“Although my experiences may not be representative, the young Hispanics I’ve encountered still seem to be very marriage-family oriented. Needless to say, these are not gangbanger types, but are not especially well educated and certainly not well off either.”
I can accept what you have seen. But having seen as much, how do you expect these young Hispanics to vote (those who are able to vote) come election time?
I don’t discuss politics with them and have never heard any indication they vote at all. But with many fairly recent immigrants, and I’m familiar with quite a few from a different part of the world, the Republican party isn’t really selling anything to attract them (with the exception of family values in certain cases — but they tend to ignore that at voting time). Not small government, gun rights, etc. They pretty much all look to big government to “fix things” (seemingly not realizing gov more often creates the problem, and they all know about corruption) and to “provide things”. They all had experiences in their former countries where government did provide things in their little village — such as infrastructure, better quality housing, medical services — that they never would have had otherwise, and it is understandable how they get the idea of “government as a benevolent provider”. Although some turn into successful entrepreneurs or other producers amazingly rapidly in this country, others never get beyond the “wait for something to be provided” mentality and these go heavily democrat.