Republican Party: White and Christian

There's a lot of flap and infighting among Democrats about Howard Dean's statement the other day that the R Party is pretty much white and Christian. Democratic politicians are in a tizzy, lambasting Dean in every major media outlet. Why? Because the Democratic Party leadership is comprised almost entirely of craven cowards. Dean is right. The R Party is predominantly white and Christian. By comparison, the Democratic Party is much more diverse. Retro v. Metro has this statistic:

The Republican Party, as represented by its affiliated lawmakers in the state legislatures, is almost 99 percent white, 82.2 percent male, and 1.1 percent minority. By contrast, Democratic state lawmakers are about 80 percent white, 72.6 percent male, and 20.1 percent minority.

According to the Pew Center for the People and the Press, only 7% of African Americans call themselves Republicans, and Hispanics are still more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. The greatest gain for Republicans among Hispanics? Protestant Hispanics who consider themselves evangelicals. Also according to Pew, more white Christians identify themselves as Republicans than as Democrats. That ratio is close to 2:1 among Protestants and greater than 2:1 among evangelicals. Jews, African American Christians, and those professing no religion run Democratic. See this report for more.

According to Paul Begala (link at Liberal Oasis), The only population groups in which majorities say the president is concentrating on issues important to them are Republicans, Evangelical White Protestants, Conservatives and better off Americans.

So where does that leave Dean and the Democrats? He's right. He knows it. They know it. And the American People know it. So Democrats, if you want to remain in the minority for the forseeable future, keep attacking Dean and each other, instead of the Republicans.