The party of President Gingrich and Boss Limbaugh sure looks a lot like .. they do:
More than 6 in 10 Republicans today are white conservatives, while most of the rest are whites with other ideological leanings; only 11% of Republicans are Hispanics, or are blacks or members of other races.
This Gallup data finds that 36 percent of Democrats are Hispanic or non-white, along with 27 percent of independents.
The inability to attract minorities to their party may be a source of pride for the architects of the Southern Strategy, but it's an electoral disaster for them. Per the US Census:
Minorities, now roughly one-third of the U.S. population, are expected to become the majority in 2042, with the nation projected to be 54 percent minority in 2050. By 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of all children.
Republicans have already lost this generation of youngsters. They've long lost African Americans. Now, they're in the process of losing Latinos with their opposition to comprehensive immigration reform and Judge Sotomayor. And even Asians -- projected to be over 9 percent of the population by 2050 -- gave Obama a 62-35 margin in 2008. Without winning back some of those non-white voters, Republicans simply can't win. The numbers aren't there.
Yet rather than rethink their approach on issues of race, the GOP is doubling down on this policy of failure, staying the course toward electoral irrelevancy. Their continued opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, coming to a debate near you sometime later this year, will only reinforce what people will see during the Sotomayor confirmation process -- a Republican Party that hates anything brown, and panders to its angry white male base.
At some point, you'd think political reality would intrude, but if there's one thing Republicans have shown capable of doing, it's creating a fantasy world with little resemblance to the real one.