Ezra Klein: The Future! August 04, 2007I'm at a panel on immigration and American politics that is really quite convincing on how screwed the Republicans are. In a couple of decades, Hispanic immigrants will make up almost a quarter of the country. Even now, 70 of the 100 largest cities are in the South and the West, and are that large because of Hispanic immigration.
And these Hispanic immigrants, of course, will vote Democratic. Via Jane Galt, who is doubtful. She writes "It seems to me that the Democrats would have a near-permanent majority now . . . if only those ungrateful Irish, Italians, and Poles hadn't grown increasingly willing to vote Republican. "
This is not actually true—Irish-Americans still go heavily Democratic, especially in places like New York and Boston, if not in 90 percent bracket they used to. And they had a more than a hundred years of doing that before "Reagan Republicans" showed up.
