At any given stage in an election season, political junkies, policy wonks, strategists, candidates, campaigners and the media know that the politics of voting blocs (evangelists, African-Americans, Hispanics, male/female, upper-class/lower-class, age groups, urban/rural, etc.) must be factored into any campaign.  At least if you have any real interest in winning.  And great campaign success, like terrific campaign failure, can affect political strategies for decades to come.

Well, hold on to your seats.  Because we’re officially somebody.  Whether you approve of using the “class” term or not, for the first time in history the “creative class” has been qualified (and quantified) as a voting force.  Not only registering on the radars of present-day politicians but set to matter for elections to come.  Hot dog!

Going back to the early 80’s, Reagan was the first Republican candidate to truly appeal to the evangelists, thus making them a voting force to be reckoned with, at the heart of the Republican base.  And (according to the NY Times), their spiritually-influenced vote has changed campaigns and election outcomes ever since.  It appears that, 28 years later, Senator Barack Obama has built the strong base of support of a new bloc.  Yes, the creative class.

What was the past has now become the future.

No, no Michael J. Fox time-machine DeLorean DMC-12 here.  BUT, our great friends over at the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) have given their old website a facelift.  Times ten.

In an effort to beef up and streamline public access to their historical resource treasure trove, GHS got together with the gang at Smack Dab Studios to overhaul their (yes, “historic”) website.

Overall, we dig the whole juxtaposition-of-past-and-future thing.  It’s part of what makes Savannah cool. (Plus, it reminds me of one of my favorite old-school TCCa-flavored collateral fortune cookie fortunes: “I see a historic future in your present.”)

So, the result of this transformation? Georgia history being brought to life (ala Frankenstein but much more attractive).

Yea, we know the folks at Smack Dab, and they’re good, creative peeps.  So it’s no wonder that the website looks so good and is chocked full of new cool features that make it both user-friendly on the front end and easy to maintain and update on the back end.  We’re talking an upgrade from FrontPage 98 (collective MOAN) to a Ruby on Rails‘ custom CMS (Content Management System).