HISPANIC PANIC

Conservative hand wringing over the implications of the dramatic shift of Hispanic votes away from the GOP is becoming more evident. There have been a slew of articles in both general news publications and in the conservative press discussing the point. Aside from the Karl Rove article I wrote about a few days ago, one that is likely to get a lot of attention is a piece by Duncan Currie in the conservative The Weekly Standard.

And The Hill reports that influential conservative Hispanics are not content to let the Democrats gain permanent loyalty with Latinos. But while the group's members state that the GOP has to "atone" for the rhetoric of some in the party like Tom Tancredo, they believe that simply emphasizing the GOP's alignment with Hispanics on social and economic issues will be enough. But these guys are in denial if they think the GOP can be a party that blocks immigration reform and still curry favor with Hispanic Americans. The massive defection to the Democrats was not just because of nasty rhetoric. Hispanic voters saw two major votes on immigration reform in 2006 and 2007 and formed their views based on concrete positions staked out by the GOP. This was not just about hurt feelings.

Comments

[Legal and no longer waiting]

I do believe that Hispanics hold a huge grudge against Republicans, but I would not go as far as say that Democrats got their loyalty "for life". Think about it - Reagan helped a lot of Hispanics, but he did not win Hispanics "for life" for the Republicans. The same switcheroo may happen in the next 20 years - if Democrats lose the ball, and Republicans pull their heads out of their behinds, Hispanics may just as well switch. Very timely, I might add, as many of them will be becoming citizens. So, I don't think the battle for Hispanic hearts and minds is over.

[Wannabe Entrepreneur]

FYI

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/answers-about-
immigrant-entrepreneurs/

[Another voice]

Obama will seal the deal with Hispanics on Immigration and will deliver a bunch of new voters to the democrats for many years to come, Hispanics hold a grudge just ask the California republican party after Pete Wilson's proposition 187. Republicans are still not popular amongst Hispanics in California.