There has been a secular decline in the percentage of white Americans in the population at large as immigration expands the non-white population. In 1996, 85% of registered voters in the United States were white but by 2019 that percentage had dropped to 69%. Large scale immigration explains much of the difference in conjunction with a higher birth rate for non-whites. American society has embraced “diversity”. But the shifting tides have altered the political landscape as well.
The majority of voters for both Republican and Democratic parties are white, as you would expect, but the percentage of white voters who identify as Republicans has dropped from 94 percent in 1996 to 81% in 2019, a drop of 13 percentage points. A growing number of non-white voters now identify as Republican. By contrast, the percentage of white voters who identify as Democrats has fallen from 76% to 59% in the same period, a drop of 17 percentage points. The percentage of voters who identify as Democrats and who are Black or Hispanic as risen sharply, almost doubling from 1996 to 2019. It is no surprise that Democratic strategists want to emphasize “race” as a key issue in election contests and cannot give a speech that is not peppered with claims of “racism”.
The Democrats promote a stereotype of the Republican base as uneducated poor people, often labeled “rednecks”. Reality is that the percentage of voters who identify as Republicans and have no more than a high school education is about 35% and of voters who identify as Democrats is about 28% based on 2019 data. There is no doubt that people in this demographic have been shifting allegiance from Democrats to Republicans witnessed by the percentage of voters lacking more than a high school education who identified as Democrats falling from 51% in 1996 to the 28% figure in 2019, while the same statistic for uneducated voters who identify as Republicans has fallen less sharply, from 41% to 35% in the same period. The base for both parties has a roughly equal share of the “uneducated” and the rhetoric and stereotype promoted by the Democrats to tar Republican voters as “rednecks” simply fails to pass the smell test.
This should surprise no one. Poverty and low levels of education are endemic in black and Hispanic communities and the number of black and Hispanic voters who vote Democrat outweighs those who vote Republican. The improving education picture for both parties arises not only from shifting party allegiance but also results from better access to education for impoverished blacks and Hispanics arising from voucher systems and charter schools. More people of all political stripes are going to college or beyond.
America has a troubled history of racism, but that despicable characteristic has seen dramatic improvement over the past 30 years. America has not only elected a black President but also has seen black mayors elected in 55 of the 100 largest American cities. It is hard to claim rampant racism when a majority of the population of America’s largest cities elect black mayors. In the United States today, a large and growing number of professionals - lawyers, doctors, academics, and business leaders - are black or Hispanic. There is no country on Earth where a person of colour has more opportunity than in the United States, in my opinion.
But the incessant cries of “racism”, the encouragement of Black Lives Matter protests by Democratic leaders (despite this organization’s Marxist roots), and the relentless attacks on Republicans as a “threat to democracy” are pernicious efforts by Democratic leaders to use “race” as a weapon to retain power. The only threat to democracy evident in the United States is the trend to authoritarian socialism growing in the Democratic party as far left leaders like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez seek to alter the fabric of society in the direction of their Marxist ideology.
America can vote socialism into power if that is what its electorate wants. If it does and changes its mind, the population will have to shoot its way out.