We are headed for major trouble in these United States.  Realistically speaking, the knight on the proverbial white horse who will ride to our rescue is apt to speak Spanish or Vietnamese or, perhaps, Polish.  An infusion of young, Immigrant citizens (workers to be blunt) are what stands between America and a very bleak future, so we had better get used to the idea of welcoming newcomers to our shores who share our values, work ethic and aspirations.  Concurrently, we should also enact, on a crash basis, policies geared to stimulate steady, long-term economic growth as our highest national priority.  The Fed alternately slamming its foot on the brake and then on the accelerator must give way to sensible growth-driven policies that encourage investment, work and entrepreneurship.

There has always been a “them” and “us” faction in America seeking to batten down the hatches and bar the door to immigrants seeking a better life, or to make that doorway as narrow as possible. We’ve even passed legislation in years past to bar certain ethnicities from our shores such as the racist Chinese Exclusionary Act that was in effect for over sixty years.  The attractiveness of campaigns laced with America for the Americans rhetoric has long appealed to politicians who look no further than the next election cycle.  A little xenophobia mixed with a dash of demagoguery has secured more than one election in America.

Fortunately, America, more than any other nation, still has the world’s best track record for integrating varied cultural and religious ethnicities into the fabric of the land and America has reaped enormous rewards in the process.  Immigration has largely fueled the engine of our growth for most of our history.  And that is a lesson the moral of which has never been more important to understand than it is today.  Here’s why.

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New Census data shows the continued trend that the United States is becoming a nation increasingly less white.

According to this latest report, 48.6% of children born in the U.S. between July 2008 and July 2009 were “non-white minorities.” That’s up two percentage points from two years earlier, and soon the figure will cross the 50% mark.

The largest growth demographic is Hispanics, who accounted for almost 55% of our population growth. And, most of this growth – two thirds – came from births, not from immigration.

Aside from the knowledge that the country is becoming more colorful, an obvious thing we’ve got to be thinking about is what this means politically. Given that Democrats have been getting the majority of Hispanic and black votes – the two largest minorities – the straightforward conclusion appears to be that demographic trends favor the Democrat Party.

In the 2008 elections, white voters, for the first time ever, accounted for less than 75% of the total vote. It’s been noted that if each ethnic group voted as it did in 2008, but made of up the same percentage of the electorate as it did 20 years ago, John McCain would be our president today.

Clearly, demographic realities present real challenges to the Republican Party and the values that it is supposed to be championing – limited government and free markets.

Most recent polling from Gallup shows Hispanics generically favoring Democrats over Republicans by 2 to 1.

Republicans have got to make headway with this population.

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It’s just so amazing how the Progressive Left is the champion of minorities and the elderly. Champions that is, so long as those demographics don’t dare dissent from the rigid party ideology. If any among the members of these otherwise protected groups are struck by an independent thought, they become targets for derision from the enlightened progressive movement.

Case in point: Condoleezza Rice being labeled an Uncle Tom (or worse).
Case in point: Sarah Palin being labeled stupid.

Both of these labels are inventions and slurs of the Left, reserved for anyone who strays from the Progressive reservation.

Another case in point is the Left’s rumblings over the older demographic on display at the Tea Party Convention last weekend.

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“Ever since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform in 1912, seven presidents — Democrats and Republicans alike — have taken up the cause of reform time and time again,” President Obama said in a statement hailing the Christmas Eve Senate vote to take over 1/6 of the nation’s economy.  “Such efforts have been blocked by special-interests lobbyists who have perpetrated the status quo that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people.”

Note the date of TR’s “calling” for reform. It’s 1912.  Nationalized health care was part of the platform of the Progressive Party that year and every year thereafter. Americans are more familiar with the name Theodore himself gave to that third party bid. After being shot by a would-be assassin in Milwaukee, TR said it takes more than a single bullet to stop a Bull Moose. Instantly, the colorful sobriquet was applied to the Progressive Party.

What did Theodore himself think of his new-found allies, the Progressives? He was sincerely committed to reform. And he certainly thought he had been cheated out of the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1912. After all, he had won all the state party primaries in the limited number of states that held them. But TR also recognized that some of his Progressive supporters went over the top. For them, he coined the wonderful phrase, “the lunatic fringe.”

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