Source:Yahoo News– Governor Rick Perry (Republican, Texas)

“With Mitch Daniels officially out of the race, Haley Barbour and Mike Huckabee now a distant after-thought, and Newt Gingrich’s campaign running on fumes, pundits of all political stripes are finding it hard to shake a persistent belief that there’s a gaping hole in the Republican presidential field. Indeed, the most frequent theme that keeps cropping up in smart analysis of the current state of play is that the contest cries out for a late-entering, credible southern candidate. The figure most often pointed to is Texas Governor Rick Perry, on the grounds that, well, southerners are especially inclined to vote for southerners, and no matter who wins Iowa or Nevada or New Hampshire, the real deal may go down in Dixie.”

Read the rest at The Democratic Strategist

With changing demographics in America, where we are moving towards becoming a majority-minority country both racially and ethnically and with the Republican Party so dependent on Anglo-Saxon-Protestant-Southern, rural voters just to be competitive in American Politics, how will the modern Party of Dixie  remain competitive as a major political party in America, if they don’t expand its base?

2008 was in a lot of ways an incredible presidential election, it made history in multiple ways, nut in one way it was incredible, is that Democrats won in areas and in states that Republicans have traditionally won and have to win the last 30-40 years. Candidate Barack Obama won North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Ohio. Republicans can’t lose theses states and hope to win the presidency or win or keep a majority in the House.

The problem is the GOP is so dependent on Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Southern, rural voters, while everyone else in the country votes Democratic generally and the Party of Dixie only wins Anglo voters by a little more than half, because they haven’t reached out to other voters like racial minorities.

“The Party of Lincoln” on a good year wins 10% of the African-American Vote, because Conservatives have fought against civil rights in the past and now. And the Conservative Democrats that fought against civil rights in the 1950s-60s, are today Republicans.

The party where Ronald Reagan said that immigrants are welcome to America, can only count on 25-30% of the Asian and Latin-American vote. Even though these voters tend to be conservative on cultural and fiscal issues. Now the GOP with their Christian and Neo- Confederate allies have set their sites on gays and muslims, so now they turned another faction of the voting base against them.

For the Party of Dixie to remain a major political party in the future in American politics, they are going to have to expand their base to different voters in different parts of the country. Or risk becoming a Far-Right-Neo-Confederate party. America needs to have at least two strong political parties and the Democratic Party frankly needs competition. One-party democracy is almost a contradiction.

The case for Governor Rick Perry not just running for President, but winning the Republican presidential nomination, is that the can win in the New America and win New American voters. He’s always done very well with Latin-Americans in Texas, where Republicans have to win in order to win statewide in Texas, because he appeals to them economically and believes in comprehensive immigration reform. While sticking with his Conservative-Republican credentials on fiscal and economic policy. And perhaps Governor Perry represents the future of a new Republican Party that once again can win nationally.