There are many reasons why Latinos tend to shy away from supporting Republicans. First, it’s because Republican politicians are constantly telegraphing to Latinos that they are second class citizens. Never mind the blatantly racist crap we get from politicians like Sheriff Joe Arpaio. There is enough subtle stuff to last a political lifetime. You know, like nutjburger Sharron Angle defending before an auditorium of Latino student, her “illegal immigrant” ads portraying Mexican individuals as sinister:
I don’t know that all of you are Latino…Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don’t know that.
“Mexican? Were they really Mexican?!?” Uh huh. Right.
Or Rep. Don Young (R-AK) casually throwing out the term “wetbacks” in referring to immigrant workers on his father’s farm.
Latinos also have plenty of good policy reasons to shy away from Republicans. Republicans aren’t particularly good about supporting policies that serve or protect relatively disadvantaged populations of any sort. They have become the party of preserving privilege for the privileged. Sadly, they aren’t going to be able to change their policies overnight. And, even then, the image problem will lag for years behind the policy change.
It will take Republicans years to decades to repair all of this self-inflicted damage. Immigration reform is one of those policies that offer Republicans…well, not exactly opportunity. But maybe something….
Politico’s Emily Schultheis points out the catch-22 that Republicans find themselves in over immigration reform. Essentially, blocking immigration reform will further alienate them, and hinder their image reform goals (see The Autopsy). For years to come.
Alternatively, by enacting immigration reform:
The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.
Theoretically, the Republicans could get some political advantage among current Latino voters by supporting immigration reform. That’s good for them in the short run. The real problem comes 13 years down the road:
Extrapolating 2012 voting trends to the 2028 presidential election — the first in which previously undocumented Hispanics could exercise their voting rights after a 13-year path to citizenship — is an inherently speculative exercise. But it is one that highlights the political sword hanging over Republicans as they consider immigration reform with a path to citizenship, an idea that is already deeply unpopular with many red-state constituencies.
To support the measure virtually guarantees millions of new Democratic voters.
What to do? I think the only reasonable thing for Republicans is the Hail Mary Pass. Passing immigration reform now at least gives them a fighting chance to win the “hearts and minds” of Latino voters. It’s a gamble, because they would have make huge progress in “image reform” by the time year 13 arrives. And, even then, it will most likely only allow them to minimize the damage.
The alternative—further pissing off the community—comes with an immediate hit that will only be compounded by the time the 13-year Gauntlet is run.
But it will also hurt like hell in 2020, when Republicans stand to lose their lopsided advantage from the 2010 gerrymandered congressional districts. That will set Republicans back, possibly for decades.
I hope Republicans do strongly back immigration reform. Not because I want them to have a shot at redemption with Latinos. Rather, because it is the proper policy that will improve the lives of millions of people, including a great many U.S. citizens—like U.S.-born children whose parents are undocumented.
What I see as the biggest threat to the future of the Republican party is the heightened xenophobia in the wake of the Boston bombing that may end up dominating their party. It threatens to foreclose on their Hail Mary option.
My question is, Who is paying Republicans to behave like this? George Soros? Are the Koch brothers closet Democrats? With Republicans like these, Democrats don’t have to do anything.
Perhaps this demographic doomsday that Republicans are facing is some kind of cosmic, karmic comeuppance for the Southern Strategy.
They exploited the nastiest racial animus to take the South, and continue to stoke those fires.
Just look at puddybigot’s display yesterday – nakedly saying that anyone with a Middle Eastern sounding, or should I say, MOOSLUM sounding name should be barred from working for government – because ‘they’ are all suspect, seditionists until proven otherwise.
Let me try to remember my Christian upbringing…what was that phrase?
Oh, yeah…
Matthew 26:52
For those of you who missed puddybigot’s display yesterday, here is the essence of it…
My response…
MikeBoyScout also tried to get puddybigot to see the vile nature of what he was spewing, to no avail…
Alas, puddybigot doubled down on the hate…
I wonder what’s going to happen with the dead-enders, as the Republican party shrinks and shrivels?
There are certainly always going to be neo-feudalists, plutocrats – the money dudes who will jump ship or form a new party or (further) subvert the Democratic party.
I’m thinking the Bibul-pounders and the Southern racists and the wannabe uteri-police, you know, the useful idiots that the plutocrats exploit every election season. As this group of bitter dead-enders gets more and more marginalized…they could lash out, get violent…it could get ugly.
We should keep an eye on the monkey cages over at (un)SP.
Here’s a DailyKos link, just for puddybigot – BiPM has a collection of excellent sig lines….
and especially for puddybigot…
@ 3
You missed the best part of Puddy’s implosion. When pressed for evidence of subversive acts carried out by members of the Obama Administration, Puddy replied by pointing out specific instances where the Obama Administration has toned down the rhetoric used to discuss terrorism and how we combat it:
I pointed out that the Bush Administration tortured people. Puddy’s single word response was, “So?”
In Puddy’s world toning down the rhetoric is “subversive.” Violating a fundamental precept of US and international law, however is not “subversive”.
The problem with the GOP isn’t the party’s leadership. The problem with the GOP is in the obtuse stupidity and utter moral bankruptcy of the party’s rank-and-file membership.
I’m not familiar with most of the Muslim members of Obama’s administration listed above. The idea that Patel is some kind of dangerous sectarian is bizarre. His personal and professional history is that of an ecumenical, working with Jews and Catholics among others.
Don Joe is spot on. It’s not just the Republican leadership, it’s the party faithful as well. Everywhere I go, on-line and in the meat world, I encounter pig ignorant, racist loons spouting Fox News talking points. I’ve given up even looking at the comments at Salon due to the incredible number of right-wing trolls. Openly crazy right-wing politicians don’t get into office by hiding their views, they get elected because of them. The few old-school Republicans of my acquaintance gave up on the party and voted for Obama.
In 1968 Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” sought to offset the disadvanteges posed by northern and western Democrates and their Union allies, replacing them instead with those who were afraid of change generally, and especially those who were against any change in the South. But Nixon wasn’t racist enough for that sub-group, and Wallace posed a serious challenge in 1972 – if not to win, at least to steal enough votes away to give Democrats the win. But then Wallace was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt which left him paralyzed – an awfully convenenient “concidence” for the Nixon campaign, which had it’s “plumbers” of former CIA operatives in place and willing to commit illegal acts if it benefited those that paid them.
So this racist component still exists in the Republican party, still active, and looking for an outlet. I suspect that if the Republicans follow Rubio’s prescription and allow for citizenship, they will transfer their loyalties to the Tea Party.
I was listening to a right wing talking head on one of the 127 conservative talk shows on the AM dial, screaming that he was never going to give another dime to the republican party until they purged every last politician who might consider supporting any form of gun regulation or immigration reform.
Hard to do do what’s morally correct, when you have people like that fomenting trouble, threatening to primary them out out existence.