CS Monitor: Rising Democratic Tide in TX
The Christian Science Monitor discusses the effect of a heated Democratic primary in driving renewed interest in the Democratic Party itself. The visibility of the contest is bringing Texas Democrats back into public life after a long hibernation of assumed irrelevance:
For most of his life Ken Stubbe has voted for Democrats for president. But as a resident of a deeply Republican suburb of Houston, in the heart of Bush country, the retired oil and gas project manager kept quiet.
[...] But the drawn-out fight for the Democratic presidential nomination is driving left-leaning Texans like Mr. Stubbe out of the closet, infusing them with a sense of relevance for the first time in a generation. Ahead of the Texas primary Tuesday, they are wearing buttons, putting up signs, and volunteering, even in GOP redoubts like this well-to-do city southwest of Houston.
Most significantly, as party activists see it, Texas Democrats are emerging from the shadows to vote. Democratic turnout at early-voting stations statewide is nearly four times 2004 levels and is exceeding Republican turnout even in the conservative Dallas and Houston suburbs.
Indeed, the massive Democratic primary turnout has busted all expectations, with ratios exceeding even those of the earlier contests.
Of course, it is probably safe to say many votes are open-primary Republican mischief. But that can’t explain the entire effect — and there is even the possibility those who cross party lines to vote/caucus might reconsider their affiliation in the general elections. Regardless, it’s hard to imagine this bloom in Texas Democrat registrations not translating into a deeper shift in the state political consciousness.
To those paying attention, this fundamental shift in consciousness is a Democratic wave that has been building and is beginning to crest — pushed along by victories in Dallas and Travis counties, and, with any luck, a third sweep this year of Harris County:
Republicans still control every statewide office and the legislature. But in the 2006 elections, Democrats picked up six House seats and ended two decades of GOP dominance in Dallas County. An infusion of donations and staff has put the state Democratic Party back on par with its Republican counterpart. And in Republican Harris County, which includes Houston, a growing Hispanic population, displeasure with the Bush White House, and a scandal involving a local district attorney are raising hopes for a Democratic takeover there in November.
With hard work and some luck, strong party machines in the state’s population centers will provide the power needed to wash away 14 years of Republican dominance.
At the very least, the visibility of the Democratic contest here and the massive turnout will at least reopen the dialogue of where on the spectrum Texans lie. If more people believe the state has a real Democratic party, they’ll vote, they’ll donate, they’ll volunteer. You can’t build a party unless people believe it can succeed. This is the real value of a 50 state strategy. It may take several elections — but we can absolutely turn states Blue. It will take effort to be sure, at least equal to the effort required to turn a state Red, but it can be done. This is why Obama is so inspiring to me, personally, as I believe he embodies this change — the belief that the government is a product of people’s individual efforts collectively. Conservatives like to talk about “pride of ownership” when referencing the anecdotes about “American bootstrapping” in the context of market capitalism. Well, what I want to see out of this primary is the bootstrapping of a new Democratic majority, powered and owned by normal Americans, proud and watchful of their own contributions. If people can believe that government is not some far-away, elite secret club, but rather a product of their own efforts, with each individual a stakeholder, I think powerful things can be accomplished. This is the spirit of “Yes, we can.”
h/t Dr. Marsh
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