If you watched the GOP Debate Last night, you heard the Republican audience boo Juan Williams' mention of Mitt Romney's Mexican-born father.
Here's the clip:
While we wait for Gingrich, Santorum, and Perry to trip over each other calling for Mitt's birth certificate, here's the TDP's response to the incident. Good to see the TDP coming out so forcefully against such blatant bigotry by Republican voters. There's no need to boo Mitt's cultural heritage, or that of any other human being, especially not on MLK Day.
From the Texas Democratic Party:
La sola mención de México causa abucheos de los republicanos
Austin-En el debate republicano de Carolina del Sur, el público abucheó al moderador Juan Williams cuando mencionó la palabra 'México'.
"Es desafortunado que solo la mención de México causa abucheos de los republicanos," dijo el portavoz del TDP Anthony Gutiérrez. "Los demócratas de Texas están haciendo serios esfuerzos para involucrar a la comunidad latina mientras que los republicanos son hostiles, tanto en sus palabras y acciones."
Mientras que los republicanos siguen faltando el respeto y siguen siendo abiertamente hostiles hacia los latinos, el Partido Demócrata de Texas está haciendo un esfuerzo para llegar a esta importante comunidad a través del Proyecto Promesa. El Proyecto de Promesa fue creado para aumentar la participación política de los latinos. El Proyecto Promesa utilizará técnicas en línea y de base para conectarse con los jóvenes latinos. También les pediremos que nos den su promesa que serán nuestros mensajeros Demócratas a sus familias y redes sociales.
En las próximas semanas, el TDP desarrollará la segunda fase del Proyecto de Promesa. El objetivo de la segunda fase es aumentar el número de votantes latinos para la Primaria Demócrata 2012. El TDP pondrá organizadores en ciertas universidades donde llevarán a cabo:
Eventos para registrar votantes
Eventos en las universidades para generar publicidad gratuita
Producción de Vídeo
Identidades sociales en los medios de comunicación como Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google + y Vimeo.
Bancos de teléfono
Para aprender más sobre el Proyecto de Promesa visité a www.promesaproject.com.
Los esfuerzos de acercarse hacia los latinos de los aspirantes republicanos a la presidencia:
Mitt Romney promete vetar el DREAM Act, que es apoyada por el 85% de los latinos. Romney también recibió el apoyo de Kris Kobach, el arquitecto de leyes anti-inmigrantes de los estados.
Rick Santorum se opone a cualquiera reforma migratoria.
Newt Gingrich dijo que el español es el idioma del "ghetto."
Rick Perry recortó billones de la educación pública el primer año que los latinos representaron más del 50% de los estudiantes en las escuelas públicas de Texas. Perry también recibió el apoyo del Alguacil Joe Arpaio y lo nombró presidente de sus esfuerzos presidenciales en Arizona.
Yesterday, The Huffington Post reported that Lauro Garza, head of Somos Republicans, quit the Republican Party and left his position with the largest Latino Republican organization in Texas, due to the escalating anti-Latino rhetoric of the Republican Party.
Now, for any sane, rational person who watched the GOP debate last week and heard the Republican candidates tripping over each other to see who could use the word "illegals" more, or to anyone who watched the other GOP contenders attack Rick Perry's policies that help undocumented immigrants gain an education in Texas, this comes as no surprise. In fact, most of us probably wonder what took the dude so long.
But apparently it was a surprise to the Republicans.
From HuffPo:
"There is no place for Latinos in the Republican Party", Garza, who had identified as a Republican for 30 years, said in Spanish.
During his statement, Republican State Rep. Leo Berman stuck his hands over his ears and said, "I can't hear you, you're not speaking what I think should be the only legal language in Texas."
More from HuffPo:
Garza said he made his decision after Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain proposed building an electrified fence across the U.S.-Mexico border that could kill those crossing illegally. Cain also called for an armed military presence on the border and the use of real ammunition against immigrants.
"What Cain said contradicts the Constitution and shows how we were infiltrated by nativist ideas highly hostile towards Hispanics and immigrants," said Garza, who made his decision and spoke to The Huffington Post on Friday. "I am not going back to that dump until the party goes back to the principles held under Ronald Reagan."
