Or, why the GOP really is hosed:

Consider some of the components of the new demography. Between 1988 and 2008, the minority share of voters in presidential elections has risen by 11 percentage points, while the share of increasingly progressive white college graduate voters has risen by four points. But the share of white-working class voters, who have remained conservative in their orientation, has plummeted by 15 points.

That’s a repeated pattern–state after state–helping send them in a progressive direction. In Pennsylvania, for example, the white working class declined by 25 points between 1988 and 2008, while white college graduates rose by 16 points and minorities by eight points. And in Nevada, the white working class is down 24 points over the time period, while minority voters are up an amazing 19 points and white college graduates by 4 points.

These trends will continue. The United States will be majority-minority by 2042. By 2050, the country will be 54 percent minority as Hispanics double from 15 percent to 30 percent of the population, Asians increase from 5 percent to 9 percent and African Americans move from 14 percent to 15 percent.

Emphasis addded. I kid (well, it’s mostly kidding) about the angry balding white conservative, but the point is that this is a very real demographic - but one that is shrinking in terms of the overall demographic make-up of the country.

No matter how OUTRAGED! the white working-class Rush-is-Right types are - they are increasingly outnumbered. They know it, of course; but they don’t appear to be doing anything about it. I suspect that’s because they’re incapable of doing anything about it; they are en thrall to identity politics.

Was there a single non-white person among the 1,000 conservatives who held the “tea party” in Harrisburg last weekend? This photo comes from there:

Now - what does illegal immigration have to do with Obama’s spending plan? But illegal immigration is one of the chief concerns of the working class whites who make up the bulk of the Rush-is-Right crowd. There’s a legitimate economic argument against illegal immigration, which in any case is against the law. But there’s also an anti-Latino argument against illegal immigration, and many Latinos themselves suspect this influences the debate.

I wonder why they suspect this. Could it be that anti-”illeagal” arguments are almost always, exclusively, made by the balding white guys?

Signs like this - people like this - identity politics like this are never going to attract the ethnically diverse, young voters that the Republican Party needs if it’s ever again going to be anything more than a permanent minority. You can be as outraged as you like - but all that outrage doesn’t, and can’t, stop the fact that the country has changed. You either change with it - or you get left behind.