Posted on 05/03/2007 3:01:49 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
In 1980, as he was preparing to run for president, Ronald Reagan asked Lionel Sosa, an advertising executive from San Antonio, to lead his outreach to the Hispanic community. Reagan told Sosa his job would be easy: "Latinos are Republican. They just don't know it yet."
On this, as in so many other areas, Reagan was a man who saw the future. In 1984, he made history, receiving 32 percent of the Hispanic vote. President George W. Bush achieved similar results in 2000, and in 2004 won a record 44 percent of the Hispanic vote.
They're not alone. Smart Republicans who have listened to, and offered solutions to, concerns of Hispanic-Americans have done even better: Sixty percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 44 percent for former New York Gov. George E. Pataki and 46 percent for former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens in 2002.
Even in the tough year of 2006, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger collected 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist pulled in 49 percent and Arizona Sen. John Kyl won 41 percent.
These numbers shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has studied Hispanic voters. Hispanic-Americans tend to be conservative. Last year, pollster David Winston asked registered voters to rate themselves on a 1 to 9 scale from very liberal to very conservative. He found that, overall, the country was center-right and Hispanic-Americans viewed themselves slightly to the right of the country as a whole.
Hispanic outreach is not only natural for the GOP, it is crucial. The Hispanic community is the fastest growing segment of our country, and it is huge. There are 10 million more Hispanics in the U.S. than there are Canadians in Canada. If this population were a Latin American country, it would be the third largest. It would also be the richest. Salsa outsells ketchup and tacos outsell hot dogs. Univision is the channel where more Americans get their evening news than any other. In Nebraska, one out of every eight people under 35 is Hispanic.
Throughout our nation's history, majority political coalitions have been built around welcoming the newest voters into the political process. In 1896, William McKinley built a generational majority by reaching out to immigrants filling America's cities. Democrats built the New Deal majority around Roman Catholic and Jewish ethnics in northern cities who worshipped Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1980, millions of Evangelical Christians became more politically active and President Reagan welcomed them into a GOP majority. The majority party in the 21st century will be the party that reaches out to Hispanics.
There are several steps we can take to ensure that America's fastest-growing and most conservative voter bloc joins the GOP. First, good policy is good politics. To win Hispanic votes, the GOP must be the party of those who aspire to the American Dream. Our founding Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, defined the American Dream as the "right to rise." Most important is equal access to education.
The most direct route from economic struggle to middle class and wealth is through education. This will be even more important in the 21st century. When President Bush took office, two-thirds of black fourth-graders, 60 percent of Hispanic fourth-graders and one-third of white fourth-graders could not read at grade level. No Child Left Behind raised reading and math performance for all Americans and closed the majority-minority gap. We must reauthorize this important law, continuing to ensure that high standards benefit poor, minority and immigrant children who were too often left behind in the past. We must also increase pay for great teachers and those who teach in distressed areas, and empower parents with school choice.
Beyond education, the right to rise means all Americans have access to health insurance if they choose. Hispanic-Americans are, unfortunately, more likely to be without coverage. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 32.7 percent of Hispanic-Americans were without health coverage in 2004, a statistic that has not changed much since. Hispanic workers are more likely to change jobs often or be self employed, which is why President Bush's proposal for parity between workers who get health insurance from their employers and those who purchase it themselves would be helpful and popular in the Hispanic community.
Home ownership has always been an important element of the American Dream, and Hispanic-Americans have made enormous progress thanks to the hard work of many families and the innovative policies of the president. Hispanic home ownership is at an all-time high with 50 percent of Hispanics owning their homes. We must expand the ability of Hispanic families to earn and save more, which is why the tax cuts should be made permanent and why personal retirement accounts should be available to those who live paycheck to paycheck.