Good luck with that, Lauro! Ronald Reagan was a known socialist -- he raised taxes eleven times during his administration. He also gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. If someone with Ronald Reagan's record were on the ballot today, he'd be polling lower than Rick Santorum.
More from HuffPo:
Chris Elam, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas, told the Austin American-Statesman on Friday that state GOP leaders never discussed the idea of an electrified a border fence.
"Most Republicans I know are a little more thick-skinned" than to take offense and leave the party because of Cain's controversial remarks, Elam said.
Ok, so apparently Latino Republicans should just be so thick-skinned they could survive a run-in with Herman Cain's electric fence. Now that would take some thick skin.
Last HuffPo set-up:
Garza said it is not okay to discriminate based on race or ethnicity. "I was born here; I live here; and I speak perfect English. I look Latino because I am of Mexican origin, but I will not be discriminated against because of that."
When asked for comment, Republican State Rep. Debbie Riddle demanded to see Garza's papers, and began drawing up a bill to appropriate funds to hire a car to drive Garza back to Mexico, where Riddle thinks he belongs.
[Ed. Note: No, Berman and Riddle didn't say those things, or at least not to the press, or to us, on this instance. But they both do have a pretty extreme history of trying to pass legislation that does make Texas English-only, and demand immigration papers. It's sarcasm, but it's believable, which is sadder than it is funny.]
The current legislative session has been described as possibly the "worst in recent memory" for Latino Texans. What are likely coalitions that might be able to mitigate the budget cut proposals under consideration?
To figure this out, I visualized Texas county data matching Latino population density and per capita budget cuts. Demographic data on total population and Hispanic density is based on 2010 Census data made available at the Texas Tribune data portal. Projected budgets cuts are based on Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) estimates; the $10 billion cut scenario was utilized for the Medicaid visualization. My complete source file can be found here.
Let's start with public education. The blue line represents the state average per capita K12 cut: $127. The 2010 Census data indicated that Texas is 38% Hispanic, so counties above that are above average in terms of Latino density. Finally, the larger the size of the bubble, the larger the plotted county's total population. Examining the chart yields that a likely best strategy for pro-education advocates is to build a coalition of Harris and Dallas-area county legislators along with targeted low population counties with high per capita cuts that are represented by conservative legislators.
On the Medicaid front, there is a stronger correlation between Latino density and size of per capita cuts. The average state cut is $406 under the $10 billion cut scenario. This is represented by the red line. Two Rio Grande Valley counties - Hidalgo and Cameron - are particularly hard hit under any of the CPPP scenarios. Legislators from the RGV might be able to form a pro-Medicaid coalition with the eclectic mix of small- to mid-size counties that also will be experiencing very high per capita cuts.
Overall, the current budget promises to wreak havoc on all of Texas, as well as disproportionately burden many Latino communities across the state. It is the culmination of years of reckless, ideologically-driven budgeting. Hopefully, the extreme nature of proposed cuts will create a space for new, surprising coalitions to propose a more balanced approached to repairing the budget mess. Such an approach would include use of the Rainy Day Fund and practical, fair revenue increases.
It seems that it would be essential to attract young people and people of color to a political party, especially if you want to grow a political party in a rapidly demographically changing state like Texas. However, the McLennan County Republican Party seems to believe that there is no need to adapt to these demographic changes because of the success they have enjoyed in the past. Latina Lista posted a blog that summed up the situation in McLennan County:
"The big question since the GOP lost the Latino vote in the 2008 presidential election has been: How serious are Republicans about including Latinos in the GOP? The answer, fresh from the heart of GOP country...is not at all!"
According to an article in the Waco Tribune-Herald, conservative activists created the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan County to reach out to Latino, African-American, and young voters. Part of the clubs stated mission would be to fill the vacancies in the 40 out of 92 precincts that lack precinct chairs. Many of the precincts that have vacancies are in predominately minority areas. However, the McLennan County Republican Party chairman M.A. Taylor does not consider it important to fill those vacancies, and apparently does not think that minorities hold conservative views.
"They think because there are 92 precincts in McLennan County, we need to have 92 precinct chairs. What they fail to understand is about half of those precincts are minority precincts, and you're not going to find any Republicans in them."
