Red and blue states don't matter(TomPaine)

[KingofSwords]

If the Democrats expect to win in November, they will have to begin right now—in South Carolina, New Mexico and other Southern states' primaries. How? By dealing with the neglected gold mine in their midst. Forget the so-called dichotomy between the red and blue states that so enthralls pundits. Come fall, the winning colors could be black and brown: Key states house huge numbers of non-voting but Democratically inclined African-American and Latino voters.

Of course, skeptics will note that it's meaningless to keep counting raw numbers of potentially Democratic voters if they can't actually be persuaded to vote.

However, both numbers and motivating factors are not the same as they used to be. For one thing, Latino populations in key Southwestern states have surged in recent years, and—President Bush's symbolic overtures notwithstanding—Latino voters remain overwhelmingly poor, alienated and Democratic. As Joe Velasquez and Steve Cobble noted recently in The Nation, "There are as many unregistered Latinos who are American citizens as there were Latino voters in 2000—more than 5.5 million. These potential voters are not likely Bush voters, despite Republican rhetoric."

For another, blacks now make up about half of the potential Democratic vote in certain contestable deep—and shallow—southern states, and, unlike white Democrats, are much less inclined to cross party lines.


http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9876