Texas is Turning Purple? Are you Seeing This?

            Every single month, two things happen, in this changing nation of ours. Factoid one; 237,540 Americans (Baby-Boomers) turn sixty each and every month.[1] Factoid two; every single (same) month, in America, 50,000 Latinos turn voting age (18). [2] These are facts! This is a shifting demographic that does not favor one party of our ‘two party’ system. It is a known and historic fact that; lower income individuals, African Americans (90+% voted Democrat in 2012 elections), the elderly, the poor and Latinos (78% in the last Presidential election) tend to vote Democrat.

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Thanks, in so small part, to; Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and Karl Rove the Republican party is been plagued with hyper-partisanship for the last ten years. This has resulted in; intransigence in the Congress (more so in our House of Representatives) and a Senate crippled by the over sue of the filibuster .A once rarely used parliamentary procedure, now turned Standard Operating Procedure by the hyper-partisan members of said body. Between 1917 and 1975 this device was used ‘rarely” and only took 2/3^rd of the Senate to override. Today it takes 3/5^th to override and, well as you can see by the graph below, this filibuster is being used more in one month then it was used in ten years before.

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[caption id="attachment_1051" align="aligncenter" width="606"] Filibuster trend[/caption]

(Historic Graph of Senate Filibuster 1919-2010)

 

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Now, let’s add! Number of Americans turning senior each month = 237,000 roughly (mostly Anglo-Americans) +  50,000 Latinos turning voting age  each month + a House of Representatives parked in intransigence by a (relatively) small number of Republicans in gerrymandered districts + a Senate chocked with (meaningless) filibusters  = a slow and painful death to the party of the far Right. The culprit behind the intransigent House of Representatives = hyper-partisanship.   The 112^th Congress passed (only) 219 bills into laws. [F.Y.I. that is the ONLY job they have and laws = order in a universe that needs them] By contrast the last two Democratic controlled Congress passed 383 and 460![3] = Intransigence in Congress.

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Now, to bring this puppy home. Texas has seen the largest growth in immigrant population second only to California.[4] As well, in Texas the largest shft in population is from rural to urban.[5] Americans that live in cities (major metropolitan areas) tend to; favor stricter gun laws, and vote Democratic. Texas is experiencing a hat-trick of changes. These three factors will not only impact Texas politics, from the Governorship to the State House, they will shift Texas from the deeply Conservative ‘Red’ of today. To a deeply purple, then Blue like it was in my youth. This is not opinion, this is far from conjecture, my friends it is in the cards it is inevitable.

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This will, likely, not manifest by the 2014 off-year elections. However, it is my projection… my assertion, that by the Presidential Elections of 2016? Texas’ 34 electoral college votes will go to the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

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THAT outcome will set this country up for the longest single stretch of One Party controlling the White House since… F.D.R.! With Texas a ‘Blue’ state, the balance of power in the House of Representatives will shift, without a doubt, back to a Democratically controlled House. Texas’ move, to purple then Blue, will make a huge and unmistakable change in the governance of our nation. Wrapping up here, I have one more thing to say. “You can ‘Thank’ Governor Rick Perry for a lot of this shift. For six years he has been giving away $14 Billion dollars in tax rebates to companies who move (themselves and their employees) to Texas. Fourteen billion dollars buys a lot of Democrats from; California, and New York.

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So, like the title of the article says, it is my firm assertion and opinion “Texas will turn purple (2014) then Blue (2016) and, at this point, there is nothing anyone can do.

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Thank you for your time, thank you for the honor of having you read my work. And, finally, “Thank YOU!” For sharing and Liking my work. I am trying to move, before I am thrown out, by the new owners of my building. If you can… if you would please? Take a moment and click the box below… and help me move… maybe back home?

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 Footnotes

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^[1] http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20060116_boomers.htm

[2]http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2011/oct/07/ruben-navarrette-jr/pundit-says-50000-hispanic-citizens-turn-18-and-be/

[3]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/congress-unproductive_n_2371387.html

[4]http://www.cis.org/2000-2010-record-setting-decade-of-immigration

[5]http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/population.html