THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – AT 9:47 A.M. ET:  We are entering an intense and combative political season.  The 2018 midterms are a bit more than a year away.  Will the Democratic Party, now at its weakest, statistically, in 90 years, mount a comeback?  Or will it further decline into the dustbin of history? 

The party itself is changing.  From the Washington Times:   

An extensive new Pew Research Center analysis finds that 48 percent of Democratic voters overall now identify as liberals. A decade ago, that number was 32 percent. There is an interesting ethnic dynamic at work, however. Currently, 55 percent of white Democratic voters say they are liberal — compared to 28 percent of black Democrats and 41 percent of Hispanic Democrats.

While 8 percent of white Democrats now identify as conservative, that number is 30 percent among black Democrats and 22 percent among Hispanic Democrats.

Meanwhile, who’s the most liberal among all Democrats? That award goes to those with a postgraduate school education who weigh in at 60 percent liberal, the college grads (58 percent) and millennials born after 1981 (57 percent). The analysis was based on 17 years worth of Pew Research Center voter surveys.

COMMENT:  Fascinating.  The Democratic Party is indeed becoming a party run by white, hyper-educated elitists.  The figures give hope that an imaginative, open Republican Party can attract some of those blacks and Hispanics who are more in the conservative column than the liberal.  If that happens, the Democrats can say goodbye to national victory.

But the Democrats are experts at running scare campaigns.  They will probably be able to keep minority voters in line, at least in the short run, by conjuring up images of racist and bigoted Republicans.  It's worked well.  What else are they offering?

The future can belong to the Republicans, if they know how to exploit it.  Problem is, imagination is usually not part of their game plan.

September 11, 2017