The Illegals Have won, The US Is no longer has 1 language (English) like most other countries.

[Anonymous]

There are 300ish million people in the US, of which 10ish million are illegal immigrants. Not a large percentage in the grand scheme of things. Three percent of the current national population isn't why more people are speaking Spanish. However approx 1 million new US citizens are naturalized every year. Over let's say 30 years of a large majority of those being native Spanish speakers, it adds up to people who could prefer speaking Spanish. Nothing wrong with that. Demographics change, yes? Our country is also getting older...changes there as well. Does that mean that the senior citizens have won?

(no, because the republicans know that a large part of their base is senior citizens, so can't alienate them. But you can band together the 57 million McCain votes who are all US citizens against the damned illegals ruining our country! With only 1 million naturalizations per year, yes there is a chance you can lose some of the legal immigrant vote, but it is a small percentage anyway...)

[Anonymous]

Ok, you're right. I should have just said 'republicans in Florida kick ass at pandering to cubans' and left it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, you're right. I should have just said 'republicans in Florida kick ass at pandering to cubans' and left it at that.

I meant to quote the pp re: Texas and redistricting.

[Anonymous]

To see how sacred English is in its home country, check this page of BBC coverage of Welsh politics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/cymru/default.stm

[takoma]

Anonymous wrote:To see how sacred English is in its home country, check this page of BBC coverage of Welsh politics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/cymru/default.stm

Not that it matters, that was me, having forgotten to sign in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wut the..? How come they got English AND Mexican here on this computer? America is for ENGLISH ONLEY!!

As of 2010, Hispanics accounted for 16.3% of the national population, or around 50.5 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 period was 28.7% — about four times the rate of the nation's total population (at 7.2%).[30] The growth rate from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006 alone was 3.4%[31] — about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%).[30] The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050 is 132.8 million people, or 30.2% of the nation's total projected population on that date.[32]

GAME OVER DOODZ!!! GAME OVER!!!

***breaks down sobbing***

All I can say to Republicants is to make nice with Hispanics or prepare to lose over and over again. Maybe not this election, but it's coming.

Sure, but it's the same dilemma the Republican party faces with blacks. Namely, that in order to win over blacks (or Hispanics) they would have to abandon the Southern Strategy and give up on the white racist vote. And right now, that's the only thing keeping them competitive.

When the current wave of elderly racists die off in a decade or two, the character of American elections is going to change radically. And the GOP is going to have to find some new fulcrum with which to leverage their ultimate goal, which is lowering the civic burden on wealthy people. In a couple of decades, the number of whites who harbor racial resentments will be insufficient. So they'll move on to something else. Most likely that will be a matter of discarding the implicit racism in order to form a broader coalition of religious conservatives. Black suburban churchgoers, Catholic Hispanics, and White evangelicals are a natural coalition, but the current dog-whistle politics that count on the racist vote makes that an impossibility.

[TheManWithAUsername]

Anonymous wrote:When the current wave of elderly racists die off in a decade or two, the character of American elections is going to change radically. And the GOP is going to have to find some new fulcrum with which to leverage their ultimate goal, which is lowering the civic burden on wealthy people. In a couple of decades, the number of whites who harbor racial resentments will be insufficient. So they'll move on to something else. Most likely that will be a matter of discarding the implicit racism in order to form a broader coalition of religious conservatives. Black suburban churchgoers, Catholic Hispanics, and White evangelicals are a natural coalition, but the current dog-whistle politics that count on the racist vote makes that an impossibility.

I say this based on inadequate examination of evidence, but I don't think they're that addicted to racism. It's obviously helping them now, but we won't have that many black presidents.

I think that other than the very rich and a very small libertarianish intellectual elite, the Reps are bound together by a handful of ideas, some expressed more explicitly than others:
- God is a Republican
- rich people are inherently heroic and admirable
- smart and educated people can't be trusted
- urban blacks and hispanics are leaching off of rural whites
- Dems are soft on criminals and weak on defense

I think most of those ideas will persist even as we become less racist and homophobic as a country. The power of Faux and of the corporate political advertising money is immense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wut the..? How come they got English AND Mexican here on this computer? America is for ENGLISH ONLEY!!

As of 2010, Hispanics accounted for 16.3% of the national population, or around 50.5 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 period was 28.7% — about four times the rate of the nation's total population (at 7.2%).[30] The growth rate from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006 alone was 3.4%[31] — about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%).[30] The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050 is 132.8 million people, or 30.2% of the nation's total projected population on that date.[32]

GAME OVER DOODZ!!! GAME OVER!!!

