63% Of GOP Base Says Whites Are Discriminated Against

 

The chart above reflects the results of a survey by the Pew Research Center -- done between March 1st and 7th of a national sample of 4,796 Republicans, with a 2.3 point margin of error.

It just shows how out-of-touch with reality most Republicans really are. About 63% say whites are discriminated as much as Blacks in the U.S. -- and more than either Hispanics or Asians. 

That's a ludicrous view to have, but if they believe they are victims then that can justify their failure to attack real discrimination in this country.

Study: Trump's Virus Slur Caused Anti-Asian Sentiment

There have been nearly 3800 incidents of discrimination against Asian-Americans in the United States in just the last year. While discrimination has existed in the past against them, that number is a huge increase over previous years.

Many of us have thought that Donald Trump's use of terms like "Wuhan virus", "China virus", and "Kung flu" contributed to the increase in anti-Asian sentiment in this country. His use of slurs like that gave racists the encouragement to act on their perverted beliefs.

Now there is a study published in the March 18th edition of The Journal of Public Health that shows it is true.

Association of “#covid19” Versus “#chinesevirus” With Anti-Asian Sentiments on Twitter: March 9–23, 2020

Yulin Hswen ScD, MPH, Xiang Xu MS, Anna Hing MPH, Jared B. Hawkins PhD, John S. Brownstein PhD, and Gilbert C. Gee PhDAuthor affiliations, information, and correspondence details

Accepted: January 03, 2021

 

Published Online: March 18, 2021

 

• Abstract
 
• PDF/EPUB
 

Objectives. To examine the extent to which the phrases, “COVID-19” and “Chinese virus” were associated with anti-Asian sentiments.

Methods. Data were collected from Twitter’s Application Programming Interface, which included the hashtags “#covid19” or “#chinesevirus.” We analyzed tweets from March 9 to 23, 2020, corresponding to the week before and the week after President Donald J. Trump’s tweet with the phrase, “Chinese Virus.” Our analysis focused on 1 273 141 hashtags.

Results. One fifth (19.7%) of the 495 289 hashtags with #covid19 showed anti-Asian sentiment, compared with half (50.4%) of the 777 852 hashtags with #chinesevirus. When comparing the week before March 16, 2020, to the week after, there was a significantly greater increase in anti-Asian hashtags associated with #chinesevirus compared with #covid19 (P < .001).

Conclusions. Our data provide new empirical evidence supporting recommendations to use the less-stigmatizing term “COVID-19,” instead of “Chinese virus.” (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print March 18, 2021: e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306154)

3,795 Hate Incidents Directed At Asian-Americans Last year

When hate incidents are discussed, most people instantly think of those directed at Blacks, and that would not be incorrect. But they are not the only people that racists and white supremacists target in this country. Another group that's been the recipients of a growing number of hate incidents are Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

In the last year (March 19,2020 through February 28, 2021), there have been 3,795 hate incidents directed at Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders -- two-thirds of it directed at women. Hate incidents against this group have been growing since Donald Trump initiated a trade war with China, and then blamed the COVID-19 pandemic on China. 

The charts above, which illustrate this problem, are from Stop AAPI Hate,

Whites Are Not A Majority Of The Texas Population

The numbers in the chart above are from the United States Census Bureau. It shows why Texas Republicans are scared to death of the demographic change happening in Texas -- and why they are doing everything they can to suppress voting in the state.

While Whites are still the largest group in the state -- both in population and registered voters -- it is just barely. And the future is coming fast. By next year (2021), Hispanics will be the largest group in the state -- surpassing Whites.

And Whites are no longer the majority of the Texas population. They only make up 42.03% of the population -- while Hispanics comprise 40.53%, Blacks 12.31%, and Asians 5.13%. That means the Nonwhites make up 57.97% of the population. And both Hispanics and Blacks are growing faster as a portion of the population than Whites -- and Asians are growing almost as fast as Whites.

Here's how The Texas Tribune reports the demographic change happening:

Texas’ Hispanic population has grown by more than 2 million since 2010, according to new population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the state's demographer now predicts that Hispanics will be the state's largest population group by mid-2021.

An annual gain of 201,675 between July 2018 and July 2019 pushed the count of Hispanic residents to more than 11.5 million, the census estimates show. Although annual growth has slowed slightly in recent years, the new figures put a sharp point on how quickly the Hispanic population continues to climb. The annual growth in Hispanic residents has outpaced the combined growth among white, Black and Asian residents every year since 2010.

Texas still has a bigger white population — up to 11.95 million last year — but it grew by just 36,440 last year and by about half a million since 2010. White population growth has been so sluggish this decade that the increase in the number of Asian Texans, who make up a small share of the total population, has almost caught up with the increase in white Texans.

