The New Population's Here!
The latest census stats are in.
The five fastest-growing states percentage-wise are Utah, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and Colorado. The five fastest-growing states by raw numbers are Texas, California, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
I suppose this is good news for Republicans (who need it), though, of course, it depends what kind of voters these new people are, even if they live in conservative states. In addition, the liberal northeast is rebounding from declining stats.
And the biggest loser is my home state of Michigan. This trend will probably continue for a while with economic problems there, if anything, getting worse. But then, Detroit's loss of citizens has been one of the most impressive demographic trends for the past 50 years.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:15 AM
2 Comments:
The demographic shifts might be good for the republicans in the next few cycles but it remains to be seen what the next generation thinks. Obama did well in some traditionally rock-ribbed republican areas- for racial and process reasons in some cases but could be indicative that the divisions of the past may not be the divisions of the future. While there doesn't appear a realignment in the narrow traditional sense of some demographic group moving from one political organization to another, but maybe one in a broader sense in which the population re-factionalizes over different issues (in which the current parties may or may not play a role) and current monikers like Lib and Con become increasingly irrelevant.
The downfall of Detroit symbolizes the end of the continuing usefulness of a lot of core lefty and righty beliefs.
If anyone is looking, Colorado is rapidly losing its "Republican bastion" reputation. 4 years ago, the legislature went fully Democrat for the first time in like 6 decades. We have a Democrat Governor (though that is not so unusual), and 5 of out 7 national House seats are now Democrat. The party has been seriously injured by poor management, and the influx of many Democrat voters. I'm one of the rare Republican immigrants, but I'm canceled out by my wife.
On the positive side (from my pov), Colorado Democrats are far less left leaning than say New England Democrats. Also, decades of Republican control have left in place government controls that will be very hard to overcome or undo. This past election the populous refused a referendum to declaw the "Tabor Amendment," which prohibits our state and local governments from spending more than they spent the previous year (except for an increase in line with increased population and inflation). It's one reason why the current recession is not hitting Colorado as deeply as it is in states liek California.
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