Back during the 2020 campaign, Joe got into trouble when he said that any black considering voting for Trump ‘ain’t black.’ Of course, the alt-right jumped all over him because they actually had the nerve to promote Trump as being a friend to blacks. As for the ultra-libs (i.e., the so-called ‘progressives’) they jumped on Joe as well, because they jump on anything he says.
I thought Joe’s remark was the most prescient, honest and brave comment I ever heard from any American Presidential candidate because it was totally and absolutely true. And not only was in true then, but it’s become even more true today.
The GOP should really rename itself the White Man’s Party because that’s what it’s become. The latest from those schmucks is a directive sent out by the Arkansas Department of Education warning schools not to offer Advanced Placement courses in African American studies because the courses contain references to critical race theory which would indoctrinate students with ideologies, a practice now prohibited under Arkansas state law.
According to the 2000 census, at that time the U.S. was 75.1% white. As of 2020, the country was 57.8% white. In fact, Hispanics represented 18% of the national population in 2020, the black percentage is 12%, which is what it was in 2000, when the Hispanic population was also 12%.
In other words, what’s making America less white is the growth of the Hispanic population, although with the exception of Florida, which gave Trump 47% of the state’s Hispanic vote, the other 10 states with sizable Hispanic communities went for Joe by between 56% to 77%.
The two states where the Hispanic vote can make a big difference to the national outcome are California and New York, where Hispanic voters comprise 16% of the voting population in New York and 34% of the voting population in the Golden State.
Now the fact is that even though the Presidential election is conducted in all 50 states (plus D.C., Puerto Rico and a couple of what are politely referred to as ‘territories’) other than a blow-out like 1980 or 1964, the whole thing gets down to who shows up to vote in four or five states.
Try Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and throw in Georgia if you have nothing better to do. You win these 4 states, you get 62 electoral votes, stolen or not. And with the EV votes that are always going to go red or blue, these 62 votes will probably determine whether you wind up in the Oval Office as a visitor or if you’re sitting behind the Resolute desk.
With the exception of Georgia, those other three states are at least 70% white, with Wisconsin just a shade under 80%. Substitute Arizona for Georgia and deduct 5 electoral votes, but you’re back to a state which is almost 55% white – so you lose 5 votes but gain 5% more whites.
Given those numbers, should anyone be surprised that the GOP has taken a hard right when it comes to what we call the ‘culture war?’ Because for all the talk about gender, and sexual identity and whether my transgender friend who is now a female can come with me into the male bathroom, this woke and anti-woke nonsense is, at bottom, still about race.
I don’t really care if the white residents of the former Confederacy get all hot and bothered about white versus black, male versus female, Democrat versus Republican, and all the other issues which the media keeps telling me have created the so-called irreconcilable argument between them and us. I still don’t understand why we let those states back into the Union in 1865, and as far as I’m concerned, they can all drop out again.
I’m indulging in a bit of hyperbole to make a point, which is that the United States has always been a country of distinct regions, and since the 1840’s, has also been a country which provides a home for just about every different type of population, regardless of whether the types are defined by skin color, language, customs, country of origin or anything else.
And either the GOP can figure out a way to acknowledge this history which continues to go on, or they can keep nominating shitheads like Donald Trump and lose again and again and again.
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