Second, good personnel are also critical to politics and policy. Catholic voters paid attention when the Democrats nominated Al Smith in 1928, becoming the Democrats' largest voting group. Lyndon Johnson's appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black Supreme Court justice made history and cemented African-American support for the Democrats. President Bush appointed the most diverse administration in history, with the first Hispanic attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, a Hispanic commerce secretary, Carlos M. Gutierrez, and other top officials including former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral and Israel Hernandez, one of the government's chief export promoters. The first Hispanic to lead one of the national parties is a Republican, Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.), the GOP general chairman. We must work harder to identify and recruit future Hispanic leaders to run for office under the GOP banner.
Finally, on the critical and sometimes divisive issue of immigration, we should again follow the lead of President Reagan. One of his greatest gifts was to embrace "the politics of 'and.' " Before Reagan, those who favored peace with the Soviets argued with those who counseled strength. Proponents of controlling inflation debated those who argued for reducing unemployment. Reagan argued and showed that these zero-sum debates didn't have to be either-or. We had peace through strength. And through tax relief and sound money, we reduced unemployment and inflation.
On immigration, our nation should embrace "the politics of 'and'" by ensuring we develop a comprehensive approach that maintains the U.S. as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We need to secure our borders for all Americans: Whether your family has been in the U.S. for five generations or five weeks, your life is at risk if a terrorist can enter. We need to establish workplace enforcement that is certain and fair, both for employers and employees. And America must always remain, as Reagan imagined it, "a shining city … teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports, … and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."
Reaching out to Hispanics is critical to our future. The fastest-growing, and most conservative, segment of the population are natural Republicans. The question is whether we will reach out and welcome these new voters into our ranks. While I don't yet speak Spanish, there is one phrase I memorized as Republican National Committee chairman: "Mi partido es su partido." ("My party is your party.")
That’s what the law requires. No “reform” required.
“The majority of illegal aliens in this country are otherwise law abiding and productive.”
Apart from the identity theft and fraud and a disproportionate committing of other crimes....
“Given the grevious economic conditions and lack of opportunity in Mexico, a young father would be evil to allow a shallow river and paperwork keep him from feeding his family.”
Not my problem and I damn well am tired of paying for it. Mexico is the 5th wealthiest country on Earth.
You are partialy correct. By definition citizens are either born or made by choice. Our country’s greatness inarguably began during a period of remarkable immigration. this is true unless you are an adherent to the philosophy that rejects anyone not proceeding from Europe. Every previous immigrant group has had numbers of decent and not so outstanding members, such is life. Regardless, we owe our greatness largely to immigrants and their adventurism, stick-to-iveness and bravery no matter where in the world they came from. This is also largely true unless you are a Native American and believe we could be where we are today if the Colonies had never set foot in Plymouth. I am not afraid of immigrants, I am opposed to illegal immigration. My culture begins at home, not with the winds of society that ebb and flow with the whim of popularity. My children, as many of my uniformed colleagues, never forget where thier family came from and cherish the values and beliefs of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapiness. What binds our country together is our love for our Constituion and the ability to read it and understand it (the English language), not where you came from or how you look. To reject a potential “American” simply by the way they look or how they pronounce the Pledge is tantamount to the liberal’s racial manipulation of Black America. Take it from an over twenty five year DoD member who is a first generation red blooded American.
Regards.
Not so. If they're working here illegally they're also breaking tax laws, falsifying SS numbers, stealing identities, over-burdening social services, etc...
Point is, anyone who believes their only criime is "coming here outside the process" is either not paying attention or turning a blind eye to reality.
My last post was not directed at you. It was directed at berstbubble whose words I quoted.
“Given the grevious economic conditions and lack of opportunity in Mexico, a young father would be evil to allow a shallow river and paperwork keep him from feeding his family.”
In other words, if a young father does NOT jump the border, he is evil............
I smell troll......
I am speaking about ILLEGAL immigration.
Just as I thought.
Regards.
If you lived in SF or NYC, believe me, you’d see lots and lots of Chinese. As for language, when I worked the polling places in SF, Chinese was one of the languages on the ballot. But many of the Chinese the Dems brought in (because they were always brought in by Dem “immigrant advocates”) couldn’t even read Chinese, and the English-speaking “Chinese activists” were allowed to go into the booths and vote for them. Guess how they voted.
