Obama's call for change

With 27 electoral college votes, Florida is America’s largest swing state. With its, shall we say, eventful elections in 2000 and 2004 our group of 20 parliamentarians, political consultants, journalists and party activists were keen to work with Miami Democrats to experience the final week of the election campaign and pick up techniques that we might apply back home. We certainly learned a lot that will be of use, but my abiding memories are of some of the poorest and disenfranchised communities in America for whom Obama’s message of change resonated loudly.

Undoubtedly, there is a great deal we can learn from this election - especially around energising and organising a volunteer base, using new media and getting out voters. President-elect Obama ran an extraordinary campaign, harnessing powerful social tools and one of the most motivated and committed grass roots volunteer bases ever seen. Without seeing the Obama machine in action it was hard to appreciate just the powerful investment in the grassroots campaign base. Certainly the sheer numbers involved was impressive (over 150 came through our precinct campaign centre on the morning of 4 November) but the efficiency with which those volunteers were utilised and kept on message throughout the campaign was on another level.

That being said, despite predictions that turnout could reach over 140 million, it was disappointing that participation in this election - despite the efforts of the Democrat campaign - only increased by 2 million to 123 million.  Undoubtedly, the appalling electoral administration we witnessed played a huge part in this. In the context of an election where campaign spending smashed all records, to see voters in the poorest areas wait in line for eight hours in blazing sun and torrential rain was incredible to see.  One of my enduring memories will be the hours we spent handing out bin-liners as makeshift waterproofing as hundreds of people were caught in downpours as they waited in line to vote. In my mind, the long lines were a tactic to prevent people in certain areas from voting and I wonder whether white voters in the suburbs would have tolerated the way in which African Americans in the slums were being treated.

Similarly, having campaigned in some deprived communities in the UK, I was staggered at what I saw in parts of Miami: big families living in two bedroom apartments and their bed adjacent to the front door.  For these people, there will need to be significant change in healthcare, jobs, and housing over the next four years.  Obama has to return confidence in the political process by working to improve prospects for the residents of main street; whilst federal government has a duty to bring back trust in the voting process as anything less will be disenfranchising voters.  Many people who stood in line for the first time last Tuesday, will need to stand again in line again on 6 November 2012.

Obama’s change narrative resonated strongly, and it was articulated everywhere you looked.  The three campaign themes coming through loudest amongst voters were Obama’s priorities on the economy and jobs; energy and climate change; and the pledge to deliver on universal healthcare.  However, perhaps unsurprisingly it was his response to the economic situation that impacted most on the doorstep particularly the idea that ordinary Americans should be protected from the worst fall out of the financial meltdown. The McCain ‘Joe the Plumber’ attack on Obama’s redistribution plans gained very little traction in face of the obvious gravity of the current situation.   

The people we came across during the campaign wanted and deserve a President concerned with the fortunes of the poorest in society, not tied to the interests of powerful lobby groups that helped to get him elected; committed to universal health coverage, not an uninsured working class; and delivering on climate change instead of denying its existence.  The expectations on Barack Obama are monumentally high: but as he said, the change was not his election, the real change starts on 20 January.

John Lehal, Insight Public Affairs