I was doing some early morning reading on reaction from last night’s great start to the Democratic convention and came across this bit of delusional nonsense from a HotAir reader.
One HUGE contrast between these two conventions:
The conservative “bench” is full of up and coming superstars (like Rubio, Ryan, Mia Love, etc) which will carry us through the next decade or more.
The communist “bench” is full of… nothing. Empty chairs.
Wingers like this guy above are just not getting it. It doesn’t matter how many Rubios, Ryans or Mia Loves Republicans have. As long as they cling on to oppressive and draconian policies (Arizona immigration law, abortion and vaginal probes, defunding Planned Parenthood, privatizing Social Security…to name a few), they’re going to lose, if not in the short term than certainly down the road. And it all has to do with shifting demographics.
The only majority vote Republicans can currently count on is that of older white males and the 65+ segment of the population…both of which are shrinking as a share of the electorate. Every other demographic group – blacks, Hispanics, Asians, young people, women, LGBT – lean Democratic. And furthermore, each are increasing their share of the electorate.
Here are stats from the Pew Research Center (2011) which have conservatives like Jeb Bush warning Republicans to “stop acting stupid” and to start reaching out to Hispanics.
Hispanics are the largest minority group on the nation’s college campuses, a milestone first achieved last year. But as their growth among all college-age students continues to outpace other groups, Hispanics are now, for the first time, the largest minority group among the nation’s four-year college and university students. And for the first time, Hispanics made up one-quarter (25.2%) of 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two-year colleges.
In the nation’s public schools, Hispanics also reached new milestones. For the first time, one-in-four (24.7%) public elementary school students were Hispanic… Among all pre-K through 12th grade public school students, a record 23.9% were Hispanic in 2011.
Throw in a few U.S. Census numbers…
- there are 50.5 million Hispanics in the U.S
- Hispanics make up 16.3 percent of the U.S population
- the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. is the Hispanic population. Between 2000 and 2010 it grew at a rate of 43%
and this…
- by the year 2050, the Hispanic population in the U.S. will be at 132.8 million – 30 percent of the total population
Combine all of this with the knowledge that Democrats picked up 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008 and are currently favoring Obama to Romney at a 64 to 31 percent rate…and you understand why dumping a few truckloads of Rubio clones on to the political scene won’t help Republicans, no matter how many “empty chairs” wingers believe make up the “communist bench.”
Fox News Latino sums up the impending doom facing Republicans.
Romney also faces a challenge that the GOP will likely continue to face in coming years: shifting demographics.
Put simply, the groups that support President Barack Obama most strongly — blacks, Hispanics, young people, unmarried women — have been growing as a share of the electorate. Those who support Mitt Romney the most — white working men and older people — have not.
This demographic tide is so strong that some Democrats came away from their 2008 victory feeling that a political reordering was in the works that could be as important as the New Deal realignment that ushered in a generation of Democratic strength after the Great Depression.
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Watching the convention last night and as the cameras panned across the arena, it occurred to me that the America I know was represented in the crowds. There were blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, old and young. The only diversity at the Republican convention was the one organizers put up on the stage. The majority in the crowd were older whites.
This explains why Obama and democrats are so anxious to pass the Dream Act. Extending citizenship to illegals is a quick and easy way to add voters to the democratic rolls.
Hot Air reader,
It is the Republican, Eastwood that started the empty chair syndrome so by inference,it means that Republicans now own the empty chair. Words like ”empty” and ”nothing” is symbolic of the Republican party so don’t try to relay that to Democrats. Republicans had empty reasons to go in Syria,emptied the coffers by trillions in wars that only profited armament friends of Bush and Chaney. Nothing was done by Bush’s education program No child left behind. The vacant presence of Bush and Chaney to the convention speaks loudly how embarassed Republicans are of their former chiefs.
Blank,hollow,void is synonymous to the imagination of Republicans and until Republicans can govern America with full recognition of minorities,Obama should be given another term to brighten America’s future.
Marcus
The dream act was at one time a republican idea, and Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to millions of immigrants that where here without papers. Believe me the immigrant problem only exists in the minds of the teavangelics, who the GOP believes it must pander to in order to win elections, and it has done so to such an extent that what used to be the fringe element has now consumed the entire republican party.
Watch the convention and try to see it through the eyes and listen through the ears of someone who has not been told over and over that the democrat party is your enemy. Republicans and democrats, throughout the years have always disagreed on some policies, but were able to compromise and govern for the good of all Americans, you could say that at one time they were friends, one nation, neighbor helping neighbor.
But the current tone of the pandering GOP has changed that, on your side mostly, and divided this country bitterly.
If we can’t find a way to understand each other and work together for the good of everybody, the division will be permanent. And dangerous. A house divided against itself, can not stand. Old Abe was right on the money.
