Democrats and demography: From destiny to decline (if the GOP can ever get its act together)

Democrats believed not so long ago that ongoing demographic shifts in the ethnic makeup of the US destined them to a nearly permanent majority. Oversimplifying, thanks to massive immigration (legal and illegal) and declining birthrates among Caucasians, ethnicities that have tended to support Dems would become their permanent majority. Nobody can take more credit for this idea spreading to become almost gospel among political observers of all stripes than a PhD sociologist named Ruy Teixera, who co-authored a 2002 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, which New York Times later called “one of the most influential political books of the 21st century.”

But two decades later, that dream is crumbling, and Teixeira, a smart and honest observer, understands why and is trying to alert his party to the folly of their policy positions that he sees alienating the very groups whose rising share of the population he earlier credited as a plus for them.

Just yesterday, he published an essay in the Washington Post warning them that Hispanic voters are drifting toward the GOP.

[P]olls consistently find that Hispanic voters prefer Republicans to Democrats on inflation and handling the economy. Nearly all — 86 percent — Hispanics say economic conditions are only fair or poor and about three-quarters say the same thing about their personal financial situation. By 2 to 1 they say President Biden’s policies are hurting, not helping, them and their families. In a just-released 6,000 respondent poll from the Survey Center on American Life (SCAL) on evolving party coalitions, almost two-thirds believe Biden has accomplished not that much or little or nothing during his time in office.

Beneath this discontent is an emerging gulf between the cultural outlook of many Hispanics and the increasingly left-wing values of the Democratic Party. In the SCAL survey, half of Hispanics think Democrats are “too extreme” and slightly more than half think Democrats don’t share their values. A healthy minority, 42 percent, believe the Democratic Party “looks down on people like me.”

This is not to say Republicans come out any better on these measures — they don’t — but simply to illustrate how many Hispanics struggle to identify with Democrats. Take the issue of racism in our society. Is racism “built into our society, including into its policies and institutions” or does racism “come from individuals who hold racist views, not from our society and institutions?” In the SCAL survey, by 60 to 39 percent, Hispanics chose the latter view rather than the received wisdom in Democratic circles that racism is baked into society and institutions.

In contrast, White, college-graduate liberals chose the “structural racism” position by an overwhelming 81 to 19 percent.

The bottom line is what it always has been. A profound error by the Democrats because of their blind spot on abortion.

Hispanics come from south of the border. Whichever country.

They are devoutly Catholic and abortion will decide votes, opposite of how the Democrats presumed.

They also don’t think in terms of structural racism. They think in terms of structural elitism, and would be delighted with Trump’s focus on draining the Swamp.

“Asian” is almost a useless category. It includes Japanese, Chinese, Indians, and Pakistanis, etc. All very different groups.

"Very different groups" -- which all lean hard to the left, except for the Vietnamese, who apparently remember the American Democrats' and media's (same thing) role in destroying their nation with their aid & comfort for the Communists.

Regarding the Asian voting groups in the U.S., the worst (farthest left) of all are the ones from the fetid shithole known as India. They don't live in urban ghettos and run some little mom-n-pop business like the stereotypical Asian immigrant; they invade formerly nice upscale suburbs, after which bad things happen politically.

2022 Asian American Voter Survey

Other sources which look at more than just the past couple of elections report very similar results. These groups have been leftist forever and there's no discernable positive trend. If anything, the trend is adverse except once again for the Vietnamese.

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