Russell,
Please don't take this or my previous comment as an attack. I'm not denying that the demographics played a role in this election. I'm not saying the maps and numbers you cited are wrong either, only that they a reporting what they see, rather than explain why they vote the way they do. It's the reasons why other Hispanics vote D (I didn't and I know plenty of others who didn't either) that I don't see playing as much of a role in the future. Most are single issue voters, that issue is immigration. Without that issue I think they are likely to look at more substantive issues and could potentially change the way they vote. Case in point, Cuban-Americans tend to vote R. While there could be other ideological factors in play with them, immigration is a non-issue since citizenship for Cuban ex-pats is guaranteed.
I was pointing out the demographic changes reflected in Congress is in both parties. The report from the think tank at Arizona State I posted noted that Hispanics do not vote in proportion to their total population. The reasons being that many are too young to vote, the ones that are old enough tend to fall into the 18-25 category that generally is apathetic politically, and a large portion (1/3) are not citizens. For this particular demographic to change the political landscape, hinges on Hispanics to vote in proportion to their population, which is something they haven't done historically.
According to Pew 40% of Hispanics voted for Bush in 2004. Why such a big change over the same demographic? I think many here would agree with the notion that Bush was pretty soft on illegal immigration. In 2008 Obama kept talking about "comprehensive immigration reform" and it was part of the Dems 2010 platform, thus pandering to the ONE issue among Hispanics.
http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/reports/48.pdf
Pew also pointed out the portion of the Hispanic electorate who voted for Bush were more affluent, better educated and found his religion appealing. That doesn't lend itself to the argument that Hispanics are all left of center.
I only focused on AZ because I'm from there and I only focused on Hispanics because I am one and I feel that I can speak intelligently about it from a cultural standpoint. They are also the fastest growing minority and the one who's vote both parties are clamoring over. I concede that other minorities in other states may vary. Finally, I apologize for taking such a long time just to say, while the demographics are changing it doesn't mean the change in demographics all fall into one side of the political spectrum. Once you nullify the one issue that is keeping them in one camp, they'll probably start voting based on their values rather than voting to keep mom and dad from being deported.
louie the lumberjack
Louie,
If you aren't engaging in ad hominem, you aren't attacking me. Addressing my argument is not attacking me. So don't worry about it.
"Once you nullify the one issue that is keeping them in one camp, they'll probably start voting based on their values rather than voting to keep mom and dad from being deported."
You've now have laid out the mentality prevalent in people not rooted in the Founding Father's philosophy, in that a block of voters are controlled by a single issue that is contrary to the US rule of law. If the Republicans would just stop being so pig headed about sticking to the rules of immigration and let people break that law with impunity, then they'll vote for Republicans. Of course this doesn't happen, at most Bush got 40% of the vote, even after the Republicans in Congress proved themselves to be supportive of lax immigration laws in the 80's.
And it doesn't matter if only a small percentage of the legal voters turn out to vote, since they are they only ones showing up to do so, they are setting the tone of the country, and that is one left of center. You may be right that most Hispanic immigrates are right of center, but since they don't vote, haven't voted and likely will not vote, it doesn't matter.
"while the demographics are changing it doesn't mean the change in demographics all fall into one side of the political spectrum."
And therein lies my point, the demographics are changing the makeup the country, and not just with the Hispanics, and that change is what I said before, the people have no allegiance to a bunch of dead, Protestants white guys and their nutty ideas of self-government.
To put it differently, what does it matter if the the Hispanics vote Republicans or Democrats if the Republicans have further debased themselves by constantly removing their support of the Founders' principles?