Posted on 11/26/2004 5:56:39 PM PST by FreeKeys
GOP on the Edge The Los Angeles Times notes an interesting trend in political demographics: In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. . . These growing areas, filled largely with younger families fleeing urban centers in search of affordable homes, are providing the GOP a foothold in blue Democratic-leaning states and solidifying the party's control over red Republican-leaning states. Many agree that in these high-growth communities, as in much of the South, identification with the GOP has become a kind of cultural and social statement that also carries along voters who might be more open to Democrats in a less conservative environment.
What the Times only hints at is that the Roe effect is likely to increase the GOP advantage over time. "The fastest-growing segment of our population is 2 and under," Teri Morgan, head of the GOP in exurban Delaware County, Ohio, tells the paper. How will they vote in 2020 and beyond?
Along similar lines, The Economist notes that "the Democratic Party is ceasing to be a mom-and-pop party": Phillip Longman of the New America Foundation points out that the fertility rate in the Kerry states is 12% lower than in the Bush states. Vermont, the home of Howard Dean and perhaps the most left-wing state in the country, produces an annual average of 49 children for every 1,000 women of child-bearing age; in Utah, where 71% of the population voted for Mr Bush, the figure is 91. In deep-blue cities such as San Francisco and Seattle you find more dogs than children.
It may be that the Democrats' only long-term hope would be a constitutional amendment enfranchising Canine-Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
So9
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