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Selling the American Dream: Can The GOP Bring Hispanics Home?
The American Spectator ^ | November 20, 2012 | RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (wife of U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin)

Posted on 11/24/2012 1:21:00 PM PST by Steelfish

Selling the American Dream By RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY NOVEMBER 2012 issue

Can The GOP Bring Hispanics Home?

IT WAS THE SPRING OF 1994. The Smashing Pumpkins ruled the airwaves. I was 22 years old, recently graduated from Arizona State University and living in the “Real World” house in San Francisco. Rooming with six strangers and having my life taped for MTV’s groundbreaking reality series, The Real World, in the nation’s most liberal city was a formative experience for a young, Hispanic, conservative, Catholic girl from the Southwest.

The Real World perfectly captured the politically correct, multicultural zeitgeist of the 1990s, and it was exhilarating to be at the center of a pop culture phenomenon. In San Francisco, I saw my first gay pride parade with my HIV-positive Cuban roommate, Pedro. I attended “spoken word” night at a dry hip-hop nightclub with my dreadlocked, African American Muslim roommate, Mohammad. I regularly bar-hopped in seedy neighborhoods with my anarchist bike messenger pal, Puck.

I went to more drag shows than I care to admit, and once was even taken to “bondage night” at a local club, where I observed a sad, topless, wrinkled grandmother in leather shorts, and misfit weirdos of every stripe, spanking and electrocuting each other. I was shocked (no pun intended), but in youthful optimism also convinced that somehow this “culture” would make me a more well-rounded, worldly, sophisticated adult.

So I was annoyed when my “open-minded” roommates balked and moaned after I invited them to experience my world at an Empower America conference. Jeane Kirkpatrick and my political hero, Jack Kemp, were headlining the event.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Politics
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1 posted on 11/24/2012 1:21:06 PM PST by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

I’ll bring them home, but only if they’re smoking hot. And make pork chile verde.


2 posted on 11/24/2012 1:32:03 PM PST by andyk (I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)
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To: andyk

The authors pic is at the end of the article. You may have brought her home too.


3 posted on 11/24/2012 1:38:26 PM PST by Steelfish (ui)
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To: Steelfish
[Jack Kemp] specifically and exuberantly made the case that Hispanics belonged in the GOP. He passionately argued that the work ethic and entrepreneurialism of Mexican Americans is quintessentially American—and very Republican. He understood that our parents and grandparents came north for economic freedom, not more government. He recognized that Hispanics are inherently pro-life and very traditional in their principles and values.

Yes, and Kemp personally was also very good at communicating this. BTW, he was very white-bread himself, I think was brought up as a Christian Scientist in Southern California, and built a small business before going into politics. So the type of spokesman is not the problem: it's that we have to have a good message and a good, intelligent communicator to carry it, not just one of the "right" ethnic group.

The GOP has been systematically eliminating all these people because what the party prefers are...well, the old white guys who haven't had an idea for decades. They can't reach out, not because they're bigots, but because they are half-dead and have no ideas except what they think will benefit them in the short term. So how can they carry a message to anybody (including working class whites, who didn't vote for Romney either).

4 posted on 11/24/2012 1:40:10 PM PST by livius
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To: Steelfish

This person doesn’t sound anything like a conservative


5 posted on 11/24/2012 1:40:38 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Steelfish

Republicans will gain 2 Hispanics and lose 4 of their base doing it.


6 posted on 11/24/2012 1:41:01 PM PST by Venturer
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To: andyk

I’ll bring them home, but only if they’re smoking hot.

I hope you were speaking of the Latina variety....


7 posted on 11/24/2012 1:46:57 PM PST by Breto (The Establishment party is killing our country)
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To: Steelfish; Clintonfatigued; Impy; BillyBoy; AuH2ORepublican; Clemenza

I’ve had a crush on Rachel going back to when she was on “The Real World.” Unfortunately, one had to sit through those moments with those execrable and demented moonbat roommates of hers. We should’ve drafted her to run for Senator in Wisconsin. Now that poor state is saddled with a cretin to rival her ex-roommates in San Francisco. Maybe in 2018 she’ll have a go...


8 posted on 11/24/2012 1:48:04 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Steelfish
This is a really interesting article with some real concrete suggestions. It also points out that the GOP goes into hibernation after each election cycle and only torpidly stirs to life six months or so out from election day. The Rats meanwhile are always operating in battle mode and keeping the faithful reminded of who their daddy is.

