While the past year had a lot of good--President Obama's decisive victory in the Presidential Election, winning a bigger majority in the Senate, picking up seats in the U.S. House--it also had a lot of bad: the Scott Walker fiasco in Wisconsin, the continuing war on workers, the continuing war on women, the ever growing gap between rich and poor, republican obstructionism, lots of losses at the state and local levels.
But to paraphrase the Glimmer Twins, time is on our side.
The best news from 2012 was the continued and growing support of young people and Latinos for the Democratic Party. People between the ages of 18-29 went for President Obama 60% to 36%. Between the ages of 30-39 it was 60% to 38%. The majority of these voters will be Democrats for life.
The Latino vote was even better, as the President won 71% to 27% (improving on his 67-31 margin in '08). Coupled with the ever growing Latino population in the U.S. (50,000 Hispanic-Americans turn 18 every day), it's only a matter of time before the Democratic Party has an overwhelming electoral college majority (and given the propensity of people to vote a straight ticket, this helps downballot as well). There are those who believe Texas will be as blue as California by 2030...at which point the Democrats could hold the White House much like republicans did in the aftermath of the Civil War (44 of 52 years between 1860 and 1912).
Modern Democrats are often slow to to latch onto populist principles and live up to the principles and potential on which the current Democratic Party was founded. Here's hoping the young folks and the Latinos currently driving them to victory can drag the party kicking and screaming into the Progressive fold, striving for an America that truly benefits us all.
That will be a beauty to behold, and is why the future for us Liberals is bright, bright, bright.
Happy New Year!
Peace,
emaycee
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment