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.
I’d agree if he was running for el presidente of Mehico. He’s not.
Real Spanish, or “Spanglish?” Few Mexicans speak Castilian Spanish.
Not to pander....Of course, if he were to speak to Latino voters in Spanish, the media would immediately raise a huge stink about his blatant pandering to Latino voters.
Pandering is a liberal tactic, not one that conservatives need to engage in.
I personally know about forty Latinos who would be deeply offended by that comment.
With justification.
Why should Ted speak Spanish? This is America, let the newcomers, and illegals speak English.
My mistake. And my apologies.
I wonder which “Spanish” they want him to speak. There are several variants of Mexican spoken along the border from the Gulf to the Pacific.
He meant to get their votes...
No worries friend. I should have clarified that remark but you understood where I was going with that statement. Not a problem.
That's easy - he'll continue to do what he's always done, support a race-blind Constitution of natural rights for all Americans. Because by "Latino voters" you mean Americans - right?
Juan, besa mi culo.
Y mio, tambien.
Before Spain came to Mexica, the capitol being Tenochtitlan, the Mexica stayed on their side of the river Rio Grande. If and when they crossed over they met the Navaho and the Tohono O'odham Nation which kicked their collective butts back over to Mexica. It was Spain and not the Mexica's that invaded the Southwest US therefor Mexica has no claim ....
I say the language of America and Americans is English.
The spanish speakers need to get better at speaking English. Do any of the other minority groups insist on Spanish speakers learning Hebrew, Polish, Mandarin or Hausa?
I say that Juan Vidal needs to learn Hausa and Mandarin.
When I lived in Venezuela there was not a press 1 for Spanish, or press 2 for English. It was all in Spanish and if you did not speak Spanish you were out of luck. That was back before Chavez and it was a great place to live then.
While learning English or making it your primary language is technically not a requirement for a legal path to citizenship, only a fool would do otherwise. Ted’s father was no fool, and he should be proud of that fact, and proud that because of it, English is now his primary language as well, since that’s what his family wisely emphasized in his youth.
I agree that the media will hammer him no matter what he does, but that’s a kind of freedom.
I don’t think Ted will pander - he ran his Senate race without making it about race, and he’ll do so here, as well.
Would I would love to see, though, is during some speech, he stops, pauses for effect, and translates a particularly potent sentence into Spanish, continues on with his speech, and never mentions it again and deflects all inquiries about it.
The media would lose their ever loving minds.
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