The Houston Chronicle reports that Harris County, where Houston is located, is leading the nation in the growth of minority residents.

Check this out: The Census Bureau now estimates there are 1.48 million Hispanics in Harris County, which puts it second behind Los Angeles in Latino population, and about tied with Miami/Dade County for second. A headline to a Chronicle story about all of this says: “Harris County called forerunner of what America is becoming,” i.e. a more diverse and multi-ethnic nation.

“The Texan is becoming an international person, an immigrant,” said Nestor Rodriguez, a professor of immigration and demographic studies at the University of Houston. “They could come from India, from Mexico, from Germany.”

The right-wing Republican guerito types are freaked out about all of this, especially the Mexican part. That’s why the GOP guerito activitsts, the right-wing yakkers, and the immigration restrictionist nut job organizations are frantic in their calls for border walls, raids on workplaces, and overall efforts to deport farm workers, hotel cleaning ladies, landscapers, chicken plant workers, and drywallers - all of whom are obviously national security risks because they speak Spanish and eat pan dulce.

But just think of this: In just a generation, demographic shifts in California, mostly Latino growth,  transformed that state from a solidly Ronald Reagan/God Bless America/GOP haven to a place where Chisme has a better chance of landing a date with Salma Hayek than a Republican has of getting elected in the Golden State. Yea, yea, I know that Arnold The Barbarian is California’s guv, but that dude isn’t really a Republican. He’s married to a Kennedy and he governs the state like one, too.

At the rate Texas is changing, becoming more diverse, a politican like John Cornyn will be toast. Cornyn has been a Republican Party lapdog for all things Bush & Cheney, except, of course, on the immigration issue where spineless Johnny caved to the hard right of his party, of which all despise immigrants and Latinos in general. Cornyn is up for re-election next year, and he looks vulnerable with unfavorable ratings in the 40s. He’ll probably pull it out because right-wing guerito voters will pull him  through this time, but four-to-six years from now, at the rate Texas is changing and the GOP is dissing Hispanics, Cornyn and his like will have considerably more trouble winning statewide races.

America and Texas will be different places in the future. It’s inevitable. But there’s nothing to say it can’t be better. The great American engine of assimilation and opportunity churns on as mighty and powerful as ever. So, in a nutshell: Love America, be ethnic, get educated, annoy a right-winger. No one died and made that crowd king of the world, or this nation, for that matter. 

Post from: The Daily Chisme