Indeed, many Republicans think they've
seen this script before. When Rep. Jim
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., then chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee, pursued
an enforcement-only approach to
immigration laws in 2006, Hispanics
turned their anger against the
Republican. In 2004, President George W.
Bush won re-election with 44 percent of
the Hispanic vote; four years later,
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., attracted
just 31 percent of Hispanic support and
lost the presidential race to Barack
Obama.
Republican House candidates won 44
percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004;
four years later, they won only 29
percent, according to exit polls. That
15-point plunge was much worse than the
party's 4-point drop among whites,
5-point decline among African-Americans,
and 10-point fall among Asian voters.
Demographics dictate Hispanic votes are
crucial to building a national political
coalition. Hispanics are the
fastest-growing minority segment of the
population, in every region of the
country.
In the past two election cycles,
Democrats have gained seats in key
states where the Hispanic vote is
exploding ― including three seats in
Arizona, two seats in New Mexico, and
seats in such states as Florida, New
York, and Texas. Tellingly, Democrats
now control all nine districts that
border Mexico.
But Republican candidates facing
competitive primaries often steer to the
right to try to score support from the
most-ardent conservative activists. In
Nevada, where Senate Democratic Leader
Harry Reid faces a difficult re-election
test, all six of his potential
Republican rivals voiced support for the
Arizona law during a candidate forum
just after the governor signed it.
If Hispanics reject Republicans, Reid
will benefit perhaps more than most;
Hispanics make up nearly 25 percent of
the Silver State's population, and they
were about 15 percent of the electorate
in 2008, according to exit polls. A
boost from Hispanic voters might be all
Reid needs to inch across the finish
line. And that is a trend Republicans
are already seeing far too often across
the country.
And it is an open question whether the
Hispanic support for Immigration Reform
will translate to high voter turnout on
Election Day 2010 and 2012.
The Republican Party got badly burned
when Congress last considered
Immigration Reform in 2006. Some
Republican legislators, including Sen.
John McCain, championed a bipartisan
bill that would have provided a path to
citizenship for millions of undocumented
immigrants. But this proposition
outraged the conservative base, who
decried it as an "amnesty" for
law-breakers. The right-wingers won the
day ― their attacks torpedoed the
legislation.
But this victory came at a cost
George W. Bush worked hard to woo
Hispanic voters, hoping to bring them
into the Republican fold. In the 2008
presidential election; however,
Hispanics flocked to vote for Obama.
Such fights "underscored their divisions
― between their rural and conservative
blue-collar supporters and their more
business-oriented and pro-trade segments
of the party," says Democratic pollster
Stan Greenberg. And the party has yet to
recover from the fallout. "Republicans
ought to be embracing them instead of
chasing them away," says Davis,
referring to Hispanic immigrants. "It
hasn't. It’s gone from bad to worse in
some ways."
The emergence of the Tea Party has only
widened this rift within the
conservative movement. Perhaps the
person who best illustrates the division
is former House majority leader Dick
Armey, a vigorous proponent of
Immigration Reform. Armey, however, is
also the head of FreedomWorks, which has
played a key role in organizing the Tea
Partiers ― whose activists can regularly
be seen bearing signs with nativist
slogans at their rallies. In fact, a
group called "Tea Partiers Against
Amnesty" is organizing protests across
the country this week.
Recently, these two factions have
started to clash out in the open. Last
month, Armey called anti-immigrant
crusader and former Republican
representative Tom Tancredo a
"destructive" force in the Republican
Party, adding "the Republican Party is
the most naturally talented party at
losing its natural constituents in the
history of the world." His comments
prompted a vehement backlash from
conservatives like Michelle Malkin, who
slammed Armey as an "amnesty stooge."
Similar rifts can be seen in Arizona's
Republican Senate primary race, where
the Tea Party-backed candidate J.D.
Hayworth has assailed McCain for his
role in crafting the 2006 immigration
bill. Though McCain has lurched right on
the issue ― going so far as to call for
the National Guard to be dispatched to
the Arizona border ― he remains cagey
about whether he'd support the kind
comprehensive reform bill that he once
championed.
Of course, tackling Immigration Reform
presents political pitfalls for
Democrats, too ― labor unions would
surely protest any move to expand the
guest-worker program, especially with
unemployment numbers still high. And
Reid himself seems to have cooled on the
idea, saying this week he wouldn't raise
immigration during the current work
period, which ends by Memorial Day. But
Davis, the former NRCC chair, offers
some strategic advice. If he were a
Democrat, Immigration Reform "would have
been been one of my first orders of
business. If you were to pass it...it
would bring eight to 10 million new
voters" to the Democratic Party, Davis
says. "Game, set, match. I'm surprised
they've waited this long."
