Free Republic

In a recent post-election post-mortem in the Jackson Free Press, editor Donna Ladd advances ideas about why Democrats lost almost all power in the Mississippi state government. One of her thoughts has to do with cowardice in the Mississippi Democratic Party, in the way that white men who control the party have been too timid to advance progressive values, or even uphold a plank in the national party platform for the bodily autonomy of women.

Reagan got 66 percent of white voters in 1984, do you think Trump can exceed that in 2020, or come close to it?

Seven years ago I wrote a piece for Democracy about where political trends would take us by 2024. Here’s one bit: Trend #5: The Republican Party will continue to become ever more dependent on the white vote, while the Democratic Party will depend ever more on minorities. ….So what does this all mean? One: Certain aspects of the culture wars will heat up. In particular, thanks to the increasingly polarized demographics of the two main political parties, fights over immigration and race may well be even more acrimonious than they are today. That’s all I said in that particular piece,...

This year, the birthrate in the United States has fallen yet again, to 1.7 children per woman—well below the 2.1 replacement rate. With the exception of Hungarian President Viktor Orban, most leaders in the developed world seem to shrug at this news and focus on other matters.Part of the collective indifference to this otherwise-alarming statistic is the way it’s treated. Most often, a low birthrate is framed as a long-term economic problem that might affect the labor market, pensions, productivity, and the like. Occasionally, it’s seen as an environmental issue and not really a problem since each new human...

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — Frank Houston knows something about the longtime estrangement of white men from the Democratic Party. His family roots are in nearby Macomb County, the symbolic home of working-class Reagan Democrats who, distressed by economic and social tumult, decided a liberal Democratic Party had left them, not the other way around. Mr. Houston grew up in the 1980s liking Ronald Reagan but idolizing Alex P. Keaton, the fictional Republican teenage son of former hippies who, played by Michael J. Fox on the television series “Family Ties,” comically captured the nation’s conservative shift. But over time, Mr. Houston...

Joe Biden’s campaign announcement video—he’s running for president, of course—begins with Charlottesville, Va. It’s a choice, and the construct it reflects is an interesting one. It says a lot. Joe Biden’s campaign announcement video—he’s running for president, of course—begins with Charlottesville, Va. It’s a choice, and the construct it reflects is an interesting one. It says a lot. “Charlottesville, Virginia,” Biden says to the camera, “is home to the author of one of the great documents in human history.” He’s talking about Thomas Jefferson, naturally, and Biden goes on to recite a chunk of the famous second sentence from the...

Tuesday’s midterm House elections saw Democrats fare much better than they did in the 2016 presidential contest. Two years ago, Hillary Clinton topped Donald Trump by 4.6 percent in the popular vote, while this week, Democratic House candidates received 9 percent more votes than their Republican counterparts.

ORLEANS — Progressive activists at Netroots Nation in New Orleans this past weekend had a message for the establishment of the Democratic Party: start talking about race or step aside. The marquee annual conference for the left — a key stop for possible presidential candidates since its first meeting in 2006 — made it clear in their program at the outset, that “Democrats must abandon the myth of the white swing voter and invest in the multi-racial, multicultural coalition of voters that make up the majority of our electorate.” But some Democrats are better prepared for this than others. In...

For the past several years, political pundits on both sides of the aisle have been predicting a future with a permanent Democratic majority in the United States. As evidence, they point to increasing immigration of races that consistently vote over two to one for Democrats, and to the fact that young people overwhelmingly lean left. Republicans have won the popular vote only once in the past seven presidential elections, and Texas, the jewel in the Republican crown, is forecast to go blue in a decade or two because of its growing Hispanic population. These predictions have led to jubilation among...

With the 2018 midterms months away and the 2020 presidential election cycle approaching rapidly, Democrats are considering how to improve their poor showings in 2014 and 2016. The party has been debating — sometimes heatedly — how to do this. Which voters should they target? How should Democrats target them? But here’s what’s clear: White voters have been fleeing the Democratic Party, and that’s a big reason Democrats are looking to rebound from back-to-back losses. Whites have slowly but consistently moved away from the Democratic Party. These recent losses are on top of Democrats’ losses among Southern whites during the...

