Angry white guys aren't enough anymore

Republican strategists are admitting that they need to figure how how to get more Latino and Asian votes. Republicans Review Election Results For Insight : NPR

After sifting through the rubble the republicans have had to face cold reality. There aren't quite enough angry white voters to elect an uber-rich white guy who panders to extremists. The demographics are changing and all those nice racist people who think Obama is a muslim socialist out to destroy their way of life are terrified of being in the minority. The aren't the minority yet, but they are shrinking significantly. Bill O'Reilly said, "It's not traditional America anymore." Remind me please Bill, when was that?

Is the problem that everyone who used to be treated like dirt isn't fair game anymore? From the beginning the French had their own colonies in North America, and they weren't going to be pushed out like the Native Americans. Your "traditional Americans" were stuck with the French, so you looked the other way and they kept to themselves. But still you got to marginalize and despise the ex-slaves and the Chinese who worked like slaves. The Germans weren't so bad because they made beer. Then the Irish came and they were for a time considered lower than Blacks. Yes. Let me repeat that. There was a time in American history when Blacks were held in higher regard than the Irish. (Amazing right? Those are your people Bill. I'm sure you remember when JFK got elected it was a huge deal that he was the first Catholic to become president.)  But at first the big crime of the Irish was being dirt poor and Catholic. One could be any kind of protestant, but Catholicism might as well have been voodoo.

And if the Irish weren't bad enough, then came those pushy Italians. More weird, freaky Catholics and they smelled like garlic! By the beginning of the last century most of Europe started pouring in. That was a mess because they were all white. You couldn't tell them apart anymore!  They could change their names and act like everyone else. Jews were here from the very beginning, but they kept a pretty low profile until a ton of them arrived with all those other Europeans.

You thought it was bad then, but as long all those weird foreigners mostly kept to themselves—and did the jobs nobody else wanted— it was tolerable. In Brooklyn, and everywhere in New York City there are still Italian neighborhoods, Irish, Polish, Latvian, Hungarian, Jewish, Russian neighborhoods, and just about anyone else you can think of. But they are okay now, because at least they are all white.

I'm not going to get into the Civil Rights movement here, but even after they won the right to use the same water fountains, you still didn't have to let Blacks live on your block. You still had your whites only country clubs even though you weren't supposed to admit it, and we all knew that also meant no Jews.

But now it's the 21st century, and not enough people are white anymore. Its not that there aren't enough white people, its that not enough people are white. While some of you were getting richer and richer—and climbing on the backs of any white people unfortunate enough to be poor—something else happened. The Latinos started to vote. It was fine when they were just doing the grunt work. They took the lowest paying jobs that even the poorest white people wouldn't do. You could pay them as little as you wanted, because they had no green cards, and therefore no rights. But those people, instead of just being grateful you let them work here, did something under-handed. They made babies. That's right, all those Latinos started out-breeding you. And guess what? All those babies born here were legal US citizens, and they all grew up with the right to vote. Uh oh.

At first it wasn't critical. Many Latinos are very religious. You got their vote with your anti-abortion hook. But you can only treat people like shit for so long. Some people can see the bigger picture, and won't vote just on one issue. Maybe some of you noticed, it's pretty tricky to get the scared white vote and the Latino vote too. You can't kid yourselves. Even Romney couldn't dance around enough to pull that off.

If you haven't figured it out already, you've got another problem with non-whites. More people of color have arrived, and they are still coming. It's plain they aren't white, but its so confusing because they aren't all starting at the bottom anymore. This lot came to join the middle class, and they are jumping right in. You weren't concerned with the "Asian" vote when it was just some East and West coast Chinatowns. But more and more well educated people are coming here from Asia and the Middle East. Their numbers are growing and you are screwed because a lot of them are bringing religions you've never even heard of.

True, some of the newest wave of American immigrants are rich enough to vote with you. Ironically, I think you can take credit for that. When you moved all those blue collar jobs over to India and China, some of them got stinking rich just like you. But no matter how much you suck up to your new rich friends, you are still the one percent.

We can outnumber you. And we can out vote you. We just have to get enough of us to pay attention. You have been brilliant at the slight of hand. I've watched you win for years by riling up white fear. You will continue to succeed in the white states and cities and towns where your magical powers are most effective. The most passionate members of the tea party are the most frightened about their imminent loss of control.

On November 6 you got all the white votes you could. One of you even admitted that. You have that strong base of white males, but they aren't enough. You let the extremists take over your party. You scared off too many of the centrist republicans. Once upon a time there were nice republicans, and mean Democrats. That is to say fiscally conservative/socially liberal republicans AND fiscally liberal/socially conservative Democrats. Those guys could jiggle things around a bit and compromise enough to get stuff done now and then.

Too bad that's not what you meant when you said "Traditional America". I'd like that one back please.