It is all about racism rearing its
ugly head toward Hispanics
Former President stating
Republican Congressman Wilson's shout
"You lie,"
was directed to racism.
Former President Carter is right about
racism but
Republican Congressman Wilson's shout of
"You lie" was not directed to President
Obama being black but to
Hispanics.
When Republican Congressman Wilson
shouted "You lie,"
the shout was directed to America's
undocumented Hispanics being included in
any health care reform proposal being
readied for "mark up" by House and
Senate committees now drafting health
care reform legislation.
Undocumented Hispanics are not included
but the very thought undocumented
Hispanics would be included infuriated
Republican Congressman Wilson to the
point of raging racism causing the
blatant attack on President Obama
calling the President of the United
States a "liar."
Republican Congressman Joe Wilson's
hatred for Hispanics is shared by many
Republicans and this venomous attack on
undocumented Hispanics is not only aimed
at the undocumented but is directed to
all American Hispanics.
To have this hatred rise its ugly head
in a joint session of the Untied States
Congress clearly substantiates a
Republican fear of the growth of the
Hispanic community across America.
Fear of growth of Hispanic population in
America
Singling out Hispanics because of fear
of the growth of the Hispanic community
in America is a caldron of hate being
cooked by Republicans toward Hispanics
because with American Hispanics now
turning to support the Democrats and
most importantly, because of the
substantial growth of American Hispanics
now at 17% of America's population and
growing by 1% per year.
Nowhere was the impact of this Hispanic
growth felt as much as the 2008
presidential election when Hispanics
turned away from Republicans and
supported the election of a Democrat
enabling a black named Barack Obama to
become President of the United States.
American Hispanics carried California,
Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and
Florida. In the 2010 congressional
elections, American Hispanics will add
Arizona and Texas (if we get an
Immigration Reform bill approved this
yeas as proposed by Hispanic News and
not the
Schumer
proposal) giving American Hispanics one
third of the electoral votes in electing
the next President of the United States.
Thereafter, with each succeeding
presidential election, American
Hispanics will add additional states. It
will be forever more American Hispanics
who will decide who becomes President of
the United States.
This trend is known by all and is
greatly feared by Republicans because
Republicans know American Hispanics will
never again support a Republican to
become President of the United States.
In addition, Republicans are fully aware
American Hispanics will never vote for
Republican candidates in local, state or
congressional elections.
The hatred of Hispanics is the root
cause in such states as Arizona
The hatred of Hispanics in Arizona is
the root cause of Arizona SB 1070.
Arizona leads the pack of states where
hatred of Hispanics is the root cause of
such states cutting back essential
services and programs. Arizona is where
conservative white Arizona legislators
are adamant about not raising taxes to
pay for essential services required by
not only by Arizona residents but
specifically, Arizona's undocumented
Hispanics.
In conversation with a Republican state
legislator from Fountain Hills, Arizona,
the woman legislator believes Arizona
has no responsibility to educate the
children of the undocumented and for the
good of Arizona, undocumented Hispanics
and their children should go back to
Mexico.
Across the United States, this sentiment
of Hispanics should go back to Mexico
has an adverse impact on assimilation of
American Hispanics not only in Arizona
but throughout America.
Arizona Republican legislators are
cutting back on essential services and
programs such as education but even more
immediately devastating is the lack of
health care for Arizona residents and
the downward spiral each day of
decreasing the Arizona's heath care
services that have an impact on all low
and middle income Arizonans which
includes Arizona American Hispanics.
The best thing for the future of Arizona
is too now work to replace existing
conservative Republicans in the Arizona
State Legislature with those with
families and those who support the
inclusion of Arizona's Hispanics.
Notes:
Push voter registration to swell up
number of Hispanic voters.
Vote to oust all
Hispanic members of congress who sold us
out on Immigration Reform
Hard to believe
Joe Baca and
Loretta Sanchez refuse to formally
back the DREAM Act with co-sponsorship
Hard to believe
Ed Pastor has never spoken
out against Joe Arpaio
Ed is our congressman in name only! He
is a do nothing congressman!
Does your congressional representative
turn their back on Hispanics? Drop us a
line if you want their name included
here:
