Posted on 03/31/2015 2:37:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Cruz won’t sit around and wait, because waiting is a loser’s game.
Cruz, the first-term Republican senator from Texas, officially announced his candidacy for president of the United States early Monday morning.
While there are many fascinating aspects to Cruz’s candidacy announcement—his climate change denials, his political grandstanding that led to a government shutdown— there is one question that immediately arises in my mind: What will he, a Cuban-American, do to speak directly to Latino voters over the next several months?
Cruz has been dismissed in the past for not being “Latino enough.” And although he doesn’t speak fluent Spanish or deliberately champion “Latino issues,” now would be a good time for him to make a shift. Not to pander, but to connect and reach out. To not begin rigorously tapping into a demographic that makes up 17 percent of the U.S. population would be a mistake worthy of the theoretical grave. Cruz must prove that he cares about what Latinos care about. There is a misconception that all Latinos pay attention to is immigration. But as important of an issue as immigration is, Latino voters also care deeply about education, health care, and jobs—and in many cases they care about these issues more.
Latinos, who have long been a swing vote, know their support is extremely valuable to those hoping to win the White House. Democrats have historically proven to be better at connecting with Latinos and young people than have Republicans. According to an analysis of exit polls by the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos voted for President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney 71% to 27% in the 2012 elections—an ocean of a margin.
The first ever Latino to serve as a U.S. senator from Texas, Cruz’s campaign entry puts him swiftly on every Latino voter’s radar. If he’s to make a positive impression going forward, he’d better take things up a notch, laying out clear policies that appeal to Latinos, from economic growth to education.
Should he win in the November 2016 election, Cruz would be the first Latino president in our nation’s history. The mere thought of that can be a huge draw to people in both red and blue states. Still, when it comes down to it, Cruz won’t be able to simply coast on his last name, or on having a father who fought against Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship alongside Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution.
As one of only three Latinos currently serving in the Senate, a trio that includes Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla, Cruz is the only one who doesn’t speak Spanish. He has called his Spanish “lousy” and said he grew up “speaking Spanglish.” Sure, it’s not the most important thing, but it’s certainly not unimportant.
Of course it would be erroneous to think that one’s authenticity should be based on whether or not one speaks a certain language well enough or is hypothetically “real” enough. In 2007, then-candidate Barack Obama and his ability to relate to African-Americans was questioned on account of his being biracial. It’s safe to say that compassion is a much more prized commodity than bilingualism. But again, being able to at the very least defend oneself in a language that 45 million people in the United States speak can only improve a Latino politician’s chances at winning over the fastest-growing group of voters. In fact, they could potentially seal a candidate’s fate in 2016.
So while he’s out courting donors and making his rounds, it wouldn’t hurt Cruz to practice rolling his r’s and getting a little personal. It matters.
The fact that Cruz has just released a Spanish-language campaign ad, which promises to put “fe, libertad, y opportunidad” (“faith, liberty, and opportunity”) at the forefront of his message tells us he knows the stakes.
How about those illegals learning English?
We’ll see after CW-II.
English Spoken Here!
Its time to make English the official language and drop all the “bi-lingual” stuff. Why select Spanish? Why not Mongolian? Why not Hebrew? No one offered to make Dutch a second language for my grandparents. Why does Cruz have to ramp up for the Hispanics. I thought we were E Pluribus UNUM!
How dare he assimilate and become successful!
Why? What would be the point?
How about a little more tolerance, something the left is really “good” at.
Courtesy of Urban Dictionary:
Uncle Juan:
A Latin-American shunned by his peers because he/she took the time to learn English.
Oh...I thought he was running for President of the USA a, not Mexico?
While in Germany, I learned conversational German...it wasn’t perfect but the locals would buy me beer all night long for just MAKING AN EFFORT, and SHOWING INTEREST in their language and customs.
I, for one, could care less if he speaks perfect Spanish. English is the official language of the country he’s trying to lead. If Hispanics don’t like that, well they can go back home where they can speaks da perfecta es spanol
Do Mexicans have to press 1 for Spanish in Mexico? I didn’t think so.
His dad could crash-course him in fluent spanish in an hour and a half if necessary.. not an issue.
Jeb Bush speaks Spanish fluently and Mexicans won’t vote for him because he has a “R” after his name. 0bama does not speak Spanish and the Mexicans voted for him because he promised “free stuff” for them. The ability to speak Spanish is irrelevant.
Why should Ted work hard to be someone he is not?
So he can be like all the other politicians?
Okay. I think.
Juan, besa mi culo.
The Latinos that have "special issues" are here illegally and by helping them Cruz would be hindering all the immigrants trying to follow the law.
That would be discrimination.
Bingo. Juan Vidal doesn’t give a rat’s behind if Ted Cruz speaks Spanish. He wants him to open up the government treasury and dispense a bunch of entitlement goodies to Hispanics everywhere.
How about those illegals learning English?
I have thought we should stop referring to the language spoken in Mexico as Spanish. We should start saying illegal alien as in (When Maria and Juan go to a Mexican restaurant they always order in Illegal Alien.)
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