Thursday, November 16, 2006
Will Texas Soon Go Blue?!?
Howling Latina headlines the question because it looks like GOPers in Texas are a bunch of idiots.
The New Times reports on their Web site that Texas state legislators are ginning up a slew of anti-immigration bills.
Texas lawmakers prepared for the 2007 session this week by filing a flurry of bills that would deny public assistance and other benefits to the children of illegal immigrants, tax money transfers to Mexico and the rest of Latin America and sue the federal government for the costs of state border control.
At the same time, a Dallas suburb, Farmers Branch, became the first Texas municipality to enact measures fining landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, authorizing the police to seek certification to act on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and declaring English the city’s official language.
Many of the bills are unlikely to become law, but, combined with the Farmers Branch action, they have raised questions about whether Texas, where almost a third of the population was listed as Hispanic in the 2000 census, is about to get caught up in the kinds of legal fights about illegal immigration that have occurred elsewhere.
Howling Latina can only pray that Texas does. Mexican-Americans are a sizeable voting block; and she doesn't reckon they'll much like all this tough, anti-immigration shuck and jive talk.
Texas is not California, is a fair more conservative state. Even considering it´s latino population...
Only the South offers them a safe haven for a while, but I think the South is changing too, first here in Virginia (thank goodness); though it will be slow, over many years, Virginia is gradually becoming a very centrist state. I predict that Texas will follow, for much the same reasons you have already stated; and perhaps trailing trends in Virginia by only 4-7 years.
Iowa has set a new bar for non-politicised redistricting. That is awesome, the more centrist states will be motivated to follow that example soon. So we may see it here soon in a few years. Once that happens, expect the State house and our US Congress representation to more closely match the last few statewide races (dead heat balance between the two partys). Texas will do the same, the growth of cities in Texas will change things and the extra Latin American vote will tip the scales firmly into the centrist column. Compromise will be the name of the game.
Furthurmore I predict it will all happen exactly this way through 2012; when fiscal conservatives regain control of the Republican party from the social conservatives. When that happens, and only when that happens will the Republicans be competitive in the NorthEast, Pacific Coast, Midwest, and Mountain-West again. Sadly, about that time Virginia and Texas will probably slide back into the solidly Republican category again, sigh.
We can hope they fail to figure it out.
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