The Booman Returns!

++Readers of this blog will recall I have often referred to the "Booman" of the Booman Tribune website for his sardonic comments on our political scene.

++I miss Ed Kilgore and Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly but WP redeems itself partially by gaining the Booman--real name Martin Longman--as a regular blogger.

++In case you wonder why the GOP has become so overtly racist this past year,Martin Longman has an excellent analytical article "Why the GOP Has Grown So Hostile." It's the math stupid.

++You remember the GOP autopsy in 2012 which said they needed greater outreach to Hispanics and minorities and also women. Of course none of that came true for obvious reasons that their base didn't want it to.

++So what's a poor party to do but double-down on their white. The Gop figures they will double their African-American vote simply because Barack Obama isn't running. So that's 12% of the black vote.If they can gain 20% of the Hispanic Vote--Romney did 26%--then they have to maintain their white voters. Republicans the last four elections have received 59% of whites.

++As Longman writes,it is easier to gain from groups that don't support you than to add from those who already do. The GOP, as insurance, feels it needs to pump up the White vote from 59% to 64%. 

++Longman notes that nearly 7 in 10 White Christians identify with the GOP. The religion gap has grown. 84% of Republicans identify as Christians, while with white Democrats only 57% identify as Christians. 

++Not in Longman's article is that for the first time in our history white Christians represent only 40% of the population. Which accounts for the efforts among the Republican candidates to try and milk the Religious Right, a dying breed with clout.

++Longman points out the long history of the Southern Strategy but with the Donald it has gone national. 

++It's too bad that "Booman" has to go serious and not be the wisecracker of old. But read the article. 

++The "late" Ed Kilgore wrote extensively about the emphasis on the White by modern GOP strategists. Trende and others posited that the demographic crisis faced by the GOP was not a death knell but an opportunity. Kilgore had argued that by-elections favored the GOP base but the general would not favor this strategy. Longman's article makes you pause because it's not so far fetched, especially if you have voter suppression in place.