Dana Milbank noted last week, "When it comes to Latino voters, Republicans must have un impulso suicida. What else but a death wish could explain the party's treatment of the fastest-growing voting bloc in the nation?"
Given recent events, it's a reasonable question. Mitt Romney, in particular, seems to be going out of his way to antagonize Latino voters, as part of his desperate bid to impress his party's base. In last night's debate, for example, he was asked about his preferred approach to immigration policy, and Romney responded, "I think you see a model in Arizona."
Arizona, of course, has become synonymous with needlessly drastic and excessive anti-immigrant policies, and if the former governor intends to use the state as a model if he's elected president, it sends an unmistakable signal to Latino voters about what to expect from a Romney administration. It's why Democrats quickly pounced on the answer, releasing this video overnight:
If it were just one area of immigration policy in which Romney moved to the far-right edge of his party, it might be a little easier for him to appear more sensible when he reinvents himself again and starts making appeals for general-election votes. But it's actually every meaningful area of the debate that's proving to be problematic -- Romney is an inflexible opponent of the DREAM Act; he's palling around with Pete Wilson and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; he endorses a "self-deportation" agenda; he's critical of bilingualism; and his casual dismissals of "amnesty" and "illegals" are a staple of his campaign rhetoric.
Romney, by any reasonable measure, is the most right-wing candidate on immigration of any competitive presidential hopeful in generations.
Lionel Sosa, a Texas strategist who advised George W. Bush and John McCain on appealing to Latino voters, recently told the New York Times, "[Romney] can make as many trips to Florida and New Mexico and Colorado and other swing states that have a large Latino population, but he can write off the Latino vote. He's not going to gain it again."
Given the size and significance of this constituency, that's an enormous risk for an already-unpopular candidate to take.
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This election cycle has quickly evolved (I know 'quickly' seems wrong but honestly) into the Old White Guys vs EVERYONE ELSE. Anyone that could vote for the Republican Party in this cycle has to be seriously deluded. The message seems to be 'I CAN tell you what to do...I'm a DAD'. And then they trot out their children to let us know what fabulous DADDIES they had. Gag.
They are of course the Stepford children.
I take it you don't have any children.
From a strategic political view, everything the GOP has done in recent years regarding immigration policy will turn off Latino voters for at least two and maybe three generations to come. Even younger Cuban voters in South Florida - a Republican stronghold for 50 years - are expressing revulsion at Republican immigration policies according to surveys.
BTW, I wonder if the DNC also did a version iof the ad in Spanish? And radio spots highlighting this for airing on SL stations?
Dems have no obligation to stop the Republicans from committing electoral suicide. In fact, this is a Dem schadenfreude. Get the chaise loungers and enjoy the show.
So you agree with La Raza Cosmica and the DNC that Latin Americanos should have a 30 to 1 immigration advantage over Asians, Africans, and Europeans. And a similar job advantage over American workers. Isn't that magnitude of preferential treatment considered racism?
The only way to end the immigration problem is to legalize marihuana. I live in Arizona and have many friends and co-workers who are Mexican they are very family oriented people who tie their shoes like anyone else. Racism is so 60's lets please progress. If I was born in Mexico I'd be one of the first to climb over that fence ask Romney about that.
No comment needed.
The call to misogynists, racists, homophobes, fear based religious zealot, and gun nut is a call to the GOP base. How proud they must be to get their moment in the sun.
When did having a country for the benefit of it's citizens become racist? If that's the case, 98% of the world's population are racists.
I am surprised that they are not emphasizing hardline on LGBT issues and la cultura permisiva (culture of permissiveness). Instead they go after contraception. But the stand of the bishops is virtually being ignored by Latino congregants.
Very white of them. All of this seems so odd until you realize that the quips about this being Pleasantville are not just witticisms. these guys really are talking from the 50s. Ron Paul the kindly if eccentric doctor, Romney the owner of the hardware store with a big smile, and Santorum standing in from of his auto shop with a keen eye on the mischievous boys, Michele Bachman at the park keeping the school picnic organized. Sarah Palin the cheerleader flirting with the captain of the football team.
Dems can't think they have Latinos in their pocket on a single issue.
Just look at liberal leaning New Mexico. They elected a Latina GOP governor. What is she hardline on? LGBT. (Santa Fe newspaper article with video). Liberals need to pre-empt the GOP on making significant inroads with Latinos. For example by taking the tack of socially conservative but strong on civil rights preachers in the Black Church- That we can't complain about unfair treatment if it is only about unfair treatment of people like us. We have to be for the dignity and fair treatment of all persons, even those we disagree with.
Romney has plenty of campaign contributors without trying to recruit a Hispanic billionaire. I mean, how many of them are there, after all?
Wow. Just -- wow. So, you're thinking that the Apocalypse is coming in December, so no one will hold you accountable for your racism in the long run? Amazing.
"I mean, how many of them are there, after all?"
