Letter to the Editor: Changing elections
BY John L. Harlan, Tulsa
Friday, November 16, 2012
11/16/12 at 2:28 AM
Following the Nov. 6 election returns in Oklahoma, it is hard to be happy to be a Democrat. President Obama, who has now won two terms in the White House, failed to come even close to winning any county in Oklahoma for the second presidential election in a row.
The state's federal delegation is entirely Republican now and there are no primary or secondary Democrat officeholders on the state level.
Then, I heard conservative columnist George Will lament on election night on network television that it is likely that the election in 2020 will be entirely different from previous elections, and that the rising minority voting groups will result in a huge bloc against the Republican Party, which is primarily white.
The next day I started hearing that Texas may even be considered a battleground state in 2016 as the rising Hispanic population, when combined with the black vote and the significant number of white Democrats, could result in Texas going Democrat.
Oklahoma may end up being an island in this country. But one thing is sure: Unless the Republican Party moderates its views and attracts this rising Hispanic voter group, the Democratic Party will end up dominating the political landscape on the national level and may even make some inroads in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Democrats just need to wait and bide their time.
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