The Poverty Rate This Century Among Racial/Ethnic Groups

This chart was made from information in the new United States Census Report. Note that poverty began to rise with the election of Republican George W. Bush among all groups, and rose sharply when the recession kicked in near the end of his presidency.

Also note that the poverty rate for all groups is still higher now than at the beginning of the Bush presidency. This is because the congressional Republicans have cut government help through a severe austerity program, refused to raise the minimum wage, and blocked all proposed job creation programs.

The chart also points out that poverty is not evenly distributed among the racial/ethnic groups. Whites have the lowest poverty rate -- due to the white privilege they enjoy in jobs and opportunities. Meanwhile, Blacks and Hispanics have a much higher poverty rate than the national average.

This country not only needs to do a much better job in fighting poverty, it also needs to do much better in eliminating racial disparities.

NOTE -- This figures above are percentages of each group living in poverty. Whites actually make up the largest percentage of people living in poverty (41.2%), since they still make up the largest percentage of the total population.

Demographic Portrait Of A Changing United States

For most of it's history, Whites were the dominant majority of the population in the United States. They are still the majority, but the country is changing and there is no doubt that by the middle of this century that will no longer be the case.

Currently Whites compose about 62% of the population -- 26.3 points less than in 1940. Meanwhile, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians all compromise a growing percentage of the population (with Hispanics being the fastest growing portion of the population). There are already seven states where whites no longer are a majority of the population, and several more are soon to follow.

This demographic change has the Republican Party worried. And they should be worried, since the modern GOP bases much of its policies on maintaining White privilege and opposing immigration. If they continue those bigoted policies, which it seems likely they will do for the foreseeable future, they are destined to a less relevant status with each passing election.

Instead of changing their policies, they have decided they can stay relevant by building a wall and cutting off (non-white) immigration. It is a policy destined to fail. They don't realize that the growth in non-white population percentage is mainly due to children being born in the United States, rather than immigration. Closing our borders will not stop the changing demographic (and probably won't even slow it down).

The charts below show the percentages of the White and Non-white populations in each state.

Party Preference In U.S. Has A Religious Connection

The chart above was made from a recently released Gallup Poll. The survey questioned 87,023 randomly selected national adults between January 2008 and June 2014, and it has a margin of error of only 1 point. The chart shows the connection between religious intensity and political party preference.

Poll respondents were grouped into three categories -- very religious, moderately religious, and not religious. Among the entire population, those who said they were very religious tended to be Republican by a 13 point gap (49% to 36%). But those who are only moderately religious preferred the Democratic Party by 6 points (38% to 44%), and the non-religious showed a large propensity to be Democrats, by about 23 points (29% to 52%).

But the most interesting part of this survey is that this effect of religiosity upon party preference is only true of Whites. Very religious Whites preferred the Republican Party by 39 points (64% to 25%) and moderately religious Whites preferred to be identified as Republican by 16 points (51% to 35%). Non-religious Whites showed an 18 point preference for Democrats (33% to 51%).

But it was only among Whites that this religious intensity mattered. There was no statistical difference between very religious, moderately religious, or non-religious Blacks. That all identified with the Democratic Party by huge margins. And it wasn't much different for Hispanics and Asians. Both groups preferred Democrats regardless of religious intensity, with only a slight lessening of that preference among the very religious.

So, while religious intensity is a factor in political party preference in the United States, it is primarily among Whites where this seems to matter. Minorities prefer the Democratic Party regardless of religious intensity. And those who are non-religious prefer the Democratic Party regardless of race or religious intensity (even among Whites).

Minority Population Distribution In The United States

I found these charts very interesting, and I thought you might also. They were made by Randy Olson, and featured in The Atlantic. They show the distribution of minority populations in the United States (on a county-by-county basis). The top chart shows African-Americans, the second chart shows Hispanics, the third chart shows Asians, and the fourth shows Native Americans. For each chart, the darker areas show the highest percentages of each minority group.

There is one more chart, and it is shown below. It has all the races put together, and shows just what a diverse nation we really are. The darker counties are the counties with the most diversity. I'm sure the teabagger Republicans would like to see all of these maps get a lot whiter, but that ain't gonna happen. The days of an overwhelmingly White America are gone -- and they are not going to come back. It's time for all of us to learn to live together, and to realize that being an American has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, or skin color.

Hispanics/Asians - An Untapped Opportunity For Democrats

It is a fact that about 60% of Whites vote Republican, but in an election with a large turnout that is not enough to carry the day. As the 2012 election showed, when that 40% of Whites who don't vote Republican are combined with voters of other races and ethnicities the Democrats carry the day. That's because the Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians all vote over 70% for Democrats.

The problem in 2010 was too many people stayed home that normally vote Democratic. The teabaggers were energized and showed up to vote, while others did not. And sadly, that is a pattern in off-year elections. Note above that a larger percentage of Whites vote than others (about 49%). Blacks do almost as good (with about 44%), but Hispanics and Asians tend not to vote in those off-year elections (only about 31% each).