Also this fascinating quote:

Mexican Americans raised in the ’50s and ’60s were encouraged to love America and to become a part of it. Post-’70s popular culture has had no such quaint aspirations. My parents instilled the American Dream in me, but over and over throughout my college years, I was told that America wasn’t the land of opportunity and that I needed government assistance and affirmative action to overcome the institutional barriers that were holding me back.
Today’s “dreamer” kids are steeped in a multicultural, bilingual public school curriculum that’s heavy on victimhood and light, if not altogether silent, on our Founding Fathers and the Constitution. A return to American history and civics in the classroom for all children, including ESL students, is imperative to righting this ship.

9 posted on 11/24/2012 1:49:38 PM PST by robowombat
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To: GeronL

She is.


10 posted on 11/24/2012 1:50:40 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

No conservative would voluntarily submit themselves to being on that skanky TV show or doing any of those things she describes or pushing to pander to racial groups


11 posted on 11/24/2012 1:53:29 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Breto

Lol, yes. This is not the DU! (Not that there’s anything wrong with that - Seinfeld)


12 posted on 11/24/2012 1:54:04 PM PST by andyk (I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)
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To: Steelfish
Latinos vote for Democrats for the same reason everyone who votes Democrat does; they love big government. It's a part of their culture.

Unless you're Cuban, you're coming from a culture that loves big powerful dictatorial governments. On the left you've got the beloved Peron, Chavez, or Castro regimes, but even on the right you've got Fujimori and Pinochet. Limited government and individual liberty are foreign concepts south of the border.

13 posted on 11/24/2012 1:55:20 PM PST by GunRunner (***Not associated with any criminal actions by the ATF***)
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To: Venturer

We can embrace the legal ones. There is nothing wrong with that - they are primarily Catholic and should be Conservatives. I think any attempts at outreach to Blacks is doomed to failure. We might as well attempt with Hispanics - might have more success with them.

As a person who has worked in both Black majority and Hispanic majority cities I can say honestly that I would much prefer to work with Hispanics. They have a strong tendency to work hard and be family oriented, both are Conservative traits. I think we have been wrong to lump all Hispanics together as if they are all Mexican. They are not. I think we should start with Cubans and work our way outward from there.

I personally believe that all students should be taught Latin as part of an overall Classical education. It is the foundation of five languages (including English). There is nothing wrong with teaching our children the second most spoken language in the world (Spanish). We can embrace them and at the same time teach them to embrace our values. By excluding legal Hispanics by lumping them together with illegal Mexican entrants to the country, we are shortchanging ourselves. It is time for that to end.


14 posted on 11/24/2012 1:59:29 PM PST by nolongerademocrat ("Before you ask G-d for something, first thank G-d for what you already have." B'rachot 30b)
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To: GeronL

Jesus said go where the sinners are.


15 posted on 11/24/2012 2:02:31 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: GeronL

The Hispanic pols she thinks the GOP should promote more, such as Martinez and Rubio, are pro-amnesty.

With something approaching 75% of Hispanic immigrants on some form of welfare and all of them eligible for affirmative-action advantages, more Hispanic immigrants does equal more Democrat votes.

She is right about outreach, as was Michael Steele regarding the African American community; but that would only slightly lessen the perpetual advantage that affirmative action, especially, has given the Democrats.


16 posted on 11/24/2012 2:03:09 PM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Breto

“I hope you were speaking of the Latina variety....”

Not me. Give German or Polish women. Hot blondes.


17 posted on 11/24/2012 2:03:09 PM PST by raybbr (People who still support Obama are either a Marxist or a moron.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Did Jesus say you should become a sinner and praise the sins?


18 posted on 11/24/2012 2:04:38 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Venturer

When I look down the road that you of the younger generation will have to travel, it occurs to me that your answer to the Muslim problem is going to be the Hispanic problem. IOW, better Catholics than Muslims. I really like the Hispanics who work for a living and raise their children Catholic. I have no room in my country for Islamics.


19 posted on 11/24/2012 2:07:15 PM PST by WVNan
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To: GeronL

Exactly what are you accusing her of ? She is married and the mother of several children.


20 posted on 11/24/2012 2:09:11 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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