Posted on 11/07/2012 12:31:17 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
We voted – now let’s get things done. That was the strong takeaway today from Latino leaders and activists during a discussion of the sweeping and historic Latino vote in yesterday’s election.
“Last night Latinos confirmed unequivocally that the road to the White House goes through Hispanic neighborhoods,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). ”The Latino giant is wide awake, cranky and is taking names,” said labor leader Eliseo Medina, of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Yesterday’s Latino vote made history in two ways. Over 12 million Latinos came out to vote, according to preliminary numbers, and for all the handwringing about whether Latinos would have the enthusiasm or numbers to vote, this is a 22 percent increase from 2008. Just over 10 percent of the nation’s voters were Hispanic.
Moreover, President Obama received 75 percent of the Latino vote, according to impreMedia/Latino Decisions exit polls, thus obtaining the highest number of Latino voters; President Clinton received about 72 percent in 1996.
These numbers translated to a “watershed moment,” in the words of Latino Decisions co-principal and Stanford University political scientist Gary Segura. For the first time in history, Segura explained, the Latino vote can plausibly claim to be nationally decisive in the presidential election. Latinos gave a 5.3 percent bump to President Obama, according to Latino Decisions’ numbers. This was crucial in battleground states with close margins between Obama and Romney.
Had Latinos been more evenly divided, those states like Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Nevada might have flipped to Romney, Segura explained. Not only did Latinos play a crucial role in sending Obama back to the White House, but they also were a decisive factor in key Senate races. In New Mexico, Democrat Martin Heinrich joins Colorado’s Michael Bennet and Nevada’s Harry Reid “to directly owing his seat to the Latino vote,” said Segura, since almost 40 percent of the turnout were Latino voters.
So how does this historic Latino vote impact the policies and legislation coming out of the White House and Congress? Latinos point out Obama’s victory is clearly a result of Latino voter support on key issues and policies.
President Obama won Latino support ‘the old-fashioned way,’ said SEIU’s Eliseo Medina – by supporting immigration reform, health care legislation and education initiatives, which resonated with Latino voters, according to the latest impreMedia/Latino Decisions poll. Sixty six percent of registered Hispanic voters believe the federal government should ensure access to health care, and 61 percent support keeping the Affordable Care Act. Only one out of four Latinos thought people should provide their own health insurance. On how to reduce the deficit, more than four out of ten Hispanics believe you need a combination of spending cuts and tax increases; only 12 percent of Latinos advocate spending cuts without higher taxes.
Immigration was second to the economy as a top issue for Latino voters. Recently Rudy Lopez, national political director of the Campaign for Community Change, who worked with grassroots groups who registered hundreds of thousands of new Latino voters, said immigration reform was the “connective tissue”which galvanized many Latino voters.
Today, Latino leaders minced no words. “For Latinos, 60 percent of whom know someone who is undocumented, this is personal – we are ready for solutions,” says NCLR’s Clarissa Martinez De Castro, who added “the current environment is ripe for reform.”
Just like yesterday’s vote was a clear endorsement of Democratic policy stances, many say it is a time for Republicans to reassess their message and their tones to the growing Hispanic electorate.
On Hispanics’ clear repudiation of Republican stances on immigration issues, political scientist Gary Segura said it pretty clearly. ”Republicans need to make this go away – or it will be a persistent electoral Gollum for them.” In fact, Segura says, their numbers show Mitt Romney forfeited just under 2 percent of the popular vote, when one compares polls of Latinos’ strong disapproval of Romney’s immigration views and the lower number of votes he received from Hispanics, especially compared to other Republican presidents like George W. Bush.
“In my opinion, there is a big, flashing warning sign for Republicans that they are headed for a cliff,” says SEIU’s Medina. “If Republicans want to be a viable party, they need to do right with Latinos,” he said.
In the end, though, legislation requires action from both parties. Here, leaders are banking on the possibility that Latinos’ increasing political clout helps propel lawmakers to roll up their sleeves.
“Latino voters are a permanent part of the political equation,” said NCLR’s Martinez De Castro. She said she is hoping Latinos’ desire for common sense legislation helps “rebuild the political space” to provide solutions, in what has been a pretty divisive time in Washington.
Michael Dead Head Medved is on his show now saying that the GOP should be more ‘INCLUSIVE’ to get the minority vote.
What an ass hat.
Once a liberal always a liberal.
Unfortunately, “let’s get to work” translates to “open the borders”.
What jobs?
All jobs will be part time soon, what jobs there are anyways
It's up to them to adapt to us; not the other way around.
Apparently, the Univision piece on Fast & Furious made zero impact.
Also, I guess Marco Rubio and Susana Martinez are not “authentic” Latinos...
Let’s get to work?
I cut my own grass, thank you.........
That’s what I would like to know.
Anyone noticed when you have to fill out a government form and you check mark race if your white you also have a new box that ask non hispanic non latino. Our government knows their not a minority their considered Caucasian or White!
Catering to race politics only works if the candidate is Democrat.
Minority GOP candidates get skewered just the same as the White ones. It isn’t really about race.
Likewise, if the GOP self-depricatingly bent over backwards in service to open borders, they’d be suckers for doing so, as this still wouldn’t net them any greater favorability among Hispanic voters. Why would Hispanics vote for a pro-immigration GOP when they can get pro-immigration and then some from Democrats?
Giving you genuine opportunity risks you becoming independent. And the Dems won't risk that - just ask the Blacks.
That’s not bursting La Razas bubble: that’s exactly what they want to hear, starting with the 61% that support “free” healthcare.
I was wondering what “let’s get to work” meant,
since it clearly didn’t mean “let’s get to work”,
because a vote for 0bama is a vote for NOT HAVING TO WORK.
Time for America to turn into Mexico Norte.
That, and "give me more free money".
The real takeaway from last night is that a majority of the electorate has chosen dependency on de gummint over dependency on oneself, handouts over achievement, and material welfare over liberty and the vibrant and prosperous economy that is a result of a free people who look to themselves instead of government for the pursuit of happiness.
Ok beaners, get to work. Cut my lawn you pricks.
I’ll never forgive them for doing this to my country.
Cranky? What have they got to be cranky about? Most of them are immigrants or children of immigrants. They chose to come here. Nobody held a gun to their heads. Once here, both political parties do cartwheels and handsprings to try and pander to them. Even illegals are pandered to. We can't even call them "illegal" lest we offend them. They get to flood in by the tens of millions, legally and illegally. They get affirmative action, free education for their kids and everything printed in Spanish. And they're "cranky"? What more do they want?
Well, I'm "cranky," too. I'm tired of pressing one for English, tired of paying for them, tired of the gangs and the unlicensed drunk drivers, tired of it all. But of course, nobody cares if I'm "cranky." I don't matter. I'm nothing but a white, American born, hard-working, law-abiding taxpayer who's expected to shut up and turn my country over to these precious people. Well, I won't. I will go down fighting. If they want to take my country they can, at the very least, be thankful and not "cranky."
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