A Permanent Democratic Majority: New Study Says Yes

[dtotire]

A growing number of political scientists, analysts and strategists are making the case for a realignment of political power in the U.S. to a new Democratic majority based on two trends: 1) the increasing numbers of black and Hispanic voters, and 2) a decisive shift away from the Republican Party by the suburban and well-educated constituencies that once formed the backbone of the GOP.

Arguments supporting a Democratic realignment are based on well-researched population and voting data. Nonetheless, at a time when the economy remains in crisis and when international tensions are intensifying across the globe, any claim that Democratic (or Republican) ascendance is inevitable should be viewed with caution.

In a March, 2009 51-page paper "New Progressive America: Twenty Years of Demographic, Geographic, and Attitudinal Changes Across the Country Herald a New Progressive Majority," Ruy Teixeira makes a strong case that "progressive arguments are in the ascendancy," that demographic and geographic "trends should take America down a very different road than has been traveled in the last eight years. A new progressive America is on the rise."


To further buttress his case, Teixeira has put together "a very cool interactive map
that includes 7 levels of exit poll demographics and county-level vote shifts going back to 1988."

Teixeira is by no means alone. The New Republic's John Judis, who collaborated with Teixeira on the 2001 book The Emerging Democratic Majority, wrote an article titled "America The Liberal" the day after the November 4, 2008, election. Judis made a similarly well-argued case that the election of Obama "is the culmination of a Democratic realignment that began in the 1990s. ... The country is no longer 'America the conservative.' And, if Obama acts shrewdly to consolidate this new majority, we may soon be 'America the liberal'."

more:




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/13/pemanent-democratic-major_n_186257.html

[angstlessk]

1. do fucking not get happy..they said that about repuglicans too...remember?

we have to fight the good fight in order to win..we cannot rest on our laurals!

[Believing Is Art]

2. Delete! Delete!!

Don't they know what happened when Rove predicted a permanent Republican majority? Aaaaahhhh!

[bemildred]

3. More like a majority as long as they do a good job.

The Republicans lost because they screwed the pooch, in public. The democrats could lose the same way if they don't take care of the nations business.

[Warpy]

4. Long enough to clean up the mess the Republicans left? Maybe.

However, "permanent" smacks of both the 1000 year Reich and of Delay's boast of a permanent Republican majority. Neither occurred and neither will a permanent Democratic majority.

Not only does permanence not exist, it's not anything we should ever aspire to.

[Journeyman]

5. Yeah, get back to me in 20 years. . .

similar predictions were made in '74, when Nixon resigned, and yet 6 years later Reagan was elected "and our troubles multiplied."

It looks good, of course, at the moment, but I figure I'll fight on to the end of my days, and maybe die happy I've left a Democrat in charge for my children.

[MasonJar]

6. If Obama continues his current policies, we'll be lucky to survive 4 years.

Congress had better not repeat the GOPerism; we need checks and balances on the president, whatever the party....and I do NOT mean Blue Dog checks. I mean Progressive checks.

[Demeter]

7. Unfortunately, The Democrats Are Due to Fission Into Two Parties

the Corporate (or GOP lite)

and the Progressive (seriously liberal)

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Even if this were correct (which I VERY much doubt)

A permanent Dem majority would mean nothing if they governed like republicans.

Giving away tax money to the rich...
Wiretapping citizens...
Continuing the drug war...
blah, blah, blah

We most certainly aren't seeing the beginnings of permanent good government and that's what we need.

[Tutankhamun]

9. We'll have a one-party majority if Dems keep lurching to the right,

desperately trying to accommodate and appease friends, foes, and constituents, both imaginary and real. Repubs and Repubs in Disguise.

The "Conservadem" movement is a lot like a bowel movement: it happens regularly, it's predictable, and in the end it's just a big steaming pile of shit.

[TankLV]

10. From their lips to God's ears...

"Isn't that lovely..."