Posted on 12/21/2010 10:13:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Yes, more and more of the American population now lives in red states, and that will benefit the GOP in Congress and Presidential elections.
But while the map is getting redder, the red states themselves may are getting bluer, especially Texas, which was the huge winner with a net pickup of 4 seats.
This chart is from the state of Texas. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where the population growth has come from, and where it's going (hint: the growth is not coming from the GOP Anglo base). Note that if we're just talking white population, Texas has barely grown at all (and to the extent it has, it's been in Democrat-friendly cities like Dallas and Austin).
Other states are also shifting for similar reasons. They're not as big, but then the Congressional gains aren't nearly as dramatic.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Translation: I can't back up anything I said, so I'll just bluster.
There is no precedent for considering illegals as part of the enumeration of the Census.
Aliens have been counted in every Census for apportionment purposes since the ratification of the 14th Amendment.
You want to live in a fantasyland where the Founders and post Civil War Republicans envisioned the United States allowing millions of foreign nationals to settle in the country and claim all the rights of Americans, go right ahead. But don't claim the Constitution as written or as Amended at the time supports your decision. It doesn't. Peddle your liberal crap elsewhere. If twelve million Mexicans had invaded the United States in 1867 they wouldn't have lived long enough to be counted in a Census. Those who managed to survive by going into hiding wouldn't have been marked down as "whole persons" by any Federal employee.
There was no such thing as an "illegal alien" in 1868, because the U.S. had no immigration laws until 1875. But the U.S. did have millions of immigrants in the 19th Century, both before and after 1875, and all were counted in the Census.
...also, is the electoral college going to exist in 2012?
The debates used "inhabitants" and terms like "whites"...and with the Great Compromise and finalizing the document, it went to "Free Persons" because that would cover free blacks, etc.
And the 14th Amendment was a modification to the original language. By using the same language, it wasn't some signal that now we were going to start counting non-inhabitants! Or foreigners!
Just think of how absurd it would be to use your interpretation. If the Census had fallen during the War of 1812, I guess we'd have had to give representation to British troops on American soil. Does harboring a fugitive from the law mean that your family should get greater benefits from the government? Etc.
Remember also, Tammany Hall worked hard to get citizenship for those immigrants, wanting to gain power from that demographic. Combine that with the natural-born citizen clause, the foreign title clause, etc., and you realize that there was never any intent to give foreigners power or representation in our governance.
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