Posted on 07/25/2002 6:35:01 PM PDT by Drew68
House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt’s (D-Mo.) expected endorsement of earned amnesty for illegal immigrants underscores the most fundamental fact of American politics today — the Republican Party is running out of white people.
As the minority vote increases and shows no sign of breaking its historic strong tilt to the Democratic Party, the prospects for the future of the Republican Party do not look bright.
The color war — Democratic blue vs. Republican red, that played out on election night maps as the 2000 race teetered in the balance — is getting bluer and bluer. This demographic lock by the Democrats has already converted California, New York and New Jersey from swing states to solid Democratic enclaves. Florida will likely be the next state to flip under the pressure of ethnic change.
Nationally, blacks and Hispanics cast 15 percent of the vote in 1990 (9 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic). In 2000, they accounted for 24 percent of the ballots — equally divided between blacks and Hispanics. Population trends indicate that by 2010, they will represent more than 30 percent of the national vote.
Unless the Republican Party can crack the Democratic lock on these key constituencies, it is headed for extinction.
One would have thought that President Bush’s appointment of African-Americans to two of the top jobs in his administration (not because they are black but because they are brilliant) would have broken apart the nearly unanimous black support for the Democrats. But, quite the contrary, blacks seem to be continuing their solid support for Democrats.
Now that Gephardt has gotten out ahead of the GOP on amnesty for illegal immigrants, Bush seems to have fumbled a key opportunity to court Hispanics.
Amnesty for Hispanic immigrants likely holds some of the same kind of political clout among the ranks of Spanish-speaking voters that the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights acts did among African-Americans. The congressional Republican leadership dragged its feet on this key legislation and the Democrats are now likely to preempt the issue.
The looming demographic extinction of the GOP summons memories of the demise of the Liberal Party in Britain after nearly 200 years as the main opposition party to the Conservatives. As England industrialized, the Liberal Party proved unable to compete with the new Labour Party for working-class support. By the 1920s, the Liberals had lost the bulk of their support, likely for all time.
Blacks used to be Republicans, driven to the GOP by the racist Southern Democrats and attracted to its ranks by Lincoln. As recently as 1960, the black vote was hotly contested at the national level. Indeed, in the 1950s, as civil rights legislation made its way through Congress, the South introduced a jury trial amendment, allowing those who violated the law to get trials by all-white juries. Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) voted with the South and Vice President Richard M. Nixon cast the deciding vote for the pro-civil rights forces.
But Lyndon Johnson’s sincere labors for civil rights, both as a senator and president, and President Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” of 1968 pushed blacks away from the GOP. Hispanics followed suit.
However, it was not until the Reagan Revolution that blacks finally gave up on the GOP. When Nixon beat George McGovern in 1972, he got nearly one-third of the black vote. But when President Reagan beat Walter Mondale in 1984 by a similar margin, he got almost no African-American backing.
To reverse this trend, the Republican Party needs to do more than just strengthen its outreach programs. It needs to nominate a Hispanic or a black candidate for president in 2008. Only the designation of a Colin Powell or a Condoleezza Rice at the top of the ticket can reverse the 50-year decline of the Republican Party among minority voters.
The GOP’s right wing will have to put litmus tests aside and back the nomination of Powell in 2008 despite his largely pro-choice, pro-affirmative action and pro- gun control views.
Will Powell run? Will his fears for his personal safety prevent him from entering the race? One would assume that a man who can travel with impunity to the West Bank need not fear for his safety as he journeys to American cities and states in a presidential race.
Anyway, the GOP had better hope he runs.
Dick Morris is a former political consultant to President Clinton, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and other political figures. His new book, Power Plays: Win or Lose, is published by Harper Collins.
There. That was easy, wasn't it?
Unless the Republicans figure out that they need to DEPORT all ILLEGALS, they are doomed.
"Amnesty for Hispanic immigrants likely holds some of the same kind of political clout among the ranks of Spanish-speaking voters that the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights acts did among African-Americans. The congressional Republican leadership dragged its feet on this key legislation and the Democrats are now likely to preempt the issue."
Rounding up and DEPORTING all illegal immigrants is the only hope for the continued existence of the United States.
--Boris
If the socialists and racists win control in elections and continue destroying our country, then patriots should take the fight to the streets, and fight like hell harder for our republic.
When the republican party becomes extinct...and capitalism is dead....that will be the end of the USA.
Not even if he's the lesser of two evils?
Hispanics and Blacks will not continue block voting for the same party for very long. Their interests and agendas are not that compatable. One of them will break away sooner or later.
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