Free Speech Tv Ring of Fire Featuring Howard Nations - South a ticking time bomb for gop

MIKE PAPANTONIO: For decades, Republicans have been able to count on southern votes all the time. But shifting demographics shows the Republicans are losing their grip in the south. I have attorney Howard Nations with me now to talk about that. Howard, there are a lot of political pundits paying attention to this concept of the end of the solid south. What are the big factors, as you see, that might be turning around the political landscape of the south? HOWARD NATIONS: Well, the big factors in turning around the political landscape are two. One is the Latino population increase, the under 30s. The other is the African re-migration. What's happening here, now those two factors are gonna take the remainder of this decade and turn the southern -- the south into the biggest battleground in the country. The reason is because the under-30 voters are very heavily democratic, at this point in time. And if the Democrats don't find a way to mess it up [laughter], it will--it's kind of a built-in advantage with the re-migration, with the Latin population. MIKE: Well, they usually do find a way to mess it up, Howard [laughter], but with this, if just the -- you're saying just the force of nature of what we see occurring. One thing to point out, you know, the Cuban vote, for example, in South Florida has hugely been conservative in the past. The Batista Cubans came to the U.S. They were hugely conservative. Batista, of course-- HOWARD: Right. MIKE: Was a fascist. These people were landowners, the initial wave of Cuban migration. That has changed. And now even from a Latino standpoint, isn't there a question as to whether or not the Republicans can even hang onto that solid little -- you know, that solid group of voters? HOWARD: Well, there's very good indication that they will not hang onto that group of voters. Take Texas, for example, the Hispanic population in Texas. In 2010, 49% of the newborns in Texas are Hispanic. Thirty-eight percent -- here's the bad news. Thirty-eight percent of the Texas population in 2010 was Hispanic. The problem is only 16% of the eligible voters came to the polls among the Hispanic community. It's even worse for the runoffs. The good news is for the Democrats that the young Hispanics are more liberal than either the Republicans or the Democrats. In the exit poll, they showed 59% are in favor of same-sex marriage, as opposed to the general population, 48%. Sixty-six percent favor legal abortion, as opposed to 59% of the general population. And if 55% are negative on capitalism, they want public school spending, they want universal healthcare, and taxes, increase taxes, that's fine because that means more social services. And it's the same for the under-30 African Americans and Asian communities. MIKE: Well, Howard, talk about the re-migration. That's an interesting concept that people have missed. In about three minutes, lay that out for us, would you? HOWARD: Okay. The great re-migration -- before 1960, 7,000,000 African Americans left the south to go north. In the last decade, 75% of growth in the African American community has occurred in the south. Atlanta's a good example. In the last decade, Atlanta added 410,000 increase in the African American so that today in Georgia, only 52% of the population under the age of 18 are white. That's very scary for the Republican Party. MIKE: Well, their adjustment, obviously, we've talked about it so many times, has been gerrymandering. And Howard Dean, when he was screaming to take control of the states again, nobody listened to him. But this is kind of--by 2010, I don't know--I'm not really sure how--you'd almost have to change--entirely change the face of the Republican Party to do anything about this, wouldn't you? What kind of steps are they taking to kind of ward off the inevitable? HOWARD: Well, in 2010, they were very fortunate because they were on the precipice. But they managed to get a very big win in 2010, which was so important because that allowed them to redistrict the legislatures in the south. And they just -- the gerrymandering was just unbelievable. So the advantage they have now is they've gerrymandered districts all over the south. They've participated, as we've seen, very heavily in voter suppression because they have to keep these young voters away from the polls. And they are also engaged in attacking the unions. They got control of the secretaries of state positions in most states, and they were able to manipulate elections. And the big thing now that is pending is what the Supreme Court of the United States is going to do with the Voting Rights Act. If the Supreme Court overrules the Voting Rights Act now, as applied to the south, they're gonna have a field day with their voter suppression. MIKE: Well, the voter suppression HOWARD: In fact MIKE: Howard, you'd agree, would have to be completely more evident. It would have to be--I mean, it's evident now if you're paying attention, but it would have to be wholly evident to anybody who's just mildly interested in the topic. But let me just ask you this. I heard you talk one time about the numbers of electoral votes. I think the numbers--if all five states in this big re-migration takes place, if you have all five of the big states that could be affected by re-migration takes place, you're gonna have something like 110 electoral votes to about 50. Some really odd numbers-- HOWARD: Right. MIKE: Like this. I don't see how they overcome that. I don't see how the Republicans HOWARD: I don't either. MIKE: Overcome that. HOWARD: And they have a basic problem because the Tea Party is moving the south further to the right while the under 30s are moving further to the left. So if--with that happening--and the big key is getting the under 30s out to vote, and particularly the Hispanic community. If the under 30s come out, if the Hispanics come out, then you'll start winning the south for the Democrats again. And that great electoral vote will shift and can shift to as much as leaving the Republicans with 50 electoral votes in the south, which would be just deadly for the Republican Party. MIKE: That would be it. Howard Nations, thank you for joining me. We're gonna be watching this as it develops over the next few years. You can almost map it out and see it happening before our eyes. Thank you for joining me. HOWARD: Thank you, Mike.