Why The GOP Suppresses Votes In Texas

It may seem rather silly to some that the Republicans are trying to suppress Democratic votes in Texas with either a Voter ID law or by striking voters from the registration rolls. After all, Texas is not a blue state or a swing state. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that Romney will win Texas this November, and statewide Republicans will do very well (unlike a state like Pennsylvania, where the Voter ID law could suppress enough votes to flip the state). So why are the Republicans doing it?

It's not just because they can (although that seems to be the only reason for many things they do). The chart above gives us the reason. The demographics of Texas are changing -- and they are changing fast. Between 2000 and 2010, the state grew by 4.2 million people. About 66% of that growth was due to an increase in the Hispanic population -- and African-Americans made up another 23% of the growth. These two groups accounted for 89% of all the growth in population between 2000 and 2010. That's leaves only 11% of the growth to be accounted for by all other groups, including non-Hispanic Whites, Asians, Pacific Islanders, etc.

And future population growth in Texas is expected to follow the same pattern (and could even be more slanted toward minorities). That means with each passing year the number of Whites as a percentage of the total population will decrease, and at some point in the not-so-distant future, Whites will make up less than half of the population (and continue to decrease). It has already happened in Texas schools (K-12).

This scares the crap out of Republican leaders. It scares them because most minority groups, especially Hispanics and African-Americans, vote heavily Democratic. As the percentage of Whites drops, they will lose more and more electoral contests -- until the state becomes solidly blue. That's why the Republicans are trying so hard to suppress Democratic votes, because they want to prevent this as long as they can -- and if they don't start doing it now, they won't be able to do it pretty soon.

Now they didn't have to do this. They could have chosen to purge their party of the racists, and change their anti-immigrant and anti-minority policies in an effort to appeal to minorities and get their support -- but they didn't do that. They chose instead to try to suppress the minority votes. It was a stupid choice. It might delay the inevitable, but it cannot stop it.