The Republican Party knows that the demographics are changing and the way they’re dealing with it and will be dealing with it, is to do what they can to disenfranchise the votes of those changing demographics.
We see voter suppression now, with Republican-controlled state legislators and Republican governors pushing voter Id laws and restrictions to early voting. What I believe we will see in the future will be efforts to move back the voting rights to just landowners so that the poor and the lower working class will be cut out of deciding what direction the country is going.
I don’t know if they’ll be successfull in their efforts but I know they will try because it’s all they have left.
This election is so important. It’s like what former President Bill Clinton said last night; that this election is about what kind of country we want to live in. If Republicans gain control, they will take us down a road that will destroy the middle-class and rob us all of our basic rights.
Mario, I’d also like to point out that there is one graphic that really doesn’t grow – the LGBT community. True, more of us might come out of the closet but in reality, we will always only represent a small portion of the population. Just because we will have more rights, doesn’t mean more of us will be born. The so-called Gay Agenda doesn’t really exist and if someone is not already gay, they’re not going to become gay.
You’re absolutely right, fidlerten. My mistake to include the LGBT community and women in that “increasing their share of the electorate” line.
I for one have been impressed and invigorated by watching a great Democratic Convention.
The wonderful speeches by the women of the Party is fantastic to watch…women of strength, courage and conviction the likes of Tammy Duckworth, Sandra Fluke, Cecile Richards, Elizabeth Warren and many others, including the First Lady can only certify that the Democratic Party is going in the right direction, planning for the future while rebuilding the present sad state of affairs left to the Nation by the GOP – a once proud party who has seen it’s better days and have only their failed past to draw from.
I’m grateful for the venue the great Mario Piperni has given the many good people on here to voice their opinions and share their knowledge, a salute to all of you. Forward my Friends !
Let’s see, now. They love family (shopping is often an intergenerational outing), they believe in God and they work their hearts out (take a look at the young men tethered to roofing jobs when it’s 110F)…sounds to me like they would be a demographic the old white guy GOPers might want to target…Nah, “This land is my land, this land is MY LAND..made for us ole’ white men!”
Better wake up, GOPer No-Nothing Partiers because in the US Census of 2020 fully 25% of those self-identifying with respect to race will do so as “Latino”. iAy Caramab, viejos! You’d better be boning up on your Espanol!
@BasicFunquist – excuse me but aren’t YOU a GOPer?
Golden Sun-san, Was it the summer of ’66 or ’67 when from the rooftops of of East Harlem snipers were shooting NYC Firemen attempting vainly to put out the fires set by the Puerto Ricans who had had enough? When the then patrician “silk-stocking” NYC mayor John Lindsay led the march along with Monsignor Fox down those mean, dangerous streets in a plea for an end to the arson and gunfire that had taken innocent lives? That was a Saturday night. And a Republican mayor and a Catholic priest put their very lives on the line and took the first steps to end the burning of New York.
That following Monday morning a young fellow emerged from the subway at 125th and Lexington, seeing for the very first time helmeted NYC police with shotguns on every corner, only to make his way to the Addie Mae Collins storefront on 129th and Madison where that summer he would try to make a difference. It was the same kid who at thirteen had been directed by his foreign-born mother to place in his father’s pants pocket his paid-up “union book” before they closed the casket.
No, Golden-Sun san, BasisFunguist no GOPer. Not even close, Father. And I’m sure you do not know who Addie Mae Collinas was either.
Golden Sun-san, Was it the summer of ’66 or ’67 when from the rooftops of of East Harlem snipers were shooting NYC Firemen attempting vainly to put out the fires set by the Puerto Ricans who had had enough? When the then patrician “silk-stocking” NYC mayor John Lindsay led the march along with Monsignor Fox down those mean, dangerous streets in a plea for an end to the arson and gunfire that had taken innocent lives? That was a Saturday night. And a Republican mayor and a Catholic priest put their very lives on the line and took the first steps to end the burning of New York.
That following Monday morning a young fellow emerged from the subway at 125th and Lexington, seeing for the very first time helmeted NYC police with shotguns on every corner, only to make his way to the Addie Mae Collins storefront on 129th and Madison where that summer he would try to make a difference. It was the same kid who at thirteen had been directed by his foreign-born mother to place in his father’s pants pocket his paid-up “union book” before they closed the casket.
No, Golden-Sun san, BasicFunguist no GOPer. Not even close, Father. And I’m sure you do not know who Addie Mae Collins was either.
I don’t know what Addie Mae Collins storefront is either, but I found your post very touching. My dad was a union bricklayer his entire life. He was a union man through and through, and if he saw how the republicans want to bust the unions….it would break his heart.
I’m coming late to the game on this post, but something Bill Maher said on last night’s (the 21st) Real Time is very appropriate here: “The Republican Party doesn’t need new people, it needs new ideas.”