November 17, 2002
HABLA PERMANENT MAJORITY?:
Some GOP victories underscore party's growing appeal to Hispanic voters (RICK MONTGOMERY, Nov. 14, 2002, The Kansas City Star)A few key Republican victories last week suggest to some experts that the party is making headway in its drive to appeal to America's surging Hispanic population -- voters once considered Democratic locks.GOP governors prevailed in Florida and New York, where strong Hispanic support is thought to have helped shape the outcomes. The Colorado race for U.S. Senate went to Republican Wayne Allard, who scored surprisingly well in counties with large Hispanic populations.
Demographic details of voting patterns nationwide remain sketchy because Voter News Service suspended the processing of exit-poll data on election night. Still, political observers say big Republican wins in areas with heavy Latino populations appeared to advance a trend recorded in recent elections.
"This is not about (Republicans) getting the vote out. It's about winning the hearts and minds of people," said Florida pollster Sergio Bendixen, who specializes in taking the Latino pulse. "Being a Democrat, I hate to make the case, but it's true."
Even if, as Steve Sailer has argued, the GOP's gains are illusory, the perception that they are real can become a self-fulfilling prophesy, just by removing the stigma from the Party. So say it loud--the Republicans, we're the Party of Blacks, Jews, and Hispanics and we're proud. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 17, 2002 11:06 AM
As a gringo who lives and works almost entirely among Hispanics, I can assure you this is not illusory. On just about every issue, Latinos are conservative. The only issue that has held Latinos to the Deomcrats is "civil rights"...so long as a Republicans can demonstrate that he's not a racist, he ought to have an easy time getting votes.
Posted by: Livin' La Vida Loca at November 17, 2002 11:51 AMEvery illegal I worked with in Texas had come here to work and make a better life for himself and his family, often back home in Mexico. They believed in the American Dream in a way one wishes the Democrats still did.
Posted by: oj at November 17, 2002 12:00 PMMr. Judd;
I'm not as sanguine as you. I have a friend who grew up in Pecos, Tx., and he had a much different opinion than you on this issue. I think that the problem is that, while the immigrants want to build a better life for themselves, they don't have the cultural background to do so successfully. It's like people who want to pay off their mortgage so they buy lotter tickets. The immigrants tend to see a government of men, not laws (as long as they are the "right men") as the way to a prosperous life, apparently not realizing that that is exactly what they fled. It reminds me of the Californians who flee California and then try to recreate the underlying pathologies in their new communities.
I hate to say it as a libertarian, but I've been changing my immigration stance to "controlled" instead of "open" (but certainly not "closed"). The issue is compounded by the internal failure of culture here, as exemplified by the Clinton era. The USA could absorb larger immigration in the past because it really was "work or starve".
AOG:
But why punish immigrants for our failure to defend our own culture? Why not restore it and welcome them?
Mr. Judd;
Why kill Iraqi citizens now because we failed to oust Saddam in 1991? Sadly, it is the way of the world that innocents suffer from the mistakes of the powerful.
But I'm all for restoring our culture and then welcoming immigrants with open borders.
AOG:
I agree on Iraq--I'd just Predate Saddam.