Ruy Teixeira is someone who strongly believes that demographic changes make a Democrat majority inevitable in this country. He has now written an article to that effect in Vox; the GOP victory is just a temporary aberration according to Teixeira.
Here's the funny part: Teixeira has been writing on this subject for more than a decade. When president Obama was elected in 2008, Teiseira was the leader of the group that told us that the GOP was likely to disappear of to become a rump party in the South only. Since then, the Republicans have won and held the House since 2010, won and held the Senate since 2014, taken two thirds of the nation's governorships, taken control of two thirds of the state legislatures across America and now won the presidency. To an apparently untrained eyed like mine, it looks more and more like the Democrats are a rump party on the coasts only.
Some day, the Democrats and their theorists like Teixeira have to realize that people are not just racial and ethnic groups. They are individuals who vote based upon their personal preferences. That is not to say that identity politics plays no role in elections; of course they do. Nevertheless, a view like the one held by Teixeira and many Democrats that Hispanics will necessarily vote for the Democrats is amazingly racist. Why should all Hispanics or blacks or Hindus or whatever group all vote one way? It reduces the group to a stereotype, the very thing that the Dems always claim they are against.
It's time for the Democrats to realize that racial and ethnic caricatures are not only offensive, but also they do not work.
Here's the funny part: Teixeira has been writing on this subject for more than a decade. When president Obama was elected in 2008, Teiseira was the leader of the group that told us that the GOP was likely to disappear of to become a rump party in the South only. Since then, the Republicans have won and held the House since 2010, won and held the Senate since 2014, taken two thirds of the nation's governorships, taken control of two thirds of the state legislatures across America and now won the presidency. To an apparently untrained eyed like mine, it looks more and more like the Democrats are a rump party on the coasts only.
Some day, the Democrats and their theorists like Teixeira have to realize that people are not just racial and ethnic groups. They are individuals who vote based upon their personal preferences. That is not to say that identity politics plays no role in elections; of course they do. Nevertheless, a view like the one held by Teixeira and many Democrats that Hispanics will necessarily vote for the Democrats is amazingly racist. Why should all Hispanics or blacks or Hindus or whatever group all vote one way? It reduces the group to a stereotype, the very thing that the Dems always claim they are against.
It's time for the Democrats to realize that racial and ethnic caricatures are not only offensive, but also they do not work.
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