Sure, GOP types would have you believe that Obama's 19,605-0 shutout in those divisions is proof that African Americans voted for the president only because he's black. Or, worse, that voter fraud is running rampant through the streets of Philadelphia.
They should know by now that their voter-fraud shadow play doesn't work. In fact, the Corbett administration's shameless voter suppression tactics backfired miserably. Minority voters who stood to be disenfranchised the most by the voter ID law flocked to the polls in record numbers.
History tells us that if you want to get folks fired up, all you have to do is mess with their rights.
Won't they ever learn?
Divisive malarkey
Voter suppression, however, wasn't the issue that reignited support for the president. Voters favored job creation, immigration reform, reproductive rights, gay marriage, health care, financial aid for college students - all policies backed by Obama and, not surprisingly, the same ones demonized by Republicans.
Hardworking voters who agreed with those policies were summarily dismissed by Romney and Co. as an entitlement society. Taxpayers were smeared as takers. "It's not a traditional America anymore," Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly somewhat belatedly whined. "There are 50 percent of the voting public who want stuff. They want things, and who's going to give them those things? President Obama."
Republicans could do themselves a huge favor by cutting out the divisive malarkey - that is, if they ever want to win another national election.
As Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) told Meet the Press Sunday, successful candidates "sell a vision that's positive for America, not a negative vision of what's wrong with America. . . . We didn't sell a positive vision."
You think?
"People want the government to help give them the ability to move up," Philadelphia Councilwoman María Quiñones-Sánchez said. "It's the whole notion of a handout vs. a hand up."
Our American issues
Latinos, who composed 10 percent of the electorate (a proportion that has doubled in only 16 years), not only turned up for President Obama to the tune of 71 percent, but also put him over the top in battleground states such as Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, and the perennial drama queen of the Electoral College, Florida.
While Quiñones-Sánchez is justifiably proud of the historic influence Latinos had on the election - "2008 was about the country; this time, it was about us" - she sure isn't expecting Obama to come sweeping into Kensington, Oprah-style, proclaiming, "You get a car! And you get a car!"
"We were responding to what the president had already done," explained Quiñones-Sánchez, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Among other things, she said, Obama "gave us [Supreme Court Justice] Sonia Sotomayor." And while comprehensive immigration reform is important, "health care is more important. The economy and jobs are important to us. Our issues are American issues."
The sooner the GOP wraps its understanding around that big, democratic notion, the better off it will be.
Contact Annette John-Hall at 215-854-4986 or Ajohnhall@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter, @Annettejh.
