National Journal’s Ron Brownstein provided an eye-opening reminder in a column last week about the impact of changing ethnic demographics on America’s political landscape. The flashing red light in his message is a warning for the Republican Party. America is changing inexorably into a country that is less and less white, and the Republican Party remains today a party whose base is overwhelmingly white.

Brownstein estimates that Barack Obama could be re-elected this year with as little as 39 percent of the white vote. He notes that in 2008, when Obama won with just 43 percent of the white vote, it was the first time any winning presidential candidate lost white voters by double digits.