deficit agreement, these Americans will have clear priorities. Like the vast majority of Americans, they want Social Security and Medicare protected, not cut. An election night poll by Campaign for America's Future and Democracy Corps, found that 62 percent of voters would find cuts in Social Security benefits unacceptable as part of a deficit agreement, and 79 percent would oppose cuts in Medicare benefits. They support increasing taxes on the rich, as do a majority of voters. They join the stunning 72 percent of voters who would find unacceptable cuts in domestic discretionary spending like "education, child nutrition, and worker training and disease control." They stand with the 75 percent who would find unacceptable deep across-the-board cuts that don't protect programs for "infants, poor children, schools and college aid."

Obama's majority came significantly from our cities. He won 69 percent of voters who live in cities with a population of more than 500,000. He split the suburbs, but lost big with voters from rural areas and towns of less than 50,000.

What do urban residents need? They need a plan to rebuild America's cities. They suffer from a decrepit and outmoded infrastructure -- aging sewers, inadequate and costly mass transit, vulnerable electric grids, underfunded schools and inadequate public parks and programs. They need affordable housing that is energy efficient. They need jobs desperately, as their young people suffer destructive unemployment rates.

The president's real mandate -- and his real opportunity -- is to lay out a plan for revitalizing our cities. This will help get the economy going and put people to work. It will decrease poverty, despair and the hopelessness that feeds drugs and depression. And as people go to work, they start paying taxes and stop collecting unemployment insurance -- and that helps bring deficits down. As the president said across America, you can't cut your way to prosperity. You must grow your way out of deficits. Clearly, the big issues of poverty, racial disparity, gender inequality and violence will not go away on their own. We must drive them away with opportunities of hope as the live alternatives to hurt, hatred and despair.

The president's voters want jobs, not cuts in vital programs. They want a plan to rebuild our cities -- not a plan to cut vital security programs and continue to starve vital investments in our cities.

These voters have stood up for the president, now the president has a clear mandate to stand up for them.

 

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2012 Election Results: The Mandate | Politics

 

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