I think the big problem is with our voting policies and ID policies in general. Mexico is closest, so naturally, Mexicans are more likely than others to come here. But the big problem is that we have opened our systems (thanks to the Dems) to anybody who gets here, and even election results in many places are being skewed by Dem manipulated immigrant groups.
Places like Detroit have a ton of Muslim immigrants who are a serious problem. Unfortunately, most of them are legal - but many are not, because they sneak in from Canada. I’d be much happier with this border control stuff if (a) we talked about the Canadian border, which is so far the only border where terrorists have acutally tried to enter and (b) stopped thinking that Hispanic immigrants were the problem.
They will be good citizens if we teach them to be so and demand that they be so. The problem is that the Dems have intervened and through things such as bilingual ed, welfare benefits for anyone and everyone, and Dem voting if nobody detects your death certificate, have made citizenship laughable to most immigrants.
Being an American was once more important than being a Republican or Democrat. All of our politicians seem to have forgotten. A white House without a country may as well be empty.
Deport.
“Being an American was once more important than being a Republican or Democrat. All of our politicians seem to have forgotten. A white House without a country may as well be empty”
Very well stated!!
BUMP
What is ironic? Perhaps in Tancredo's case the melting pot worked and assimilation actually occurred and he identifies more with the Mayflower and the United States than with diversity and the universal/proposition nation bit.
And, perhaps, it worked in our case too.
We came to the U.S. from Cuba in August of 1960 and, by November of 1965, my uncle had already earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with Combat V at Landing Zone X-Ray at the Battle of Ia Drang and is now listed on seven different pages of the index of "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young".
Forty six years later, between my uncle, my brother, my sister and myself, we have 44 years of combined military service to the U.S. including my uncle's retirement after only 12 years because of multiple war wounds.
By contrast, Tom Tancredo, according to his biography went straight from college to being a high school teacher to being a politician and never served a single day in the U.S. Armed Forces in all of his entire life.
After three generations here, Tom Tancredo "talks the talk" but my Cuban-born, first American generation family "walked the walk" in service to the United States of America.
As far as I am concerned, Tom Tancredo can take his slur regarding Miami's Cuban-born community and cram it where the sun don't shine.
Only 2% of illegal aliens... that is TWO PERCENT... work in agriculture.
You forgot to quote the part where I mentioned that, since agribusiness needs the illegals to put food on your table, your local Congresscritter is being given a lot of campaign contributions to ignore the entire illegal alien issue.
You want to solve the illegal alien problem?
Here is how you do it.
1. Provide the needed unskilled labor to agribusiness or any other business that documents a true need by a Bracero style of program.
2. Once that has been done, impose draconian penalties on any business caught with illegal alien workers.
3. Provide free bus service back to the U.S.-Mexican border to all illegal aliens that can no longer find any business stupid enough to hire them.
I spell D-A-N-E.
The real issue is not illegals in the USA but rather what can the USA do to help make Mexico a first class country.
I lived in San Francisco, I saw lots of Chinese. I worked at the UC here for quite a while. Once again, lots and lots of Chinese. They are earning their way and/or keeping a low profile. They are not demanding and receiving the same things as the Hispanic illegals. The Chinese more often take the option of immigrating legally.
And that brings us to the real issue: What is wrong with immigrating LEGALLY...? Hispanic migrants become a problems, a huge problem, by migrating ILLEGALLY in far greater numbers than any other group. You are also not going to see a fraction of illegal Chinese criminals in our prisons as you see illegal Mexicans and Salvadorans. Have you ever heard of MS-13?
It is too bad you see pointing out facts such as these as “hateful.” But you are barring some important distinctions to be made here regarding the MANY problems presented by Hispanic illegals which far outweigh problems presented by illegals from other origins.
