This Is the Changed States of America

The recent election did not follow the usual pattern. A left-winger governs New York, a white person Detroit and a Republican New Jersey. The U.S. disproves stereotypes time and time again.

In light of reliable forecasts, hardly any of the election results came as a surprise — but nearly every one of them has turned supposed principles that people outside the U.S. had gotten used to on their heads.

It began with the victory of Bill de Blasio in New York. The Democrats had to wait 20 years before they could regain the prestigious office of mayor of the city with 8 million inhabitants. This feat was then achieved by a man definitely on the left of the party who until recently described himself as a “democratic socialist.”

In New Jersey, usually safe ground for the Democrats, they re-elected Chris Christie, a Republican of whom it was thought in November 2009 that only the disappointment about Obama’s first few months in the White House got him elected as governor.

Closeness to the Tea Party Did Not Pay Off

But Chris Christie was re-elected with a convincing majority, and he gained a good number of votes from Democrats, Hispanics and African-Americans. There is no doubt that Christie, a moderate, is a heavyweight in the field of Republican candidates for the presidential election in 2016, which is slowly starting to take shape.

In the swing state of Virginia, on the other hand, there is a rule that says the governor will come from the party not in the White House. But with Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat has taken over the office of governor after his Republican opponent did not show enough distance from the tea party, perceived as destructive. Even the ideological wing of the Republican Party should take note of that.

Another surprise was that in bankrupt Detroit a white person, Mike Duggan, was elected mayor for the first time since 1973. The upshot is that a left-winger is running New York, a black person the White House, a white person Detroit, a Republican New Jersey: a warning against clichés about the U.S.