So I have a friend – a longtime Democratic liberal stalwart – who announced to me over lunch that he intends to vote Republican in November.  I was stunned.  His decision upends his long work record and rings totally out of character.  You are going against the flow of history, I reminded him gently.  A surge in the HispanicLatino community seems to be building in favor of President Obama and the Democratic ticket.

I am just tired of white liberals, he rejoined.  I have never felt comfortable around them but now I am done with them.

I am done with them.  It is a phrase I am hearing more and more these days as the evolving internecine redistricting wars pit old friends and allies against each other.  From New York to Texas to California, redistricting has brought out the worst in human beings.  It always does but the stakes are higher as each passing day makes the HispanicLatino population more important politically and electorally.  The phrase also emanates from HispanicLatinos outraged at the Obama Administration’s lack of interest in their community and the range and scope of the deportation policies that have caused havoc within many families – legal and illegal alike.

My friend’s particular beef with the Democratic Party has been the willingness of white liberals – almost at every turn – to sacrifice the interests of HispanicLatinos on behalf of themselves and other constituencies.

I am left wondering how many times across the nation this is happening at the local level – from which all politics spring, as we know from Tip O’Neill.  On the demographic verge of creating perhaps a platform for long-term progressive reform with the HispanicLatino population as one of its pillars, white liberals might not realize what they are risking:  Pushing HispanicLatinos in the direction of a Republican Party that if the polls are correct will have to change its tune after the election in November, or, if they are wise, before the election.

Throughout history, groups have had to accommodate each other.  The Irish, Italians, the Poles – all had to elbow their way and establish themselves within an ever-evolving American society.  The current upsurge of the HispanicLatino population is historic in its size and proportions and it will swing elections left – and right if while liberals are not careful.  Already, many things in the Democratic confederation of allies, groups and causes make many HispanicLatinos uneasy.  The idea is to continue to bring them into the progressive fold and hopefully have them take on the liberal-progressive mantle that does not fit easily upon their brow.

But across the nation, white liberals and other constituencies are leaving many disenchanted HispanicLatino in their wake.  Gays, women, blacks, unions – all have to understand that the HispanicLatino demographic push will cause them to have to accommodate the reality of the times.  Political circumstances, egos, the relative effectiveness of leaders are different from locality to locality.  But an essential problem that those in the progressive tent do not appreciate is that no national leadership exists that can move the HispanicLatino community in one direction or another. On the contrary, it is an amorphous mass that could easily end up on the GOP side of the equation with the right approach.

My friend’s adamant defection is a warning shot that might cause him at some point to attend a wake instead of being left aside by one.

Feel free to forward these blogs adapted from previous writings, with additional thoughts published invariably in between.