I have discussed in the past about how the demographic change in this country is going to catch up with the Republicans, and that will happen even in off-year elections. But that is going to take a few more years -- unless the Democrats get smarter. Instead of waiting for the demographic change to do it for them, the Democrats need to get busy tapping the potential of Hispanics and Asians. If these communities voted just as often as Blacks do in off-year elections, those election results would look a lot different.

Texas Democrats have started a program to get more Hispanics to the polls. I don't know how much effect it will have this new because the program is in its infancy, but it is the right thing to do -- and they need to include that outreach to the Asian community. In fact, this is something the Democrats should be doing in all states.

This kind of effort will help to make the current demographic change occur much faster in electoral politics.

Why The GOP Wants To Make It Harder For Groups To Register Voters

The Republican Party knows that demographics are working against them. They depend on white voters to put them over the top in elections, but with each passing election those white voters make up a smaller percentage of the entire electorate. And in the last presidential election, they lost more than 70% of all minority groups -- including Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics (who make up the fastest growing segment of the American population -- by far).

The Republicans could have moderated their anti-minority policies, and there were some national party leaders that wanted to do that. But that didn't sit well with their racist teabagger base, and the congressional Republicans have decided to protect themselves (in their party primaries) by going along with the wishes of their base. So, in keeping the anti-minority policies, the GOP had to come up with a different tactic to blunt the demographic reality.

They decided that democracy wasn't as important as hanging on to power, so they began to pass laws to prevent as many minorities as possible from being able to vote. The best known of these voter suppression measures are the Voter ID laws. The GOP knows that this will affect the minority voters more than other groups, since they are the most likely to be without a picture ID.

But that is not all they did to try and suppress voting. Another measure that has been passed in many red states are regulations that make it harder for groups to go out and register voters. This has taken many forms, from intrusive background checks to state registration requirements (and even some silly rules like no one but the person being registered can drop the registration into a mailbox).

The charts above, made from a recently released Gallup Poll (conducted between July 1st and September 26th of 2013 and surveying 43,825 adults, with a 1 point margin of error), show why the GOP thinks voter suppression efforts are needed. While most Whites (85%) and Blacks (81%) are registered to vote, the same cannot be said of Asians and Hispanics. Only 60% of Asians and 51% of Hispanics are registered to vote.

The Republicans are already losing the demographic battle in this country. If Asians and Hispanics were to register in the same percentages as Whites and Blacks, over 80%, it would be an electoral disaster for the Republicans. They would be either forced to moderate their policies, or fade into the pages of history (as the Whigs did).

The Demographics That Scare GOP Leaders

(Image is from the website of Paul Vallely.)

There used to be a time when the white vote ruled in American elections, and during those times the Republicans did very well in national elections. Those times are fast disappearing, and may in fact, already be gone. In 2008 and 2012, President Obama put together a coalition of huge majorities of all minority groups, along with a majority of young people and women and a minority of white voters, to easily coast to victory.

And there is a demographic trend that shows this kind of coalition may be even easier for Democrats in the coming years. That trend shows that with each presidential election there are more minority voters and less white voters -- and there is no reason to believe that trend won't continue for many more years (and elections). This is, and should be, very troubling for the Republican Party -- since they hold numerous views and policies that minorities disagree with (and find to be anathema to their interests). Look at this trend from the data compiled by the Census Bureau and by exit polling:

COMPOSITION OF ELECTORATE (CENSUS BUREAU)

Whites
2004...............79.2
2008...............76.3
2012...............73.7

Blacks
2004...............11.1
2008...............12.3
2012...............13.4

Hispanics
2004...............6.0
2008...............7.4
2012...............8.4

Asians
2004...............2.2
2008...............2.6
2012...............2.9

Others
2004...............1.42
2008...............1.4
2012...............1.5

CITIZEN VOTING (EXIT POLLING)

Whites
2004...............79.2
2008...............73.4
2012...............71.1

Blacks
2004...............11.9
2008...............12.1
2012...............12.5

Hispanics
2004...............8.2
2008...............9.5
2012...............10.8

Asians
2004...............3.2
2008...............3.4
2012...............3.8

Others
2004...............1.5
2008...............1.5
2012...............1.7

As you can see, the trend is not good for the Republicans (regardless of which source is used). The percentage of minority voters is growing while the percentage of white voters continues to shrink. GOP leaders have seen these numbers, and can read the writing on the wall. That's why they have proposed alter at least some of their policies (like on immigration reform) to reach out to minorities (especially Hispanics, who are the fastest growing demographic group in the United States).

