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.")
Is it Dane??
ROTFLOL!
Best regards,
SJB
Anyone who will cross the Florida Straits from Cuba to the U.S. mainland on a raft to reach freedom deserves U.S. citizenship. That area is one of the most dangerous waters in the world. The Rio Grande it is not. It takes a lot of courage to take a risk like that. As one who has found these wood & styrofoam rafts as far north as 29 degrees and as far west as 88 degrees in the Gulf, I often wondered about its occupants...whether or not they lived...the weather they had to endure. In the 1994 raft exodus I found four in a one week period. Only one had the orange paint that the CG sprays a raft with after they rescue someone from it. They spray paint the raft and leave it in the water. Captains are alerted via ‘Notice to Mariners’ in such events.
Some of those loop currents around Cuba are murderous.
It went so quiet once I said that...
teehee
It sure did : )
“What I do realize is that we very much need that 2 percent for our farms.”
But why do they have to be illegal aliens?
Many Mexicans are guest seasonal workers with proper legal papers...
They go back home after their seasonal contract is finished..
Illegal aliens are not here legally...The word is ILLEGAL
BTW I’m not sure what your post is about....
“splitting up families and destroying the lives of many people whose only crime was coming here outside the process.”
Nobody is splitting up families... why would a mother desert her children and leave them behind in the US?
At least you admit that a crime is committed when an illegal alien enters the US without prior permission..
“The majority of illegal aliens in this country are otherwise law abiding and productive”
No, they continue to be criminals who are not law abiding because they have not answered for their crimes...
And, no, they are no productive, but a drain on the US economy, demanding and receiving social services and free government handouts which are denied to the American citizens; the same American citizens who struggle to pay the large tax bill the illegal aliens cost...
“the idea of hunting down those who are here now, except felons, is unduly hurtful and unnecessary”
It is indeed hurtful, and unnecessary, but only to the American citizens who are struggling, and who are denied the same social services and free government handouts that are given to lazy criminal illegal aliens..
As to the hunting down... that’s what happens to you when you break the laws of a sovereign nations of laws...
“Given the grevious economic conditions”
NO Mexico is one of the richest countries in the world...
“lack of opportunity in Mexico”
How do you know there isnt? The Mexicans should riot in the streets and demand opportunies and “fair wages” and “good medical plans” They know how to do that quite well...They have had several dry runs and lots of practice in our country...
“a young father would be evil to allow a shallow river and paperwork keep him from feeding his family”
A young father is evil to break into another country and steal the bread from the mouths of another young father’s family...Why do you bleeding hearts never pity the children of Americans?
Why doesnt the same father protest his own Mexican government for the chance to feed those starving children?.....What’s stopping that brave desparate man?
Finally, what they going to offer? Special privileges and opportunties that aren’t available to the gringo? Gonna make it illegal to discriminate against folks who can’t speak and read English?
In any case, pandering to “Hispanics” compromises the conservative principles that used to be part of the Republican Party platform. If the “Hispanics” are the future the ‘Pubby Party, then conservatism and the country are doomed.
BTW: Aren’t “Hispanics” tired of being lumped into a single group? Guatemalans are different from Mexicans who are different from Brazilians and Cubans. Besides, if you’re a citizen, wouldn’t you rather be an American?
And why on Earth would any decent person knowingly have children when he or she well knows that they won’t be able to support them unless they illegally enter into and work in another country? Is that commendable behavior?
You’re not suggesting that poor Mexicans should have abortions, are you?
Not getting pregnant is the appropriate way to avoid this problem. Are you suggesting that it’s the duty of the U.S. to pay for the child-rearing costs of the rest of the world?
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