WashPost: Republicans Face Unexpected Challenges in Coastal South

[democrattotheend]

Obama won Virginia and Florida and narrowly missed victory in North Carolina. But he also polled as well in Georgia as any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, grabbed 44 percent of the vote in deep-red South Carolina and just under that in Mississippi — despite doing no substantive campaigning in any of those states.

Much of the post-election analysis has focused on the demographic crisis facing Republicans among Hispanic voters, particularly in Texas. But the results across other parts of the South, where Latinos remain a single-digit minority, point to separate trends among blacks and whites that may also have big implications for the GOP’s future.

The results show a region cleaving apart along new electoral fault lines. In the region’s center, clustered along the Mississippi River — where Bill Clinton polled most strongly — the GOP remains largely unchallenged and the voting divide between blacks and whites is deepening. Nearly nine of 10 of white voters in Mississippi, for instance, went for Republican nominee Mitt Romney this year, according to exit polls. About 96 percent of black voters in the state supported Obama.

The pattern is markedly different in the five states that hug the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Florida, which together hold82 of the South’s 160 electoral votes. A combination of a growing black population, urban expansion, oceanfront development and in-migration from other regions has opened up increasing opportunities for Democrats in those states.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-face-unexpected-challenges-in-coastal-south-amid-shrinking-white-vote/2012/11/23/02cbda58-336a-11e2-bb9b-288a310849ee_story.html?hpid=z3

This article is encouraging, although I do question whether the "deepening divide" between black and white voters is going to keep growing or even stay where it is. I think that while there has always been a big racial divide in voting, the divide is probably amplified because of Obama, and won't necessarily be quite as divided in the next election, depending on who the candidates are. Especially in the deep south, there are probably still some white voters who would otherwise vote Democratic but won't vote for a black candidate, and Obama probably got a slightly higher share of the black vote than a white Democrat would get.

[Angry Dragon]

1. I say let the republicans get themselves out of their own mess

[Kber]

2. One of these years the Democrats are going to win in

Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Arizona, in addition to the other states we carried this year.

I'm afraid the GOP isn't going to rethink their agenda, platform or approach until that happens. The next 8 years are going to be difficult to watch, unless slow motion train wrecks are your thing, in which case invest in popcorn now.

[southernyankeebelle]

3. You have an excellent point. However, the dems have to help by not hurting the safety net.

If they give to the republicans and touch the safety net I honestly don't think dems will show up at the polls next time. We are sick and tired of being taken advantaged of.

[Kber]

4. You're right, of course.

The Dems won because they portrayed themselves as the protectors and champions of the middle class. We NEED Social Security, College Tuition assistance and other "gifts" (sorry!) if we are going to level the playing field and make sure that social mobility doesn't become a thing of the past.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. Tuition assistance my friend isn't a "gift" if you are paying it back. It's no different then

congressman or senators getting financial help with personal loans. Social Security is an Annunity that we have paid into and not a "gift". We also pay for our medicare which isn't a "gift". Yes we need these safety nets for sure.

[Kber]

6. totally agree - thus the "quotes"

Except I think congressmen getting financial help with personal loans is actually a "gift".

[southernyankeebelle]

7. yep that is what I meant with the congressmen and the "gift"

[marions ghost]

8. and those Dems need to be supported

--in the Southern coastal states.

So please don't subscribe to the blue/red thinking --as defining whole regions. Look at each state individually.