"The polling firm Latino Decisions noted in 2011 that more than 70 percent of blacks, Latinos and Asians believe that government has gotten bigger because the problems facing the country have grown bigger, rather than because government has gotten involved in issues in which it shouldn’t be engaged.The data on attitudes among Latinos and Asians must particularly gall conservatives. Republicans have argued for years that Latinos should be naturally attracted to their tax and regulatory policies because of the high number of small-business owners among them. Republicans have also noted that, while there are differences among various groups, Asians on the whole have the highest average educational level and median household income of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, including whites.
In the simplistic conservative view of the world, Latinos’ and Asians’ self-interest and material success mean that they should hate taxes and despise big government. But most Latinos and Asians do not despise government or desire more libertarian economic policies. This poses political challenges for the GOP.
With Republicans’ traditional base of white voters declining as a share of the electorate, who exactly are conservatives hoping to bring in to support their supply-side tax policies and budget cuts? Although Americans may dislike government spending in the abstract, there is little evidence that a vision of limited government can win a majority of the changing electorate.
The millennial generation’s views are the other big driver of change. Members of this generation, who are on track to count for almost two of every five eligible voters by the 2020 election, have a positive take on government’s potential role. In the 2012 exit poll, 59 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said government should be doing more to solve problems. Just 37 percent thought government was doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals. These voters are America’s future, and they will change our national conversation about government dramatically in the coming years.
To conservatives’ discomfort, changes in attitudes about government cannot be finessed by softer words on immigration and same-sex marriage. Likewise, new leaders or better outreach and technology will not solve their problems with these rising voters. Perhaps that is why conservatives are being so adamant and extreme about cutting government: Tomorrow’s political terrain is likely to be less congenial to their anti-government fervor, and they want to accomplish what they can before the tide turns.
washingtonpost.com |
