Election Really Does Signal a Move to the Left

Don’t believe the voices warning Barack Obama to go slow and stick to the center because America remains conservative. There’s every reason to believe we’ve undergone a fundamental realignment, writes John B. Judis in the New Republic. The long shift toward a post-industrial economy has rearranged the playing field, producing a new Democratic coalition of professionals, minorities, and women.

Professionals broke overwhelmingly for Obama, and the urban-suburban areas they occupy were the centers of his support. It’s these “ideopolises” that flipped Virginia and Colorado. Of the states with the highest percentages of advanced-degree holders, Obama won the top 19. The result is a drastically new political outlook. Notes Judis: “Unlike Carter and Clinton, Obama will be taking office with the wind at his back, rather than in his face.” (More Election 2008 stories.)