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Networked Blogs
Feb
28
Brian A. Howey calls the Republicans the 21th Century Whig party — if they aren’t careful about being able to reach out to immigrant groups and voters in general.
Now here’s where the 21st Century Whig thing comes into play. The Pew Hispanic Center notes that 57 percent of registered voters now call themselves Democrats, while just 23 percent call themselves Republicans. There is now a 34 percent gap in partisan affiliation among Latinos. In July 2006, a month before Hostettler’s 18-city immigrant bash tour, the gap was just 21 percent. In essence, the Republicans of today are condemning themselves to being at an 80/20 or 90/10 disadvantage with the fastest growing demographic group in America. In the Howey-Gauge Poll, just 1 percent identified themselves as Latino. But that number will only grow.
It doesn’t help that there are reports of Republicans exhibiting apathy.
So I went to the Munster Town Republican Commiteeman meeting last Thursday to feel them out about a run for the 12th. During the meeting, we did a mini-caucus for the Republican presidential candidate.
There was no enthusiasm whatsoever for ANY of the candidates. It was frightening to behold. After all, these are the guys that need to GET OUT THE VOTE come election day.
There could be tough times ahead if the GOP doesn’t figure out a way to attract a plurality — if not a majority — of voters to the party in these days when people are increasingly self-identifying as Independents and Democrats.
