July 27, 2011 06:52 PM UTC

Bailando con El Diablo? Why Latinos Know Better

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Much has been made of the new TV spot from Karl Rove’s famously well-funded “Super PAC,” Crossroads GPS aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences (above). Though only a token buy of about $150,000 compared to Crossroads’ massive $20 million summer ad campaign, it’s received disproportionate news coverage to its size–and prompted the DNC to release a Spanish ad defending President Barack Obama in response.

This takes place against the backdrop of stories about some disaffection in the traditionally Democratic-leaning Latino community with President Obama, and the slow pace of immigration reform. Latinos have suffered much more in the recent recession than whites according to a new Pew report, partly attributable to heavy investment in residential property that lost value–believing with much encouragement that home ownership was the key to prosperity. Republicans point to Latino elected officials in their ranks like Rep. Robert Ramirez of Arvada as evidence that the Democratic hold on the Latino vote is slipping. As we’ve said many times, Latinos represent the fastest-growing bloc of voters in the United States, and Rove himself has warned that the GOP’s continuing alienation of them would be suicidal in the long term.

But this is where the illusion of GOP inroads with Latino voters breaks down. The true purpose of the above Crossroads ad is to create an illusion of “reaching out,” not to attract real numbers of Spanish-speaking voters to vote Republican. The reason is simple: Republicans are decades away from good relations with the vast majority of Latino voters. The GOP continues to set itself back–from Arizona’s SB-1070 fiasco, to failed attempts to replicate it in Colorado and elsewhere. Despite the promises of Rep. Ramirez to work with proponents of the ASSET bill after “reluctantly” voting against it this year, we’ve heard absolutely nothing to suggest he is actually doing so. This is one we’d actually like to be proven wrong on.

To be clear, we don’t have any delusions about particular Democratic successes that would motivate Latinos to vote for them, either. Democrats couldn’t get ASSET passed when they fully controlled the state legislature between 2005 and 2010. The 2006 immigration special session, intended to forestall even worse GOP-sponsored measures headed for the ballot, is still debated today among Democrats as to whether it was a good idea–Latinos don’t debate that.

But folks, stack that against the party of Tom Tancredo. The party of Rep. Steve King of Iowa, of Dave Schultheis, and of Arizona’s SB-1070. Rove can only suppress and demoralize the Latino vote, not motivate them, because he has nothing to motivate them with. Despite the slow pace on the issues central to them, Latinos know who has been on their side–and who has built their political careers in many cases on active hostility to their interests, tinged with racism.

And sorry, but Karl Rove can’t buy enough ads to fix that.