"Hillary Won the Confederacy": How Bernie's Campaign is Subtly Fueling Racist Rhetoric of His Suppor

[Gothmog]

196. I am one of the Democrats trying to turn Texas blue

First, understand that 2014 was the first year under voter id and that voter suppression law knocked between 5% to 12% of the registered voters including many voters who had the required ids but were discourage from voting due to the law and the misinformation spread by the GOP. Hopefully the 5th Circuit or the SCOTUS will put an end to this as 7 federal judges looking at this law found it to be void. The votes lost due to voter id would have made Texas competitive in 2014 and Texas will be competitive when voter id is found to be in violation of the voting rights act.

Second, Texas would a blue state if Hispanics or Latino voters voted in the same percentage in Texas as California. California used to be a reddish state until Pete Wilson in 1994 ran on a platform similar to Trump's current platform 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.

Finally at my county/senate district convention today, a Texas Democratic Party official mentioned a poll that showed that Clinton was withing three points (the margin of error) of Trump in Texas. There was a 2014 poll that showed that Hillary Clinton could win Texas http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/01/clinton-could-win-texas.html

PPP's newest Texas poll finds that, at least for now, Hillary Clinton could win the state in 2016. This follows on the heels of a survey last month where we found she would have a decent chance of winning Kentucky if she makes another White House bid.

50% of Texas voters have a favorable opinion of Clinton to 43% with a negative one. She's universally well liked by Democrats (91/5) and a majority of independents view her positively as well (52/41). She holds narrow leads in hypothetical match ups with Marco Rubio (46/45) and Chris Christie (45/43) and a wider one in a contest against Rick Perry (50/42).

Speaking of Perry, Republicans in Texas have no interest in seeing him run for President again in 2016. Only 19% think he should make a bid to 70% who think he should not, and he ties for 7th in a 9 candidate field that we tested. Leading the way is Marco Rubio at 21%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 14%, Rand Paul at 13%, Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan at 11%, Chris Christie at 9%, Perry and Bobby Jindal at 4%, and Susana Martinez at 2%.

Again, there are a large number of dedicated Democrats in Texas working to turn Texas blue. We may surprise you.