Are you trying to imply that there's no such thing as a Latino billionaire? Because according to Forbes, there are currently more than 70. At least four are American citizens of Latino extraction, one of whom was born in Arizona but would probably end up getting his ID checked if he were driving in his home state due to their BS racist "breathing while brown" policies!
Additionally, the current richest man in the world is a Mexican gentleman named Carlos Slim Helú.
OMG, YES, BROWN PEOPLE CAN BE RICH TOO!
Whoosh!
Uh, before we burst with pride over the "brown people can be rich too" meme, all of the Mexican super rich (including Carlos Slim) are white. So are most the super rich in virtually all of the other Latin American states -- including Cuba. Latin American and Mexican societies are perhaps the most racially stratified on the planet.
What the large majority of Americans want in a President
http://bit.ly/zoZL4f
Country before race
Illegal immigrant advocates need to return to the country they are showing allegiance for
Es muy triste que los Republicanos no podria pensar de la dignidad del otros personas.
It's a shame that the Republicans can't think of the dignity of other people. (He says in broken spanish.)
I am waiting for the General Election, if Willard gets the nomination, he declares his Mexican heritage
Romney of course thinks all illegals should be sent to the mormon mission in Mexico where they can work as slave labor on the Mission farm.
Why not, Pelosi has cheap illegal labor working on her farm in Napa.
I totally agree with Buzzm1.
Now as far as the Latino vote, since we are discussing racial issues here and at the risk of sounding crude and old fashioned, some people might be surprised to learn how many minorities are still out there hoping to impress the White man. And what easier way do to this than by surrendering your vote to a Republican, the same people that have oppressed you for years. I hope I'm wrong but this seems to me like a brainwashed social syndrome of some sort. And for all of you Republican Latino's that have done well for yourselves, good for you, but chances are that you wouldn't have made it if not for the Democrat policies set in place for you.
I have one question for America, and republicans in particular. How in the world did Mitt romney's father (George Romney) ran for president, given that HE WAS BORN IN MEXICO (not a rumor, Mitt said it himself)? Don't you have to be born in the US to ran for president? Please, somebody help me understand this.
George Romney was born in Mexico,, to two American parents. so he was a native born American. Nobody cared about George's citizenship. They only cared about Obama's for an obvious reason.
The same way that John McCain was allowed to run even though he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Because if you're WHITE, all you need is two American citizen parents who lived in the US at least five years after the age of 14.
If you're NOT WHITE, you could be born on American soil and have your damned long-form birth certificate released and it still isn't good enough for the racists to consider you eligible.
My understanding is that one Has to be born in the United States to be the president, even if your parents are foreigners. Obama's father of course is Kenyan, but he is still the president. They said Mccain was born in Guam, on a US military base, which counts as US territory, that's why he was able to run for president. But George Romney was born in Mexico and still was allowed to run for president. Wasn't the whole birther movement about where Obama was born (Kenya and not Hawaii)? There was never an issue about whether or not he was an american citizen, given that his mother was an american citizen. I still have no answer for this. I hope the mainstream media could pick up on this and clarify things. It would be interesting to see what the Donald ( a Romney backer) thinks of this :)
A Bush policy advisor said once that no candidate could win an election without at least 40% of the Latino vote, especially in crucial swing states with sizable Hispanic populations. Republicans alienated African-Americans with their almost solid opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and '65. Blacks have voted Democratic by over 90% since then. Right now, the country has a population that is one-third minority and will be half-minority by 2030. In 2008, Hispanics gave Obama the vote by 68%. Back in December, just a couple of months ago, his approval among Hispanics was also at that same number, 68%. With all the racist and anti-immigrant spewing the Repub candidates have been saying, it's a lot higher now, I figure. My fiery teabag sister, the only Republican in our family, says she probably won't vote unless Jeb Bush runs. Good luck with that. I saw a poll that said he was deeper in the can in a general election than these other losers against Obama.
Is her refusal to vote so that she can say she had a clear conscience? That she never voted for a moderate republican like Romney, or someone like Santorum with a solid history of voting for pork / earmarks?
That is, it it a sense not wanting to make a choice unless it is clear cut along bright lines, or a sense of being dispirited by the positions / negative level of the debate on the right?
She thinks Jeb Bush has a benevolent immigration policy and is horrified at the anti-immigrant bashing that has overlapped into hostility toward the Hispanic population at large. It's something I've seen in our town here in Boerne, TX., a well-to-do conservative hotbed, 87% Republican by demographic. My Anglo husband and I have lived here for 15 years and we've never had any racist incidents, but we've had them in the last 3 years. Snide comments like, "You must make a lot of money to be able to buy all those steaks." Hint: Are you on food stamps? And no, I'm not being over-sensitive. I've been around racism enough to recognize it. And cold, glaring stares if I speak Spanish in public. It was never like this before. So, for my sister, the immigration and anti-Hispanic bashing have gotten to her.
If the immigration laws were enforced and Mexican reconquistas weren't marching in the streets, you wouldn't be having these experiences.
