Antiochus wrote:Still really early for one of those...
I love it!
Honestly, for now, what strikes me is that Hilary Clinton could be making the same mistake as in 2007-2008, as in she seems to be building up a political machine rather than a political message. While she can still turn this around, she can still get outflanked by a charismatic democratic candidate with a stronger grip on a theme.
On the conservative side, its still a complete melee. For know, what scares me is inability of the party to rein in its political base toward the center. Its an old song, I know, but it becomes dire as the latino vote takes importance in the south. On the long run, it might threaten the GOP's dominance in Arizona and Texas, two states that are vital to its electoral prospects.
Its an especially sad thing for conservatives, since the latino electorate could be won over. Catholic and culturally conservative, many latino voters are not as impermeable to republican ideas as one would think. But the inability of the GOP base to moderate its positions on immigration and a few other social issues ensures that the democratic lead with this (growing) electorate grows.
Antiochus, I think this is pretty much right.
The problem is that Latin@s tend to be economically-populist and socially-conservative (in a manner very close to my own views), and don't really fit into either of the holes of our two-party system. Until now the Democrats could count on them seeing the sense in economic principles which directly benefitted them and their families, but as Hispanic voters grow in number and in political legitimacy, I think you're likely to find either that the Republicans do an about-turn on their post-Tea Party libertarian drift, or that certain Democratic legislators will begin doing more than talking the pro-life talk.
We'll see where it goes. On the other hand, it's just as likely that the children of Latin@ immigrants are likely to assimilate to America's political pathologies...
dan99990 wrote:I was waiting for someone to start this thread. I'm not prepared to make any predictions, but I must say that part of me is looking forward to the impending culture wars.

I'd like to say that the 'culture wars' are soooooo 1992, but really I'd be lying.
I think you're likely to see culture-war issues integrating with more bread-and-butter policy-tweaking in some counterintuitive ways, but I've been wrong about this sort of thing before. And disappointed.