( – promoted by Colorado Pols)
The Associated Press distributed a good article, which was picked up widely today, about Hispanic voters, pointing out that “there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to courting the nation’s fastest-growing minority group.”
Hispanics back Obama (65%) over Romney (25%), but, reflecting their varied views on some issues, most are independent (46% today versus 31 percent six years ago), AP reported.
In fact, Hispanics are the fastest-growing group of independent voters in the country, according to AP, citing a new Pew Poll. Other polls say that most Hispanics are independents and are leaving the GOP to become independents, especially, but also Democrats.
The trend made me think of the Colorado Hispanic Republicans, who still have the following quote from Ronald Reagan atop their website:
“Latinos are Republicans. They just don’t know it yet.”
It seems they know it less and less with each passing day, if you believe the polls.
I asked the Independent Institute’s Jon Caldara if he thought it was dumb or insensitive to blast this quote to a group of people who are independent and apparently proud of it. The quote kind of reminds me of a parent telling his kid it’s bedtime, but he doesn’t know it.
“I am all about sensitivity,” he said, and I told him that’s exactly why I called.
“Really, what I suggest they say is, all Latinos are Italian; they just don’t know it yet,” said Caldara. “That’s my suggestion.”
“If you’re looking for something to be offended by, you should look somewhere else,” he said. “It’s a stretch.”
Responding via email, KBNO’s Fernando Sergio, who questioned Obama on his “La Voz del Pueblo” radio show in May, wrote that he appreciates Reagan’s desire to be inclusive but he’s not seeing this attitude much from the GOP today. Sergio wrote:
“Unfortunately President Reagan is dead and those who share his vision, such as Governor Jeb Bush, Senator Mel Martinez or former commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez are in the GOP minority. If Colorado Republicans are indeed willing to embrace the Hispanic community, they will have to make an honest effort to listen and learn. The recent failure to pass the ASSET bill in the state legislature due to stern republican opposition is a clear example of how the GOP simply doesn’t get it. Talk is cheap, if the Republican tent is a welcoming place for millions of Hispanics who fundamentally share the values and principles that the GOP champions, we need to see tangible evidence that President Reagan’s dream is still alive. Colorado would be a great place to start!”
Former Congressman Tom Tancredo told me he understood Reagan’s perspective because Hispanics are “strongly pro-life with strong family values, which are associated with conservative.”
Tancredo thinks Hispanics know the GOP position on social issues but it’s not enough to make them vote Republican. He says their “acceptence of big goverment” goes against conservatives.
“It’s not that they don’t know that the GOP offers that perspective [on social issues], but it doesn’t balance the scales in terms of big government,” Tancredo said, adding that he doesn’t immigration will make much of a difference in how Hispanics vote.
Officials from Colorado Hispanic Republicans declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
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I read this to mean that Republicans have a debate internally about some parts of the immigration issue.
I don’t think, Jason, that this disqualifies Republicans from campaigning on the values we share with Hispanics, like hard work, responsibility, and personal morality. I believe that many Hispanics ARE Republicans for these reasons, they’ve just been put off by the immigration issue. I hope they’ll learn that this is about growing the economy for everyone, and that’s more important to them.
I value hard work and personal responsibility too. But if somebody were to view me as less of a citizen due to my skin color, or my gender, as Republicans do to both, I’ll never vote for them. Self-respecting Hispanics will not support the party of Tom Tancredo. Self-respecting women will not support the party of Rush Limbaugh.
The “you’ll like me even though I hate you” argument is an insult to my intelligence.
I became a Democrat after I found out that I am Latino…
You are of Spanish descent, according to your own bio which means you are Hispanic, not Latino. If you are going to throw the terminology around, you might want to use the correct word, out of respect for both Latinos and Hispanics who have a much more direct and recent line to their respective cultures.
and
The American Heritage Dictionary, however, agrees with you that the terms are not interchangeable and should be used distinctly, not as halves of the phrase “Hispanic or Latino,” though it does acknowledge that the terms ARE used interchangeably in American English:
So I think you’re right in terms of word origin, but culturally it’s ambiguous, since Ali has spent much more of his life around Spanish-speaking people of Latin American origin, in Pueblo and as a teacher in California, than around people of Spanish origin. He does speak Spanish, which it’s my understanding he learned from people of Latin American origin. Many Latin@s were, like Ali, born in the US, and like Ali, can trace their genes to Spain if they go far enough back. Passing through Latin America on the way doesn’t necessarily make them non-Hispanic, unlike the native Mayan/Aztec cultures which have no relationship to Spain (and are not always Spanish-speaking, for that matter).
I’d say Ali can call himself part-Latino if he wants to. He has at least as much right to the term as the next guy of distant Spanish descent born and raised in the US who speaks a little Spanish, which could describe quite a few of the Latinos I know.
🙂
Definitely not your father’s Latino’s.
Oh, wait. Maybe they are. But like your father’s Oldsmobile, headed for the junk bin of history.
Cubans voted Republican for several generations, mostly because it was the R’s that proclaimed to hate Castro and wanted the embargo to remain in place.
Fast forward two, three, even four generations. Young Cubans don’t get Grandpa’s anti-Castro religion. More and more are registering as independents and Democrats.
And mostly, they have no buy-in on the western, Mexican immigration issues.