CNN Article: Republican Voters are 'White, Aging and Dying Off,' And the Party Could, Too

What sounds like a progressive dream was prominently featured on CNN this week.  According to an article by CNN writer Halimah Abdullah, Republicans are on their way to an ash heap of history since they are too old, white and out-of-touch.

The story starts with the musings of David Bositis. Bositis is a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who states:

 "The Republicans' problem is their voters are white, aging and dying off."

Bositis continues:

"There will come a time when they suffer catastrophic losses with the realization of the population changes."

It should be noted that The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Bositis's group, is far from non-partisan.  It openly endorses a progressive agenda items such as single-payer healthcare and Climate Change and their stated mission is to:

“Improve the socioeconomic status of black Americans and other minorities; expand their effective participation in the political and public policy arenas; and promote communications and relationships across racial and ethnic lines to strengthen the nation's pluralistic society.”

Back to the CNN piece.

Abdullah uses this weeks controversial census data to bolster Bositis's argument:

"Over the next several generations, the wave of minority voters -- who, according to U.S. Census figures released this week, now represent more than half of the nation's population born in the past year -- will become more of a power base."

According to Abdullah, this will mean "a massive changing of the guard" and "cultural clashes," particularly in "GOP strongholds in the Deep South and Southwest."

Abdullah cites healthy minority populations are on the rise in states like Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, Georgia, Utah and Arizona. Odd that this celebrated minority boon exists due to the superior economies of  so-called red states.  Each of the states touted by Abdullah has befitted from long periods of conservative governance, leading to each of the states being named nearly "recession proof" by newgeography.com.  Seems minorities and immigrants are keeping with an age-old American tradition of going to where jobs and opportunities are.

But Mr. Bositis sees this as inconsequential and continues his draconian, racial predictions:

"There'll be a tipping point where you've got the Republicans in charge, but you'll get to the point when the population becomes minority--When that happens the statewide offices will fall. Republican governors will fall. Things will change."

Abdullah notes the Republican Party is scrambling to "clean up its image with Hispanic voters" but have "fallen short."

"Romney in particular has stumbled with this critical voting bloc, after his comments suggesting that making the economic landscape tough for illegal immigrants will force them to "self deport."

The writer makes a final snipe, assuming that Republicans will eventually fail and red states like Georgia will become strongholds for democrats:

"If Republicans continue to struggle to appeal to Latino voters, Spanish-language ads may not stave off a change that experts like Bositis see coming in the not too distant future, when states such as Georgia go purple and eventually blue."

The greater assumption taken in this article is that as older GOP supporters die off and minority numbers rise, those minorities will never vote Republican. That assumption is plainly wrong. In 2004 almost half the Latino population voted for George W. Bush, which could be explained by their strong religious numbers.  Additionally, blacks are largely considered a socially conservative group, which has been seen in the past and has popped up again with Obama's new support for gay marriage.

And consider this: there are two Latinos serving in the United States Senate, one is a Democrat and one is a Republican. The latter is on the short list of vice-presidential contenders.

Reports of the GOP's demise, then, might be greatly exaggerated.