The Changing Voter Demographics

On the way home from work last Saturday I listened to the Tavis Smiley radio show.  I've never listened to his radio show before, but I do listen to WCLK, the 'jazz of the city' and Tavis Smiley was on WCLK, not my jazz music.  So, I listened. 

Mr. Smiley was interviewing Jorge Ramos, who anchors for Univision.  Mr. Ramos spoke on the Latino vote in the recent election; what Romney did wrong, what Obama did wrong, but ultimately what Obama did right to get the Latino vote. He shed an interesting light on the Latino vote, like the fact that they are a growing percentage of the voting population.  

This brings to mind Bill O'Reilly's inaccurate comment on Fox news the night of the election, that the "white establishment is now the minority".  If by "white establishment" we are to interpret that Mr. O'Reilly simply means white people, then, in fact, Pew Hispanic shows that 72% of voters remain white with 28% of voters being minority. The Brookings Institute shows similarly that 71% of voters remain white with 29% being minority.  

However, Pew Hispanic does show that minority populations as a whole are growing faster than the white population.  And, as Mr. Ramos pointed out, eligible Latino voters are increasing. 

And I'm not even beginning to touch on the subject of gender when it comes to voting. 

The great melting pot of America, the United States, moves on; it grows, it morphs, it changes.  It is organic because it has life - people.  

It will be interesting to see how we adapt to the changes in our population.