“The GOP has about as much of a chance of courting Hispanic votes as they do Black votes - they are a homogenous group bound together first and foremost by race, perhaps second only to government goodies. They cannot and will never be swayed by ideas. I don’t believe it is possible at this point. And that is all conservatives have to offer - ideas (not goodies).”
We should learn from Canada. Conservatives were able to get Sikhs, Chinese and even African immigrants to vote for them because they reached out to immigrant populations. The GOP is still influenced by Pat Buchanan and Nixon’s ‘us versus them’ mentality.
I know this first-hand. These immigrant groups have been a key to Conservative Party dominance in western Canada for years. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that one way conservatives appeal to them is by demonstrating how idiotic it is for Canada to be filled with so many slackers, Indians on welfare, etc. These immigrant groups have no patience for that kind of sh!t. In other words, these immigrants would absolutely love to get behind a Romney campaign if Romney had been vocal and proud of his "47%" comments.
talking of Latinos as if they were a ‘race’ strikes me as somewhat patronizing and ignorant. no wonder they look askance
at the GOP..
Here in Illinois our Treasurer, Dan Rutherford, is a Republican and he got more votes as Treasurer than our Mark Kirk our Republican Senator. What he did is his own private outreach in Chicago to minority groups. He did what Democrats do - showed up to their events, told them they’re terrific, smiled, shook hands and left.
That’s not how Republicans do it. For us it is about ideas and if you’re different you’re out, but voters vote for people they like and not necessarily people with whom they agree on every issue. Government scares them and they know it is a menace, a necessary menace.
That said, they want a friend who can help them out when or if they need it. Red tape they understand from their own country.
He pulled some 22% of the minority vote in Chicago, IIRC.
The GOP outreach just needs to show up to the annual events, smile and shake hands. Let’s drop the us v. them and capture those votes.