Jane Said:

What are the demographics of the Democratic Party?

We Answered:

Young people (mostly college kids)
Labor union members
African Americans
Hispanics (not Cubans, they vote GOP)
Asians
Non-Orthodox Jews

George Said:

Typically, what are the demographics of the democratic party?

We Answered:

Beliefs:
AGAINST: restricting abortion rights, the Patriot Act
FOR: same-sex marriage; for universal health care; for stem cell research; for the separation of church and state, a higher minimum wage, development of renewable energy, welfare

General:
--Those who have received a college education ("While college-educated professionals were mostly Republican until the 1950s, they now compose perhaps the most vital component of the Democratic Party")
--Professionals and academics ("Liberals include most of academia and large portion of the professional class")
--Those who have attended graduate school, medical school, law school, etc. ("Those with Postgraduate education, have become increasingly Democratic")
--Young people (ages 18-29)
--Those in or involved in labor unions
--African Americans; Hispanics; Asian Americans; Native Americans; Jewish Americans (more than 70% of Jewish voters cast their ballots for the Democrats in the 2004 and 2006 elections); Arabs and Muslims ("Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have leaned Democratic since the Iraq War.[34] Zogby found in June 2007 that 39% of Arab Americans identify as Democrats, 26% as Republicans, and 28% as independents.")

Norman Said:

Can We Review Who Actually Makes Up The Democrat Party Base?

We Answered:

I am not surprised. Those are alot of groups that voted for Kerry, and yet he still didn't win! There's hope for us yet.

Clarence Said:

What can Republicans do to avoid becoming politically irrelevant, as demographics change?

We Answered:

The party will adapt like it always has. Every successive generation is more liberal than the last. Today's conservatives are much more liberal than their predecessors.

Kevin Said:

Interesting thought on the demographics of the Democratic party . . .?

We Answered:

It's a bit more involved than that. And it is easily detectable in the demographics of the delegates who are credentialed for their party convention. In the past five Democratic conventions, over 80% of the delegates have come from government or non-profit organizations. That is in stark contrast to the days when those seated on the convention floor came from the ranks of organized labor unions, blue-collar ethnic groups and small businesses. The convention of 1972 may have been the pivot point. Since then, representation by the traditional constituencies has dwindled.
The same sort of thing has happened to the Republicans. The delegations are now drawn from the ranks of the Christian Falange who started taking over the drafting and production of the party platform in the mid-1980s, gaining strength every four years since then. Even when two of their secular leaders tried to identify the events of September 11, 2001 as divine punishment for America tolerating homosexuals the Falange was not openly denounced and told to find another political haven.
Now you know why I do not belong to either party.

Cassandra Said:

What caused the demographic switch in political parties we see today?

We Answered:

Most of the historians I've read see this as a backlash from the Civil Rights movement. Since the Civil War, Southerners were not able to vote for the Party of Lincoln. There were actually two Democratic parties, one or the Northwest and West Coast, the 'liberal' Democrats, and another for the South, sometimes called 'Dixiecrats'.

But after the Civil Rights laws were passed, the Republicans had a 'Southern Strategy' to win the South by appealing to racism and fundamentalist Christianity.

Starting with Nixon, every Republican presidential candidate had some racist element in his campaign. For Reagan it was the 'welfare queen' who got 100 welfare checks and drove around in a Cadillac to pick them up (she turned out not to exist). For GHW Bush it was Willie Horton.

Many of the issues Republicans hammer on are really just proxies for race. Crime, drugs, welfare, 'inner city' issues, immigration, etc. etc. If you listen to how conservatives talk about these, they are often really talking about race.

Reagan also exploited the abortion issue and other 'family values' issues to appeal to Christians in the South. He built a coalition of -corrupt- Christian leaders (Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc) to convince their flocks that it was their Christian duty to vote for one party over the other.

In the last few years, though, Republicans have realized that the race issue no longer helps them. In many large swing states, the minority population is growing, and Republicans can't win those states without at least a part of the minority vote. So GW Bush backed off on the racial rhetoric.

While the Republican Party actually came into being for the sole purpose of ending slavery, the Republicans have been the party of intolerance for 100 years. Not just racism but EVERY kind of intolerance--anti-immigrant, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, even religious intolerance. Gays are the new enemy because they are still a 'safe' target.