What’s a Non-White Voter Anyway?

Lumping together every person not of wholly European ancestry into one group is not particularly edifying.

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John F. Kennedy, making a speech. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

The Last Hurrah was a very fine movie, made by John Ford in 1958 and starring Spencer Tracy. It is based on an even finer book by Edwin O’Connor, which had been a boffo bestseller two years prior.

They tell the story of Frank Skeffington, the mayor of a never-named big city in the Northeast. O’Connor keenly, wistfully tells the story of how an old campaigner, already an astonishing 72 years of age, makes one last stand against the encroachments of televised, college-educated, professionalized politics.

Skeffington is unmistakably based on Boston political boss James Curley, who lost his bid for a fifth term as mayor in 1949. Omitted, of course, is the part about how Curley spent part of his fourth term in prison for yet another episode of brazen corruption. Or how a deeply indebted Curley had returned to City Hall for that term after leaving a seat in Congress, probably at the urging and compensation of Joe Kennedy, who wanted the spot for his war-hero son, Jack.* Or how Curley had won the House seat in the first place by smearing his opponent as a communist sympathizer.

Curley was a culture war populist who derived his power from a combination of public works projects, brutal corruption, and by delighting working-class Boston with theatrical affronts to the already-toppled WASP establishment.

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  1. Charles Holmes

    I am trying to figure out why the Republican Party is wanting to shoot itself in the foot. I am referring to the story mentioning that the RNC is closing the minority outreach centers. I have suggested for years that most "minorities" would vote Republican if they ever made the effort. They tend to have the conservative values the Republicans give lip service. Many own small businesses, most have strong family values, they instill in their children a desire to succeed, many still go to church, they have no desire to pay taxes to name a few, yet what happens come election time. Republicans have been saying we need to bring more minorities to the Republican party, yet election after election cycle they drop the ball. Democrats for far too long have failed minorities in this country yet they did the outreach to get their votes. Their support may be waning, but the Republicans just cannot seem to accept that they need more than the country club votes to win nowadays. (well the country club vote is fading due to Trumpism) I know for many minorities the frustration with the Democratic party would start to send them to the Republicans, yet the Republicans cannot get it through their head that they need to be a true conservative party and welcome all conservatives and win regularly. Instead Republicans chose and are choosing to not be a real conservative party, but the only us in the club party.
    We seriously need new major parties in this country.
    And I used the us in the club reference instead of saying whites only because there are still a broad white conservative coalition that does know the value of true conservatism and would welcome all to help achieve those goals and better conservative policy.

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  2. Nick Pellicciotto

    If Britt is so great, why is she licking Trump’s boots?

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    Scarlette Tarte

    Bbbbut, but, but - I am told all the time by the right that "Latinos don't assimilate!"

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  4. Matt D.

    Sir, I believe you have the power to make the cutline winner a HOF nominee.

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    Rajeev

    No matter how vile Katie Britt was in misrepresenting and exploiting a victim of sex trafficking & no matter how bad her speech looked, she is nowhere near as incompetent or horrific as Sarah Palin.

    Britt won’t likely be a force in National Republican politics but she will still have a chance to actually do things in the Senate. She may go full Marsha Blackburn level Qanon crazy but maybe now that her VP chances are zero she will revert to being a senator of integrity as she was perceived to be prior to the speech.

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    O.W.L.

    We live smack in the middle of a region that is still quite agricultural, so the population has a lot of people whose ancestors were from Mexico, or who are from Mexico. The generational progression is almost exactly like that of the Italian immigration wave that started in the late 19th century. Our valley had a lot of Italian immigrants that worked on the big wheat farms. The second generation tended to be small farmers growing produce and who planted vineyards—the basis for the region’s wine industry that is slowly replacing the wheat farms. I grew up with a lot of kids whose grandfathers didn’t really speak English that well, but except for being Catholic and having Italian surnames, were typical ‘50’s kids. Their kids are about as likely to be Catholic as a random person on the street—-lots of nones and if they are churchgoers, nondenominational Protestants, so we are down to the surname as the last remaining characteristic.

    I am seeing the same progression with the Mexican families in town. The immigrants used to almost always do farm work, but now they are likely to be doing construction or starting a small business—Mexican immigrants today usually know English and have a basic education. If their kids stay in agriculture, it’s something like irrigation technology or another certification that they get at a local community college. The second generation is finishing high school and many attend local colleges, focusing on education, health care, and other practical degrees.

    What gets overlooked a lot is the role of religion in assimilation (and probably on the political migration to the GOP). Mexican immigrants are increasingly finding nondenominational Protestant churches to be welcoming. It doesn’t help that the local Catholic diocese has lost its mind and is actively alienating its flock.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      Many protestant congregations are hiring Spanish speaking clergy, running services in Spanish. You'd be surprised how welcoming that feels to a new congregant, that people speak your language!

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    Why are Hispanics migrating to the Republicans? "White Hispanic" labels, not meant as a compliment.

    When you insult an ethnic group, don't be surprised if they are insulted, and act accordingly.

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    1. Dougrhon

      I think they are migrating because they see the Democratic party as representing a bunch of crazy over educated white radicals to the exclusion of the interests of everybody else.

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  8. Rational

    The treatment of Hispanics in the US is really ridiculous. It is a concept that is wholly alien to people who actually live in Latin America. The idea that Cubans and Peruvians are racially or ethnically similar would seem a little absurd to them. It is an artificial concept that was created by the US government and that persists largely at its insistence. I remember when my wife and I went for a marriage license. She is from Mexico. The local county insisted that she fill out a form that said if she was Hispanic she was not “white.” She did not agree. Then when you got to “Hispanic” it made you fill out what kind of Hispanic you were. Among the answers was “Spanish.” She looked at me and asked if people here were really so stupid that they did not understand that Basques, say, were white. Now my daughter, who speaks Spanish fluently and is a Mexican citizen, goes around with a very Waspy sounding name. The idea that all the Hispanics in the US see themselves as part of some non-white voting coalition required to vote for the Democrats is absurd.

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    Earl King

    In my life as advertising executive I looked at studies populations and their habits, behaviors etc.
    The trend we saw was clearly an increase in the numbers of silos. Later we were looking at multi ethnic populations. That number is growing exponentially. Blacks marrying whites, asians marrying blacks, hispanics marrying all sorts. We are and are becoming a polyglot of racial stew. In 2019 for the first time more babies of color were born than traditional whites. There are a total of 18 states that either are majority minority or will soon be so. In another 20 to 30 years the concept of majority race will become somewhat obsolete. Hispanic will likely be the number one ethnic group or close to it. The diversity among Hispanics is super large. You can Cubans in FL, Tejano's in Texas, Caribbean hispanics, and traditional central American hispanics. Go to Mexico City, you’ll some that look like they descended from the Aztecs or Mayans. Turn on TV and you’ll more likely be looking at people you’d see on TV in Spain. Lots of blonds. What is happening to Democrats is that men in particular are not buying their brand of “woke”. Women, because of what Democrats represent, are still voting Democrat. Democrats are losing men.

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    The Bell Tower

    Edification is not the point. Weaponization is the point. The purpose of “white” as a distinction is to make minorities feel alienated and different so that they will vote for Democrats. It’s not working as well as expected and so there is panic. Unfortunately, the beneficiary is arguably a bigger jabroni than the perpetrators of these leftist narratives: Donald J Trump.

    Shoot me.

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