February 24, 2011 09:23 PM UTC

Latino Alienation: Demographic Disaster Awaits Colorado GOP

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

As the AP reports via the Pueblo Chieftain, new census results released yesterday underscore what we’ve been saying in this space for years–the Republican Party’s anti-immigrant posturing is making them their own worst enemies at the ballot box, and severely undermining their future electoral prospects in Colorado. Don’t believe us?

Hispanics of any race now account for one-fifth of the state’s population, and El Paso County has surpassed Denver as Colorado’s most populous county, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The census shows there are just more than 1 million Hispanics in Colorado. In 2000, there were about 736,000, comprising about 17 percent of the state’s population…

People who did not identify themselves as white on census forms increased in all categories, including blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. People who identify themselves as non-Hispanic whites of a single race still make up the largest population group at 70 percent, but they’re not growing as fast as minorities. The white population is now at about 3.5 million and grew by 9.9 percent since 2000. But the population of Hispanics of any race increased by 41.2 percent since 2000. [Pols emphasis]

So tell us again, skeptical reader, what a great idea it was for Colorado Republicans at every level to abandon their own gubernatorial nominee, and embrace America’s most notorious anti-immigrant demagogue Tom Tancredo as their savior. Tell us again how smart it was for all those Republican legislators to visit Arizona last year, and come back with a slate of unpassable, unconstitutional legislation for our state–whose only effect could be widespread publicity of Colorado Republican efforts to mimic Arizona’s reviled new anti-immigrant laws.

And we are not the only ones who have been saying it. Former Colorado GOP Chairman Bob Martinez, who preceded Dick Wadhams, repeatedly warned his colleagues that continuing down this path would leave them in both a moral and a demographic wasteland. Nobody listened to him.

Well folks, the epic and generational failure of the GOP’s anti-immigrant strategy is looming.