Hispanics went 67 percent to Obama

[Wetzelbill]

31 for McCain.

Blacks and American Indian voters went overwhelmingly to Obama. (both over 90 percent, I believe.) Women went for Obama.

Because of minority population growth key voting demographics and strategies for winning elections are evolving. The reason the map was so Blue outside of the Deep South is simple. There aren't enough older White Men to go around for the Republican Party. There aren't enough White Evangelicals either. There aren't enough exorbitantly wealthy and greedy Republican supporters anymore either. While Obama, Howard Dean and Dems around the country were looking to reach out and expand the party base, the Republicans were narrowing theirs as much as possible. McCain is a guy who has some accomplishments on his resume that might make him appealing to Hispanics and Indians, for example, but to get the nomination he had to turn his back on all of that. His past positions on tax cuts and the Fundamentalist Right may have made him attractive to some independents too, but he had to sell his soul, again, just to get the nomination.

Republicans have no viable base anymore. They can't govern and they don't appeal to minority groups or the working class, outside of religion and tapping into ignorance. They have no strategy at all to win the votes of women. Nothing.

If Dems play their cards right, and continue reaching out to all demographics, the 67 percent of Hispanics, for example, might get up to 80 percent. And as their population grows the Dems have solidified a massive voting bloc for decades to come.

Look at the faces of our party. To name a few of the people who ran for president, you had Obama, Hillary, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich.

Obama is a black male, Hillary a woman, Bill Richardson is Hispanic, and Biden, Edwards and Kucinich all come from diverse working class backgrounds in different parts of the country. Even Chris Dodd, the son of a senator, speaks Spanish and has a history of fighting for programs like Head Start that shows he's at least somewhat in touch with the needs of Americans.

The Republicans have little diversity at all, and they only appeal to a few groups. Before, their inability to seriously govern wasn't as obvious, and Obama can go a long way to beating back the notion that the far right has any answers to anything by having a successful presidency.

But right now, Dems have a golden opportunity to fix this country's problems and shore up enough key voting demographics that it would be tough for the Republicans to win the presidency or take control of either Houses of Congress for the next 20-30 years of so. Think back to 1968, in the last 40 years, Republicans have had the presidency for 28 of them. The Dems could go on a run like that if they continue to broaden their national appeal while the Republicans remain stuck playing to their ever radicalized and narrowing base.

[Thrill]

1. Put Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court. And we'll have a permanent progressive majority

The end of the Repukes party. That might lock up Hispanics for Democrats!!

[Wetzelbill]

2. yeah there you go

[Doityourself]

3. The exclusive Rethug party is going to go the way of the Whig party soon enough! n/t

[Wetzelbill]

6. the best thing they have going for them

is their old network. They've built up some good grassroots organizations and have a good network of think tanks etc. They also are awesome at framing the debate, especially on economics. This year people were having none of it, but 8 years from now, after 8 years of peace and prosperity, what once fell on deaf ears could come back again. Republicans are always good in the minority or when they are pretending to be in the minority. They whine about everything, the supposed monolithic liberal media, the vast liberal court system. Republicans are awesome at playing the victim card and pretending they're the little guy. So they could come back pretty easily if Dems aren't careful.

[Xipe Totec]

4. That makes me want to dance!

:bounce:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4py1shJ9Dn8

[Two Sheds]

5. The GOP blew the election in '07 with their xenophobia

but they will be galloping after Hispanic votes for 2010. I don't know how they'll get them, but they'll try. The Sotomayor idea is a good one to strengthen this emerging Demogratic demographic.

[Wetzelbill]

7. they'll have to

The best they can maybe retool with is trying to appeal to Catholic Hispanics and go from there. Working on immigration would be great, but the problem with that, for them, is they lost all of the moderates. This version of the GOP is even more rabid and frothing than ever. Dems picked off the more moderate types over the last few years like Chaffee, Shayes and Gordon Smith. Now we're left with the party of James Inhofe and Michele Bachman to deal with.

[Two Sheds]

8. They have problems, sure. Their loonies don't like Catholics, either

nm

[Wetzelbill]

9. yup that's why it's going to be difficult to

make inroads with Hispanics again. They totally blew it with pure hate. It made no sense at all.

[sayso7]

10. Here is a good news story on Hispanic voters

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Latino-Vote-a-New-Force/story.aspx?guid={884BFEF4-6778-4B97-999F-A94355817464}

The hispanic vote helped us win NV,CO,NM and in the future we'll carry AZ and TX thanks to them ;)

[Arugula Latte]

11. Remember during the primaries when we were told Hispanics wouldn't go for Obama?

Well ... Lookee there at those election results! :bounce:

[Wetzelbill]

12. amen to that

:)

[Jennicut]

13. My Repub voting Mom said to me the other day that she is not represented anymore

and I think that is true for the most part after this election. She felt left out but older people, especially older white men are solidly with Repubs but no one else is. The young, AAs, hispanic, younger to middle aged women are all favoring Dems. My parents are 61 and white and they are the base of the Repub party, they loved Sarah Palin. However, the Repubs are so narrow in their base now. Palin solidified the base but turned off all the other groups necessary to win a general election. Shrub used to get tons of hispanics but the economy and all his mess ups really hurt that. I feel bad my Mom feels left out of the process now, she says no one in govt represents her anymore but its a fact of life. The demographics are shifting.

[Wetzelbill]

16. thanks for the reply

Very good insight. I am sometimes a little out of touch with white older voters. I'm some white, but I am from a reservation and I come from a fairly prominent Indian Dem family. Plus the Republicans where I'm from are non-ideological, usually anyway. They are often farmers, ranchers or small-town people who naturally tilt a little conservative. They aren't the really ideological base voters for the party.

[DCBob]

14. Kumbaya!

:)

[AlCzervik]

15. Hear that Lou Dobbs?

[Wetzelbill]

17. that sort of thing really hurts the GOP

Xenophobia has effectively killed their chances with the only minority group they had a shot at.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

18. Those fuckers fell all over themselves trying to out-Tancredo each other.

It's actually ironic that McCain might have been the only one to be able to draw Hispanic voters, but he had to get on the hate parade to attract enough of the "NO MORE HOO-SAYN" crowd to be nominated.

[Wetzelbill]

20. exactly right

[Arugula Latte]

19. You mean what we were told in the primaries was WRONG?!

Well, color me shocked! :sarcasm:

[Wetzelbill]

21. As tough as it is to believe that conventional wisdom was wrong

Yes this is true. :)