The myth of the emerging democratic majority...

[4_Legs_Good]

The notion of the "emerging Democratic Majority" as I understand it (noting that I haven't read the book), is that the influx of non-white immigrants to the US (born and actually immigrating - mostly from Latin America) has put the minorities in the majority in the US, and when they vote, the Demorats will become the majority.

However, The Republicans aren't idiots, and they know this, and they have moved SERIOUSLY to appeal to the growing Latino population - a demographic that used to be heavily Democratic (though low in turnout). Bush made serious inroads into the Latino vote, picking up 44% to Kerry's 53%.

The only way we can really hope for victory EVER, is to reclaim the Latino vote. If we lose it, we're lost forever. To do this we need to work on many levels:

1) We need to promote REAL Latino candidates all over the country, but primarily in the south west. When I say "real", I mean "real", not some dumbass white man with a Hispanic name (like me!) who speaks a little Spanish. I mean actual Mexican-Americans who understand the culture and the problems Latinos face.

2) We need to STOP championing the middle class at the expense of the poor. There was hardly a word about the poor, poverty, etc. in this last election cycle. It was all about the "middle-class squeeze", etc. - designed to swing soccer moms and Nascar Dads. While this might have worked for one election cycle, we need to start fighting for the actual POOR again if we want to get their votes. Otherwise they might as well vote Republican because they think they're gonna be tougher on terrorism.

3) We need to reclaim the Catholic vote. This has, in my opinion, been utterly stolen from us. When a democratic Catholic candidate LOSES the Catholic vote to a right-wing evangelical Republican, you KNOW we're in trouble. Most Latinos are Catholic - we need to reclaim the discussion here both within and without the Church by returning the issues to traditional Catholic ones, of pro-labor, pro-poor, pro-equal rights.

We're on the cusp of losing this thing FOREVER. If we don't act now, our greatest chance of victory will be lost once and for all. We need to be talking Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez now, and working to find new progressive voices in the Latino and Catholic communities.

So say I, the knower of all.

david

[pmbryant]

1. Some different statistics here

http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/archives/000931.php

However, there is some dispute about whether the compression of the Democratic margin was as severe as indicated by this poll. An exit poll of Hispanics only by the William C. Velásquez Institute of San Antonio, which sampled 54 counties in the 14 states with the largest number of Latino registered voters, had 68 percent voting for Kerry and only 31 percent voting for Bush.

--Peter

[4_Legs_Good]

3. That's good news, but 2 to 1 isn't enough

IMO. We need 9 to 1 if this is really going to make the difference...

david

[blurp]

2. Strong religious, homophobic attitudes among hispanic men

Those things might draw them to the Republicans more and more.

Scary.

[4_Legs_Good]

4. Yup! That's why we have to fight!

With real issues. Seriously, if the issue is between feeding your family and sending much needed money back to your relatives in Mexico and Guatemala vs. two guys you don't know and have never seen humping in their house, how are you gonna vote?

As for the religious notions, I believe they are intertwined, so this is an all-or-nothing game. Feeding the poor trumps fear of homosexuality in a religous sense, at least IMO.

david

[Democat]

5. Kerry seemed to have a "machismo" problem with some Hispanics

Talking to a number of potential male Hispanic voters before this election, I got the message that Bush was a "real man" and Kerry was a "pussy" and that is why some of them would be voting for Bush. I'm not talking about the extremely religious voters, just the average non-political Mexican-American male.

The right wing media really pushed Bush's message about being a cowboy and a war president out there and I think it stuck with some Hispanic voters just like it did with white males.

[4_Legs_Good]

6. Scary stuff

I can admit that Kerry must seem very foreign to most Latino voters, and that's a serious problem. Bush at least pretends to speak Spanish and comes from an area populated with Mexican-Americans.

I think this is why we need more Latino politicians at lower levels to help speak to the people in real terms. I live in a heavily Latino area and every one of our candidates (Republican or Democrat) is white as snow. Why is that? What can the Democrats do to change it?

I can understand the cowboy bit, but I don't believe that it makes the difference between voting for a good candidate and voting for a bad one. It's a matter of connecting with the people on a level that will trump the macho attitude of the Bush regime. That's where, I feel, we need to strike.

david

[Democat]

10. The Democratic presidential candidates ignores CA and TX too

Think about the number of Hispanics in California in Texas and then think about the fact that the Democratic Presidential candidates seem to mostly ignore those areas. How many Mexican-Americans have some relationship, either historically or with family, in one of those two states?

If Democrats keep ignoring California during presidential election years, we will pay for it eventually.

[4_Legs_Good]

11. That's a fantastic point!

I hadn't given it too much thought before, but it makes perfect sense!

david

[wuushew]

7. The solution is obvious

Richardson/Clark in 2008.

Covers the hispanic vote and national security concerns at the same time.

[Robeson]

8. You make some good points...

...they kind of remind me of points that RFK would have made.

And yes, it is frightening that some Catholics would abandon one of their own, to vote for an evangelical protestant Bible thumper. But this country is so disfunctional, I'm getting to the point where nothing surprises me when trying to figure out what motivates people.

[4_Legs_Good]

9. RFK? Wow, that's high praise

:) You just made my day!

Yeah, things are kinda crazy. I'm just not willing to give up quite yet...

david