Turning Texas Blue [View all]

[Gothmog]

Yesterday's rally in San Antonio makes me smile. I and others are working hard to turn Texas blue. It is a hard and frustrating task. The Voter ID law killed us in 2014 (Wendy Davis was a good candidate and her numbers were the result of the Texas voter id law depressing turnout by 5.8% to 12.8% of registered voters). Texas will turn blue eventually but I want to speed up the process. One key is increasing the voter participation by Hispanic voters in Texas. California used to be a reddish state until Pete Wilson cracked down on Hispanics. http://www.salon.com/2015/08/20/donald_trump_is_the_harbinger_of_gop_doom_the_devastating_history_lesson_that_republicans_are_completely_ignoring/

There were obviously many factors that contributed to California’s evolution into the deep-blue state it is today, from demographics to the culture war. But none of those things come close to the damage that then-Governor Pete Wilson did to the longterm interest of the California Republican Party in 1994, when he scapegoated Latino immigrants as the cause of all the state’s woes.

Wilson was running for re-election, and as part of his campaign to distract from the economic failure of his first term and increase turnout among his base, he ran on a platform promising to crack down on undocumented workers, and enthusiastically supported the infamous Prop 187, which set up a statewide system designed to deny any kind of benefits to undocumented workers, including K-12 education and all forms of health care.

(He also supported a constitutional amendment to repeal birthright citizenship, currently guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.)

Here’s the famous “they keep coming” ad the Wilson campaign ran that year:

.....Wilson’s California Republicans are now a rump party of angry, white Tea Partyers and a handful professional operatives. It’s a very sad motley group compared to the political juggernaut that produced Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

There used to be an old saying “As California goes, so goes the nation” meaning that California was the modern, forward thinking laboratory of democracy which started the trends that everyone else would soon follow. If that holds true in this case of this Latino bashing, the Republicans are in for a long road back from the debacle of 2016.

Trump's comments on Latino voters are having an effect and are beginning to motivate Hispanic voters to participate. On the Chris Hayes's show last night, Sec. Castro was on discussing the increase participation of Latinos in Texas. I would love to see Julian Castro be Hillary Clinton's VP pick because that would further motivate Hispanic voters and will speed the process of turning Texas blue.

The Texas Democratic Party is officially neutral in the primary race but many people in the party believe that HRC naming Julian Castro would change things a great deal. If Texas is in play, the GOP will have to divert resources that will ensure a 2016 victory for the Democrats.

In the meantime, I and others will continue to work to turn Texas Blue. It is hard work but we will turn Texas blue