***breaks down sobbing***

All I can say to Republicants is to make nice with Hispanics or prepare to lose over and over again. Maybe not this election, but it's coming.

Sure, but it's the same dilemma the Republican party faces with blacks. Namely, that in order to win over blacks (or Hispanics) they would have to abandon the Southern Strategy and give up on the white racist vote. And right now, that's the only thing keeping them competitive.

When the current wave of elderly racists die off in a decade or two, the character of American elections is going to change radically. And the GOP is going to have to find some new fulcrum with which to leverage their ultimate goal, which is lowering the civic burden on wealthy people. In a couple of decades, the number of whites who harbor racial resentments will be insufficient. So they'll move on to something else. Most likely that will be a matter of discarding the implicit racism in order to form a broader coalition of religious conservatives. Black suburban churchgoers, Catholic Hispanics, and White evangelicals are a natural coalition, but the current dog-whistle politics that count on the racist vote makes that an impossibility.

In Texas and Florida, they make it work. They don't paint Hispanics as evil intruders (although that does not mean that racism doesn't exist). That was the great hope for the Republicans. Reagan knew it. Both Bushs knew it. Rove's microtargeting strategy to find an activist political base did some damage to it, but even he has made dire predictions about the future of the party without hispanics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To see how sacred English is in its home country, check this page of BBC coverage of Welsh politics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/cymru/default.stm

Americans do not speak real English
And English has very shallow roots in America
This land has always been a land of many languages. Nothing new under the sun.

Welsh is native to Wales. I cannot help but wonder why Welsh is not a compulsory language in Brittish Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In Texas and Florida, they make it work. They don't paint Hispanics as evil intruders (although that does not mean that racism doesn't exist). That was the great hope for the Republicans. Reagan knew it. Both Bushs knew it. Rove's microtargeting strategy to find an activist political base did some damage to it, but even he has made dire predictions about the future of the party without hispanics.

Yes, W's strategy to reach out to Hispanics made me very nervous. That was when Hispanics started to outnumber Black non-Hispanics in the United States and I was sure that the Republican Party was going to effectively reach out to the Hispanics and become a powerful force, eclipsing any political influence Black Americans might still have with the Democratic Party. Wow - the Republican Party really blew it by rejecting Bush's strategy.

[Anonymous]

I am a dem but I have been practically begging the Republicans to jump on this. We need two viable parties, not one inclusive one and one exclusive one heading for the dustbin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wut the..? How come they got English AND Mexican here on this computer? America is for ENGLISH ONLEY!!

As of 2010, Hispanics accounted for 16.3% of the national population, or around 50.5 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 period was 28.7% — about four times the rate of the nation's total population (at 7.2%).[30] The growth rate from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006 alone was 3.4%[31] — about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%).[30] The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050 is 132.8 million people, or 30.2% of the nation's total projected population on that date.[32]

GAME OVER DOODZ!!! GAME OVER!!!

***breaks down sobbing***

All I can say to Republicants is to make nice with Hispanics or prepare to lose over and over again. Maybe not this election, but it's coming.

Sure, but it's the same dilemma the Republican party faces with blacks. Namely, that in order to win over blacks (or Hispanics) they would have to abandon the Southern Strategy and give up on the white racist vote. And right now, that's the only thing keeping them competitive.

When the current wave of elderly racists die off in a decade or two, the character of American elections is going to change radically. And the GOP is going to have to find some new fulcrum with which to leverage their ultimate goal, which is lowering the civic burden on wealthy people. In a couple of decades, the number of whites who harbor racial resentments will be insufficient. So they'll move on to something else. Most likely that will be a matter of discarding the implicit racism in order to form a broader coalition of religious conservatives. Black suburban churchgoers, Catholic Hispanics, and White evangelicals are a natural coalition, but the current dog-whistle politics that count on the racist vote makes that an impossibility.

In Texas and Florida, they make it work. They don't paint Hispanics as evil intruders (although that does not mean that racism doesn't exist). That was the great hope for the Republicans. Reagan knew it. Both Bushs knew it. Rove's microtargeting strategy to find an activist political base did some damage to it, but even he has made dire predictions about the future of the party without hispanics.

Absolutely, the party leadership is fully aware of this. And in order to continue the pro-plutocrat agenda that's the "real" driving force of the GOP, they're going to have to make the transition at some point. But currently--as a national party--they need the subset of voters for whom racial resentments are a driving force. Without that the GOP loses nationally. The problem here is that in order to pick up Hispanic/Black vote, they need to discard the elderly racist vote. And it will be extremely hard to do that in one or even two election cycles. The die-off of the current elderly racist base will force their hand.