With the 2018 midterms months away and the 2020 presidential election cycle approaching rapidly, Democrats are considering how to improve their poor showings in 2014 and 2016. The party has been debating - sometimes heatedly - how to do this. Which voters should they target? How should Democrats target them? But here’s what’s clear: White voters have been fleeing the Democratic Party, and that’s a big reason Democrats are looking to rebound from back-to-back losses. Whites have slowly but consistently moved away from the Democratic Party. These recent losses are on top of Democrats’ losses among Southern whites during the...

Would America Vote for Oprah for President? The speculation centered on Winfrey’s possible presidential bid – while encouraging on its own – lacks a full assessment of all that Winfrey brings to the table. The experiences of black women, even those that are high-profile, are often constrained by how people view them. By The Conversation April 17, 2018 Would America vote for Oprah for president America has had a black president. Is the country ready for a black president who is also a woman? Speculation about the candidacy of Oprah Winfrey makes clear that some voters think so. Granted, Winfrey...

Hillary Clinton’s trip to India is evoking memories from her failed 2016 bid for president, as the Democrat makes headlines for blaming racism and misogyny for her loss while taking stumbles in front of the cameras. During an appearance in India over the weekend, Clinton claimed she lost the 2016 presidential race in part because white women didn’t stand up to the men in their lives pressuring them to vote for Donald Trump. “We do not do well with white men and we don’t do well with married, white women,” Clinton said at a conference in Mumbai, India. “And part...

“Forget about the white men’s vote! But I think I myself could have perhaps done a better job in reaching out and reassuring women and white voters in general, and I think I was on my way to winning as I say in the book, until Jim Comey’s letter, aided and abetted by the Russian WikiLeaks information weaponisation,” Clinton told The Economist Asks.

Link only per agreement with Gannett

(snip) Many Republicans legislators are insulated from even the fiercest political backlash because the political playing field is tilted strongly towards the GOP side. Now the White House is about to make it even more so with a scheme to shrink the electorate and skew it towards the GOP. In late June, the Trump administration announced a series of measures to constrict the body politic, making it older, whiter, and wealthier - and therefore more Republican. The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is asking for detailed state data about voters. There already is evidence that merely asking for the data is stopping...

ATLANTA — Democrats may be their own worst enemy when it comes to trying to rebuild their party into a more inclusive entity that can take back Congress and the White House, according to a new study. The centrist Democratic think tank Third Way released a study called, "Why Demography is not Destiny," which argued that the Democrats' strategy of building durable majorities with the support of rising non-white demographics is simply not viable.

Louis NelsonDecember 19, 2016Bill Clinton also said James Comey “cost her the election.” | AP Photo/Danny Johnston President-elect Donald Trump “doesn’t know much,” former President Bill Clinton told a local newspaper earlier this month, but “one thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him.” Clinton spoke to a reporter from The Record-Review, a weekly newspaper serving the towns of Bedford and Pound Ridge, New York, not far from the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, New York. The former president held court earlier this month in Katonah, New York, where he took questions from the...

It’s either that or the Magical Intersectional Muslim Transwomen Coalition. After a competitive race between the FBI and sexism, the left decided to blame “white people” for Hillary’s defeat. Racist white people refused to vote for a white woman who was married to the country’s first black president. Samantha Bee, who enjoyed 15 seconds of fame replacing John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart as the whiny obnoxious lefty id, declared that white people ruined America. “Spare me the euphemisms. White people made Trump president,” a Washington Post headline blared. "White people did this. And maybe (hopefully) not my friends...

U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch says it’s time for the Democratic Party to “get back to its roots” and refocus on speaking about the issues facing white, blue-collar workers now that the Republican Party has seized control of the White House and retained both the House and Senate. “This is a rebuilding year, I think we have to look at the results and where our weaknesses are,” an introspective Lynch told the Herald yesterday, three days after President-elect Donald Trump cruised to a surprise victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “We are very, very progressive and sometimes we overlook that...