But so far, that is not working out for them. That's because their base voters (especially the racists they invited into their party after the civil rights laws were passed) are not on board with reaching out to minority voters. They still seem to believe they can return to a white's only America, and are opposing any change to the anti-minority and anti-immigrant GOP policies -- and the teabaggers they sent to Congress are taking up that banner for them.

This is good for Democrats. It means it will be easy to keep the coalition they have built in the coming years.

GOP's "Minority Problem" Includes Asians

Nobody expected the GOP to get many African-American votes in the last election -- and they didn't. In fact, African-Americans have been loyal Democratic voters since the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s. And much has been made of how poorly the Republicans did among Hispanics in the last election -- with President Obama getting over 70% of the Hispanic vote (and many other Democrats doing very well with Hispanics).

But African-Americans and Hispanics aren't the only minorities in this country, and the Republicans didn't do very well with any minority group. One of these groups is the Asian-Americans. In 2012, President Obama also got well over 70% of the Asian vote. And a newly released Gallup Poll (conducted between January 2nd and December 30th of 2012 of 338,703 adults nationwide, with 6,465 Asian-Americans being in the survey -- with only a 1 point margin of error) shows this is not a fluke.

The poll showed that 36% of Asian-Americans self-identified as Democrats, while only 17% identified themselves as Republicans (and 46% said they were Independents). But when the Independents were asked whether they leaned toward the Democrats or Republicans, it showed that twice as many Asian-Americans preferred the Democrats over the Republicans. The Democrats had 57%, to only 28% for the Republicans and 13% were truly Independents. And the future does not look any brighter for the GOP, since the preference for Democrats rose to 61% among 18 to 34 year olds.

Here are the party preferences for all the groups (broken down by ages).

ASIAN-AMERICANS

18 to 34
Republican...............24%
Independent...............14%
Democrat...............61%

35 to 54
Republican...............31%
Independent...............14%
Democrat...............52%

55 & over
Republican...............33%
Independent...............9%
Democrat...............55%

HISPANICS

18 to 34
Republican...............24%
Independent...............22%
Democrat...............50%

35 to 54
Republican...............24%
Independent...............20%
Democrat...............50%

55 & over
Republican...............23%
Independent...............13%
Democrat...............59%

AFRICAN-AMERICANS

18 to 34
Republican...............11%
Independent...............12%
Democrat...............75%

35 to 54
Republican...............9%
Independent...............10%
Democrat...............80%

55 & over
Republican...............7%
Independent...............6%
Democrat...............84%

WHITES

18 to 34
Republican...............44%
Independent...............14%
Democrat...............41%

35 to 54
Republican...............53%
Independent...............11%
Democrat...............36%

55 & over
Republican...............51%
Independent...............8%
Democrat...............40%

The Republicans do still have the numerical advantage among Whites, but the percentage of White voters has dropped by about 2% in each of the last few elections -- and the percentage of voters that were minorities has grown. Hispanics are the fastest-growing portion of the population, but the percentages of African-Americans and Asian-Americans are also growing larger. It has now reached the point that minorities can no longer be ignored as a non-factor in an election. All of these groups are a factor in elections now, and will become a bigger factor with each election.

If the Republicans want to remain a viable party in the future, they must reach out to minority voters. And just toning down their rhetoric or picking more ideologically pure right-wing candidates will not do that. They must change or moderate their policies -- something that will be hard to do as long as teabaggers control the party.

Rep. Brown's Racist Remark

In their zeal to cram a Voter ID bill (actually a voter suppression bill) through the Texas Legislature, some members of the Texas House are letting their racist tendencies show. For example, consider the statements made by Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell).

Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese-Americans, was testifying before the House on the problems the proposed bill could cause for many Asian-Americans. He said people of Chinese, Japanese or Korean descent often have ID problems because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name used on Driver's Licenses or school forms. This could interfere with their right to vote if the Voter ID bill is passed.

That's when Rep. Brown piped up and said, "Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese -- I understand it's a rather difficult language -- do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"

Then she later told the witness, "Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with?"

How dare she tell any American to change their name! Who made her the arbiter of what's a good American name and what is not? No American should have to change their name to vote in Texas or any other state, even if racists like Rep. Brown have trouble pronouncing the name.

Her ridiculous remarks have now traveled well outside of Texas and offended people all over the country (in addition to embarrassing her home state). John C. Liu, a NYC councilman, is now demanding an apology from Rep. Brown. He says, "It's outrageous and insulting for you to suggest it would 'behoove' us to adopt another name, to give up our birthright and a part of our own identity, in order to exercise our right to vote."

Brown now says she "probably wasn't speaking just as I should." She has said she will apologize to Mr. Ko "if I offended him." Let me make this clear for Ms. Brown. YES, YOUR STATEMENTS WERE OFFENSIVE! They were not just offensive to Asian-Americans, but to decent Americans of all races and ethnicities.

We should not have to put up with such racist and offensive behavior from an elected official.