Bush's Hispanic strategy comes unraveled. (A Look Back on the Failed History of Hispandering)

The National Review ^ | April 8, 2002 | John O’Sullivan

[Kuksool]

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez is Puerto Rican, but he somehow assumes that makes him entitled to speak for all Hispanics groups: Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Central American ethnic groups.

[MissAmericanPie]

"The Texas primary confirmed these gloomy results for the GOP even before the results were tabulated. Hispanics were 12 percent of the Texas electorate in 1998, and are expected to be 20 percent — the "tipping point" at which their rise will make Texas a Democratic-leaning state — within six years.

Thanks Bush, you dork, now come remove this situation you have created in Texas with troops.

[MissouriForBush]

As a Protestant whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution, I resent very strongly what the Roman Catholic Church in the USA is doing to aid and abet illegal immigration solely to increase its own power base.

My French Huguenot ancestors could tell you a completely different story about the Roman Catholic Church -- one that you obviously would not want to hear.

[JohnnyZ]

My French Huguenot ancestors could tell you a completely different story about the Roman Catholic Church

Still bitter about St. Bart's Day, are we? :)

[AuH2ORepublican]

Pubbie, not only is this article really old, and many of the author's claims were proven wrong in the November 2000 elections, but it fails to consider the fact that conservatives can get more Hispanics to support us by stressing conservative issues. The one issue espoused by many (perhaps a majority) of conservatives that turns off most Hispanics is opposition to immigration and immigrant rights. While I oppose giving amnesty to illegal aliens, I think it is (i) bad economics and (ii) bad politics to demonize immigrants and try to stop all immigration into the U.S. Yes, I would crack down on illegal immigration, but I would also consider setting up a real guest-worker program---one in which Mexicans can legally come to America to work in jobs nobody wants, for much more money than they could possibly hope to get in Mexico, but with no right to claim legal residency (and thus eventual citizenship) in the U.S. However, the Tancredo policy of demonizing immigrants and blaming them for all of our ills is largely responsible for making Hispanics (especially Mexican Americans) register in large numbers with the Democrat Party. If we can get 40% of the Mexican-American vote, we can put New Mexico's electoral votes in our column, keep (or make) Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada safely Republican, and make California very difficult for the RATs to carry. How can we get a larger share of the Hispanic vote? By stressing social conservatism and economic opportunity (as JohnnyZ so aptly put it) and not trying to hit immigrants over the head with a baseball bat. It's not so hard, really.

[Ohioan]

Yeah, yeah, all Europeans and everyone else understands the American ethos but Hispanics don't. Whatever. Fantasy world.

It is you who are in the fantasy mode, my friend. But I will thank you not to distort what I write. If you actually read my essay Immigration & The American Future, rather than just skim what I have written, you would know that I hardly suggest that all Europeans understand the American ethos.

Certainly, Europeans will have a lot more perceptions in common with Americans, than people from any other racial or ethnic background, but they hardly can be expected to automatically understand the American ethos. That is nonsense. They have had a different data bank of experiences, quite dissimilar to those which made the Founding Fathers rather unique. While I would not cut off European immigration, I would certainly restrict it to small numbers at a time, of people with skills that we need--small enough numbers that we could expect those coming to be acclimatized to our ethos within a decade or so; and not sit in huge ethnic enclaves, voting for Leftwing candidates, as did so many for over a generation, whose parents came when the floodgates were open before the 1920s.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[A.J.Armitage]

Will your economic opportunity policy hurt anyone? If yes, who are the losers going to be?

[JohnnyZ]

Will your economic opportunity policy hurt anyone? If yes, who are the losers going to be?

Losers will be people who sit on their fat asses, who think they're entitled to a high-paying factory job with a high school diploma. Winners will be people who are willing to work hard and learn new skills in changing times.

Economic growth is not a zero-sum game, with people fighting over a share of the pie; the pie grows with economic growth, something most isolationist, protectionist, anti-immigrant folks are ignorant of. Before Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", people thought it was a zero-sum game, but he was a LONG time ago and it's about time people caught up to the value of free trade and population growth.

