Stray thought
I, and a lot of other people, have been talking alot about America's shifting demographics in relation to the Republican slide, how the shifting percentage between white and not white is likely to put the GOP in a difficult demographic hole.
For some reason this morning, while reading this piece on the huge number of California's newly naturalized citizens, something occurred to me. The shift in the numbers is not likely to be as simple as I have been painting it.
The GOP still has the one option left, pitting various minorities against each other. Look at what they tried to do over California's prop 8 on gay marriage. Not only was there the effort by the "pro-marriage" forces (funded by very GOP Mormons) to market to black churches against prop 8, but there was then the effort afterward which came almost exclusively from the right to create a black/gay division in California.
I don't know if this necessarily wins elections, but on some issues increasing bigotry and discrimination could be very effective....
Just throwing it out there because I think I've been oversimplifying the demographic future by treating "non white" as a single political entity.
Frankly, the overall national future may look alot like California, although the differences in states will play a big role.
For some reason this morning, while reading this piece on the huge number of California's newly naturalized citizens, something occurred to me. The shift in the numbers is not likely to be as simple as I have been painting it.
The GOP still has the one option left, pitting various minorities against each other. Look at what they tried to do over California's prop 8 on gay marriage. Not only was there the effort by the "pro-marriage" forces (funded by very GOP Mormons) to market to black churches against prop 8, but there was then the effort afterward which came almost exclusively from the right to create a black/gay division in California.
I don't know if this necessarily wins elections, but on some issues increasing bigotry and discrimination could be very effective....
Just throwing it out there because I think I've been oversimplifying the demographic future by treating "non white" as a single political entity.
Frankly, the overall national future may look alot like California, although the differences in states will play a big role.
posted by mikevotes at
7:53 AM
4 Comments:
The Republican party is all about guerilla warfare. It's about division and destruction of the "other." There is no positive message from them. It really is Nazi-like, insofar as it focuses on The Other as the source of all our national problems. Real American vs. ???
I think, however, their message is becoming more and more transparently nonsensical. More and more Americans are seeing the leaders of the Republican party as tinfoil hat types... shrilly screeching about "socialism" and how Obama want's to kill capitalism, etc, etc.
I don't know. Yeah, there are still wedge issues, but they're becoming more and more blunted.
By
-epm, at 9:59 AM
I tend to agree that the current divisive arguments aren't hitting home.
The way I keep phrasing it is that they sound way "out of tone" for the current mood of the country.
America, outside the last 25%, is not angry right now, and shouting in anger, alleging wild conspiracies is just out of the national mood.
By
mikevotes, at 10:31 AM
"Non White" is definitely an oversimplification. The black population is relatively stagnant for example, and the Asian populations are also relatively stable but to a lesser degree.
The shift is occurring largely in the Latino population, and in California that is more than obvious.
A chief complaint of the GOP supporters in CA is that the Democrats pander to Latinos with lax immigration policy and by allowing illegals to reap state supplied benefits so that the Democrats can reap their votes when they become legal.
Again, an oversimplification, but it is an interesting angle to look at, and it does explain the GOP's "tie my own hands behind my back" approach to immigration.
By
Praguetwin, at 3:02 PM
And using hispanics as an example, you could dampen Dem unity by pushing anti-immigration into the black community to create a split.
By
mikevotes, at 4:01 PM
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