THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

As always, what matters in politics is being ignored. That's why they paid me the big bucks.

Part of professional politics is realizing that a black or brown skin means a Democratic vote. You aren't allowed to say that, but the Democratic Party spends many millions each year to get out the minority vote.

They put their money where the bigot's mouth is: a dark skin is a Democrat.

Back in the 1980s, all the media were talking abut "the gender gap." This meant that Republicans were not getting the women's vote.

But people like me, people who got paid for this kind of thing, were noticing one tiny little fact that meant nothing to the media but meant everything to those of us who did this for a living: Republicans were WINNING.

Silly little point, isn't it?

In defense of those of us who did this for a living, let me say that winning elections was what we were all about. So while the media were fascinated by Republican sexual oppression and the Democratic capture of women and minorities, we had a forgivable obsession with the fact that Republicans were winning real elections.

I know it sounds simplistic, but remember we were not paid to be fashionable. Our job was to win elections.

When you said "the gender gap" back then, you meant the women's vote. But professionals like me considered men's votes important, too.

We had this silly idea that there are TWO genders. So it seemed logical that if the Democrats were getting the women's vote and losing, the Republicans must be getting the men's vote and winning.

Silly little point, isn't it?

My silly little mind would say that since the Republicans were losing a lot of the women's vote and still winning, and since there are only two genders out there, the Democrats had an even bigger gender gap on the male side.

A political science professor announced to the graduate class I was in -- I went back to school briefly in 1992 -- that a male gender gap is not a gender gap. Only a female gender gap is a gender gap.

If this sounds stupid to you, remember the fact that nobody but me has noticed the growing RACE gap today.

Brown skins are increasing at a breathless pace. But Republicans have the Presidency and a majority of both Houses of Congress.

Back when whites were a solid and overwhelming majority of the population, Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress.

As brown skins increase, the Democrats are piling up automatic votes. Everybody notices that.

But somebody like me notices that there are TWO groups involved here. There are not just minorities, there are also whites.

All I read on Stormfront is pointing frantically at the growing minority vote. Nobody ever seems to notice what is happening to the white vote.

While everybody else is busy panicking, I quietly note that the white vote is moving steadily to the right. This steady movement is under way, and it shows no sign of retreating.

Whites are ceasing to feel guilty about being on the other side from the minorities.

Whites are getting really angry. They are beginning to see that there is more at stake here than polite disagreement.

Well, DUHH, you say. But if you have been watching this for fifty years, this is a breakthrough.

I thought that whites would never even BEGIN to catch on. But their opinions are finally moving.

So can't we all cry and wail over the increasing non-white population?

I was raised where whites were a minority, but they were hard right.

We ruled.

No multiracial society is ever a democracy. So when we move right, and if we are hard right, we will become the ruling group.

Sorry if that doesn't sound depressing enough.

OK, you can now go back to panicking. I just thought I might mention this.