Staring at America's future in L.A.
Thursday, May 19, 2005 at 6:18PM ■"Villaraigosa Wins Easily in L.A. Mayoral Runoff" by Amy Argetsinger and Kimberly Edds, Washington Post, 19 May 2005, p. A1.
■"In L.A., a Pol for a Polyglot City," op-ed by Harold Meyerson, Washington Post, 19 May 2005, p. A1.
Meyerson's op-ed on L.A.' s first Hispanic mayor in modern times is interesting, comparing Villaraigosa's rise to that of Fiorello La Guardia in 1933. In his reasoning, La Guardia's victory wasn't just some generalized New Deal push, nor simply a rejection of Tammany Hall-style politics of corruption, but rather a triumph of Italians and Jews against a political system they saw too heavily weighted in favor of the Irish.
Fast forward to this era's version of an immigration boom, and its Hispanics increasingly realize their growing voting power to step up to the gavel in cities seemingly fractured by an ever increasingly diverse mix of cultures.
Here's the rising tide: in the 2000 census, Hispanics accounted for 47 percent of L.A. residents but only 15% of the voters, because so many were noncitizens. By 2005, that percentage of voters rises to 25%! Still not enough to win on its own but enough to get their own up on the stump and fighting with a reasonable chance of stitching together a coalition.
Get used to this phenomenon. As usual, California shows the way.
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