One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State

Maybe it isn't that simple. The Poor Man has some interesting numbers regarding who supported which candidate:

Vote By Race
Total Bush Kerry
White (77%) 58% 41%
Black (11%) 11% 88%
Latino (8%) 44% 53%
Asian (2%) 44% 56%

Latinos and Asian-Americans go to Kerry in roughly the same proportions as whites go for Bush, but African-Americans favor Kerry by about 9 to 1. It isn't immediately clear to me why this should be. It's obviously not a red state/blue state thing - there are large black populations in the solidly red South, and there's white people everywhere.

First, I'd note that African Americans in general don't seem to trust Republicans--and with good reason. Many of the southern GOP'ers are old Dixiecrats. And the rest of the party seems to be letting them call the shots. But I didn't link to the numbers for that reason. Instead, I'm wondering what Bush intends to do.

It's evident to most sentient beings who follow politics that Bush and Rove are as addicted to punishing nonsupporters as they are to laying out sop for their constituency. And Bush made it clear yesterday that he views the election result as an overwhelming mandate--and intends to govern as such, i.e., it's his way or the highway (I'm guessing everyone who wants to read it has, but The Rude Pundit has a few things to say in this regard). So, what does Bush have in store for a large group of people who gave him almost no support?

Let's see--well, there's the possibility that blacks, asians, and/or latinos could find themselves remarkably fit for duty should there be a draft. Hell, economic conditions already account for a relatively high number of "volunteers" in the army being people of color. I also expect a full frontal assault on any vestige of affirmative action and/or quotas/percentages when it comes to things like government contracts. Don't expect any sort of grand plan for revitalizing cities or ensuring quality education at the primary level. And so on.

But, perhaps more than anything else, I expect we'll see Bush going out of his way to insult minorities/people of color/blacks/latinos/however you wish to express [x]. This will take the form of snubbing, say, the Congressional Black Caucus even more egregiously than he did during his first term. I also expect he'll nominate at least one Charles Pickering-type for the Supreme Court (possibly Pickering himself).

While I'm not holding out a lot of hope, there's a possibility that the degree of insults Bush hurls in their direction could potentially cause a backlash. We'll see, I guess.

Note: I was busy this morning dealing with some personal legal stuff--but I also saw that Blogger was bloggered anyway (why am I not surprised?). The legal stuff is done and I should be back at least a few more times today.