However, the next group you mention.... muslims.... are definitely on the increase. At least, from what I see, they are. I have no idea how many of them immigrate illegally but some have infiltrated and raised millions of dollars for terrorist groups.
Mexicans and Central Americans in Los Angeles do not care about becoming U.S. citizens, let alone good ones. They are bringing their countries, lock stock and barrel, here. More and more, I see the insignia of these other nations on clothing, automobiles, advertisements, etcetera. They are writing their own rules for behavior here, and getting away with it. Announcements on public buses and in supermarkets are made in Spanish as well as English. The name badge of the clerk at Longs says “Yo hablo espanol” beneath the name.
We have had biculturalism forced on us by people who have invaded our country, and there is no turning back.... at least for this city.
Wrong. Mexico is already a wealthy country rich in resources. However, their government is more repressive than ours, and the social structure more rigid. The people do not dare to ask for better pay, which the employers could afford. The illegals come here to enjoy the freedom as well as the money.
We are too generous to them: that is the problem. Penalize the employers here in the U.S., dry up the jobs and watch the illegals go back to the country they love. Also, cut off their entitlements to welfare and healthcare.
Amen
What will winning the White House be for? Of course retaining our sovereignty is more important.
Well, I agree - but I don’t think the “biculturalism” was forced on us by the Hispanics, but rather by the left - the teachers unions, for example, and in fact many unions and the Dem party.
When Hispanics began to arrive here in significant numbers, the Dems lumped them in with blacks as a client group. Many Hispanics - while they may not like American blacks - immediately adopted the same attitudes, because a combination of welfare workers and Dem ward heelers were at their doors immediately.
I worked in New York with Puerto Ricans who came here wanting to make it. They all learned English and were all working. Then came the “Great Society.” Immediately, they became a client group.
There will naturally be more Mexicans than Chinese because Mexico is right next door. In addition, when the Chinese come, many of them are kept as virtual slaves by the people who smuggled them here, so you don’t see them as much as you do Mexicans. In New York, I worked in a place where the immigration folks would appear in the streets and all the windows of the sweatshops in the buildings on the other side of the street would and literally hundreds of Chinese would run down the fire escapes and jump onto the sidewalks to get away. LIke Mexicans, they also lived 20 to an apartment and were regularly killed in fires, etc. in these areas.
The biggest difference was probably that the Dems were never able to make the Chinese and the blacks think they had anything in common. In fact, I worked in an industry where there was a joint black-Asian-Hispanic pressure group, and the Asians dropped out. (Then the Hispanics dropped out, but it was too late.) On the other hand, Hispanics got sucked into the Dem victim machine.
So conditions are different. But my point was that if people are opposed to illegal immigration, why is it only Hispanics they are opposed to? Illegal Irish workers (for a while the largest group of illegals in NYC) depressed wages and undermined Americans for years until Ireland picked up and they went home. Illegal Poles are all over the place and have displaced Americans, particularly blacks, in the hotel and restaurant industry.
Hispanics have displaced non-Hispanic Americans in construction, maintenance and low-level hospitality industry workers. But why is that? Because they work, something that some of our native born folks have a problem doing.
So essentially, from that point of view, all illegals are equal, except for the fact that there are more Hispanics than others (because of proximity) and because Hispanics were seized by the left as soon as they set foot over the border. Conservatives just ignored them and let the teachers union get big bucks out of the Federal government for teaching them - Spanish. That wasn’t what they needed and it wasn’t what most of them wanted.
If we want to make a change, we have to (a) make our LOCAL governments stop the stupid welfare laws and other things that encourage illegal immigration (Federal law already prohibits this, so it’s your local city council that is handing out the benefits); and (b) demand a realistic and genuine citizenship plan based on people learning English and making a serious committment to live here and learn about this country. I think there has been progress in the latter area under Bush, but all these programs are very much on the defensive because the Dems hate the US and do not want immigrants to learn about it or become good citizens. Well, not good by my standards, at least.
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