[A.J.Armitage]

And the people who live off persuading people they've been wronged and the pie needs recut are just going to sit around and watch this happen?

[JohnnyZ]

And the people who live off persuading people they've been wronged and the pie needs recut are just going to sit around and watch this happen?

No, they're going to post on FR under the name "Ohioan".

[A.J.Armitage]

Not a serious answer.

There are good reasons most Hispanics vote Democrat. Marginal gains won't do a bit of good as long as the total number of them keeps going up.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Economic growth is not a zero-sum game, with people fighting over a share of the pie; the pie grows with economic growth, something most isolationist, protectionist, anti-immigrant folks are ignorant of. Before Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", people thought it was a zero-sum game, but he was a LONG time ago and it's about time people caught up to the value of free trade and population growth."

---

Go, Johnny, go! (Elmore James' got nothing on this baby.)

[JohnnyZ]

Not a serious answer.

Are you going to start putting this on all your posts as a kind of voluntary admission?

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Go, Johnny, go! (Elmore James' got nothing on this baby.)

"I'd like to say thank-you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we pass the audition".

[A.J.Armitage]

Yet another non-serious answer. You're done.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Yet another non-serious answer.

There is no serious answer from those who want trade deals with third world countries so our markets can be swamped with cheap labor products while simultaneously flooding the country with millions of poor immigrants. The people pushing these polices have the support of about 1% of the population, they know it so their only defense is name calling.

The argument has to be taken to Washington, either they stop these suicidal policies they're forcing on us or they're out on their butts. No ands, ifs, or butts about it.

[texastoo]

Sorry, I couldn't get back with you yesterday as I had to leave. I really think your heart is in what you say, but I don't think you understand the hispanic culture, especially, those from Mexico.

One of the big problems with the hispanic culture is that, as a whole, they don't get out and vote. Here in Texas, they encourage you to vote by opening the poles 6 weeks prior to the final election day. Voting booths are set up in malls. They even take the voting machines to hospitals and other work places for one day in that 6 week time period. Still the studies indicate that the hispanics, as a whole, don't vote.

Recently, I read an article about the Democrats setting the goal of registering 2 million hispanics for the 2004 election. One Democrat stated, we can register them but how do we get them to vote. A Democrat reponded by saying that we need to tell them how their vote will affect their lifestyle.

When you talk capital gains, their mindset is the rich versus the poor. I have talked it too many times. Your argument for smaller government won't work. The truth is our govenment has expanded under Bush.

Another misconception is that they all want to work. Many of them have no intentions of ever working. My best friend, who is a working hipanic, has two sisters that work and the three adult brothers who don't work and live with their parents with assistance from the government. Two of the guys work sometimes part time but the other refuses to work at all saying material things means nothing. They are all bilingual and were all born in the US, even the eighty year old mother and father. They are all staunch Democrats, except for my friend who has been around me and finally saw the light. This scenario is common in many families here. You would also be surprised at the number of hispanics who take off members of their families, such as sister-in-laws, on their federal taxes. They all know the loopholes.

Actuall, the 11% unemployment is down from 19% when Clinton was in office. There is alot of construction of new hospitls, clinics and doctors offices. All for more government assistance. Yes, I have personlly witnessed Mexican ambulances bring patients to these hospital, all for free.

[jagrmeister]

This nattering nimrod doesn't realize that Tx Gov Perry pulled 35% of the Hispanic vote against a Hispanic nominee. Jeb Bush got roughly 50% in his re-election bid in Florida. And Hispanics supported the Iraq war at greater numbers than whites. To abandon the Hispanic vote is to accept the GOP's role as the permanent minority party for a long, long while. Ignore morons like the author.

[doc]

Amen! Hispanics will continue to vote for the party that hands out welfare and other social services. This also applies to all the other freeloaders in our society.