Election Day for the Texas primary is one week away, and Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign is staking the survival of her candidacy on winning the states of Ohio and Texas. Her ability to win Texas rests largely in her ability to turn out Hispanic Democrats – a demographic that helped deliver the State of California for her on Super Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, February 20, Sergio Bendixen visited the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (where I am currently studying) to discuss polling and the Hispanic vote. Though he couldn't speak about the specific strategies of the Clinton campaign in Texas, he did agree to a brief interview for Burnt Orange Report.
Bendixen has been a leading expert in the field of Hispanic polling for more than twenty years, and is currently President of his own public opinion research, management, and communications consulting firm, Bendixen & Associates. He has worked as the chief pollster for each of the four major Spanish-language television stations, including Univision and Telemundo. Here is my interview, along with some facts, figures, and examples he presented to my media and politics class:
Phillip Martin: What caused the “sleeping giant” that is the Hispanic electorate to wake up?
Sergio Bendixen: The main reason both in the 1990’s and in the last two or three years that Hispanics have started voting has to do with the demagogic reactionary way in which immigration was being talked about. Millions of Hispanics felt that if they did not become citizens and start voting that life would become difficult for them in America, and the anti-immigrant movement could get to the point where they would be asked to leave.
Bill O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have.
Example 2: Michael Savage, July 5, 2007 (from MediaMatters)
Then there's the story of college students who are fasting out here in the Bay Area. They're illegal aliens and they want green cards simply because they're students. I don't understand what -- how this two and two adds up. I would say, let them fast until they starve to death, then that solves the problem. Because then we won't have a problem about giving them green cards because they're illegal aliens; they don't belong here to begin with.
Martin: How do Democrats keep Hispanics in their electoral column for years to come?
Bendixen: Hispanics learned a big lesson in 2000 and 2004 when they fell for the Bush “hugs and kisses strategy.” Now, I think, they’ve learned that the important things that effect their life –the economy, their access to good health care, financing for their public schools, a fair immigration policy – are much more important than having someone talk to you in Spanish or wave the Mexican flag in their commercials [as President Bush did in previous elections]. This has caused them to return to the Democratic Party.
The Democrats, however, must deliver on these issues. Whoever wins the primary must pass universal health care, must pass immigration reforms, and must end the war in Iraq. If they do that they will keep the Hispanic voters and maybe even gain some more.
Breakdown of Hispanic Vote by Political Party
in Recent United States Elections
Year
Democrat
Republican
1996
73%
21%
2000
62%
35%
2004
58%
40%
2006
69%
30%
2008*
75%
25%
Source: Bendixen & Associates.*Projected figures.
Martin: Senator Clinton performed well with Hispanics in California. Do you see any tangible differences between California Hispanics and Texas Hispanics?
Bendixen. I think that Texas Hispanic voters are a lot more interested in the military, in how we treat the soldiers that come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think they are less interested in immigration policy than Hispanic voters in California. That has a lot to do with the makeup of the electorate in those two states. Almost one-half of Hispanics in California are immigrants, compared to only 18% in Texas.
Phillip's note: In his class presentation, Mr. Bendixen noted that there are two large segments of Hispanics -- those who are English-language dominant (AZ, TX, NM, CO, NV), and those who are Spanish-language dominant (CA, NY, FL).
Martin: Is the alleged generational split among Hispanics real, or over-hyped?
Bendixen: I would say it’s a lesser split than maybe among the general population where we are seeing huge numbers of young people getting involved in the process to support both candidates. Among Hispanics you see some of that, but to a lesser extent. The big differential is that between the immigrant voter and that of the native born voter.
Phillip's note: In his class presentation, Mr. Bendixen noted that it normally takes 10-15 years for new immigrants to become assimilated to the point where they become active members of the voting electorate. That's why, after the 1986 amnesty act, we saw Hispanic electorate participation jump in1996 and 2000. As demographics shift in the national census, we tend to think that explains the increase in Hispanic turnout -- when really you have to look at what may have happened 10-15 years ago to see if there's any true "electoral shifts" due to an immigration policy.
