| Any wonder that Texas Republicans are worried? Now, just because traditionally Democratic groups are on the rise does not mean a slam dunk for Democrats. It is not your numbers, it is who you get to the polls. It is giving your voters a reason to vote AND to vote for you.
I know that in Harris, I was underwhelmed with the outreach to the Hispanic and black communities. On the hopeful sign, Hubert Vo's successful campaign put the Vietnamese community on the party radar.
We don't consistently provide simple handout materials in other languages to our Precinct chairs . We expect our chairs to generate their own funding ( legally, this means they must form PACs )or pay out of pocket for their outreach materials.
This does not mean that the county Party is oblivious to the problem. It is a dollars and senses game to be sure, but the need is no less real if we don't have a way or can't find a way to meet it!
Let's add to the ethnic demographic trend , this one: age. Minorities are the young, Anglos are the old. There is nothing that can be done about this. If you sealed the borders today, nothing elemental would change about this trend.
Moreover, by as early as 2012 or so, there will be no majority ethnicity in Harris County, only a collection of minorities. Texas and America are not far beween (2040 and out).
The result according to Dr. Klineberg is that we either get multi-culturalism right or we all go down. We will not have sufficient numbers of highly trained workers we need to keep Houston and by extension, the USA competitive in the world. It is high tech that will be the backbone of Houston's and the US economy. No more will the economy reward a strong and willing back.
It means that if we find the right message and messenger, we have a compelling reason for our fellow citizens, fellow voters to support Progressive ideas on immigration, education, social welfare issues. That reason is: self-interest! We either sink or swim together.
There were other neat surprises in the presentation he gave to interested Springbranch ISD parents and other interested parties. Fully seventy percent of those surveyed in Harris County consider the growing and already huge inequities between the haves and the have not's a problem that should be addressed. The growing fear of crime is generalized and not personalized, thus we may have time to head off a knee-jerk return to simplistic "law and order" candidacies. The worst news I heard last night was that Harris County residents still don't want immigrants tapping social services. Even here the margin of pro/con was less than 5 percentage points,and much better than even 4 years ago.
So discuss already.... |