"Mexican reconquistas marching in the streets"? Yeah. Gotta watch out for those nannies, dishwashers and chicken plucking goose-steppers in their feathered headresses marching up River St. in Boerne during their lunch breaks.
The Reconquistas wear feathered headresses when marching in Boerne? Here in California they just wave Mexican flags, or the Mexica Movement flag.
Eugene, you've been reading too much literature from the Minutemen and John Tiffany, who once said that Mexicans were trying to institute a pre-Columbian society of human sacrifice and cannibalism. Any Reconquista Movement is a fringe organization much smaller than the secessionist movement to split from the U.S. and trust me, Mexican flag waving is a lot more benign than waving the flag of the Confederacy, which was a movement and schizm that tried to destroy the U.S. flag and this country as we know it worse than any group holding flags of their ancestral homes. Even today, the secessionist movement in many U.S. states hates this country so much, that they want to break away from it. Good luck with that. They'd have to produce their own coin instead of the dollar, Texas' cattle and oil wouldn't be sufficient to sell as it would have to be nationalized for the state's own use and all goods used for trade from Southern states would require permission from the U.S. to use their transportation routes. Hospitals would close due to cut-off of Medicare and Medicaid funds, state military bases, military contractors like Lockheed Martin and military bases would be gone and without the use of the dollar for monetary exchange, the new confederacy would have to appeal to the World Bank for money to fund a new type of currency. Most of our food and goods are shipped from overseas; 30% of our beef comes from overseas. But, Southern states collect more money from the government than they pay in. I don't think a so-called reconquista movement, which by the way, as Hispanics, drew blank stares from my entire family, is any real threat to this country. Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any other president in History. Look it up, prefably in a site that's not connected with radical nationalism. Trust me, no Hispanic I know is planning to take over this country and perform human sacrifices at high noon. Raw heart tacos are so pre-Cortez. But, we have a governor here in Texas in a high position that spoke of secession, a movement to destroy the Union of the United States, not so long ago.
I think we need to build a fence around the entire southern border of the US and every hundred yards have a big opening in the fence with a cute little old lady saying, "Welcome to America, here are your citizenship papers and a Social Security card. Have a nice day." That is if you want to balance the budget.
The GOP seems incredibly stupid right now. In fact, they no longer actually exist as a party.
It appears to be a collection of yes-men to billionaires who are even stupider than their candidates. Citizens United did that for us: it dissolved the Republican PARTY by backing only certain individuals with the character and interests that suited the money guys, not the people at large.
In the case of Romney it's worse; he IS one of the 'money men.' His continuing carping over the auto bailout seems to me significant in this respect.
He is RIGHT NOW campaigning on undoing something that was very good for America–saving its auto industry?
It isn’t enough that Romney called it wrong in his 2008 WSJ editorial, he now is revealing WHY he did it: it cuts vampire capitalists like him out of the deal, doesn’t cheat the taxpayers and lenders out of their investment, and doesn’t allow him to fire autoworkers.
If this is the GOP vision for our country: protecting the right to make millions by means of fraud, gaming the system etc rather than manufacturing quality goods…well guess where that will get them?
I would seriously like to see somebody connect the dots with the drug trade in and out of Mexico (marijuana making the gangs down there the most amounts of money) and immigration policy positions. I have seen on a few of the above posts that legalizing marijuana usage would curtail immigration issues, but I don't know. There are already marijuana crops in the Californian Mountains run by these drug gangs in Mexico because it is getting much harder to traffic drugs across the border. Would legalizing marijuana legitimize these ventures? The other side of the drug legalization is the weapons trade to Mexico. It seems to be a drugs for weapons kind of deal based off of some documentaries I have seen recently. It is all so complicated. Is the Republican issue about drugs then related to gun sales? I don't know much, so if I sound ignorant to some people, it is because I probably am, but it seems to me that these stories (immigration, marijuana and guns) are all inter-related. Rachael? Rachael's people? Any help?
Is Mitt Romney going to ask Marco Rubio, 'For Papers Please' before asking him to be his running veep. Just wondering? This is a sad and pathetic hypocritical scenario taking shape here.
What papers? Rubio was born in the USA. Birth certificate maybe, which every candidate should produce after the Obama fiasco.
Hispanics are not the fastest growing, Asians and mixed-race groups are growing faster.
And if Obama wasn't giving (primarily Hispanic) illegal aliens administrative amnesty, that group would be shrinking.
Rachel Madow is overly biased against Mitt Romney. We don't need you to tell the voters who to vote for. I am voting for Mitt Romney. because he's the only candidate who can fix the MESS Obama cause in the economy. After many years he still cannot deliver the promises he sid in the campaign trail. Romney 2012. Obama bye bye. no matter what media bias is trying to paint on Romney it WILL NOT WORK. Romney POTUS
And how is the weather in fairyland? Where the rivers are made of chocolate, bacon grows smoked on trees, unicorns prance through the forest and Mitt Romney can be confused as being competent and Presidential?
Hey Steve,
Numbers USA has rated Santorum even more restrictive ("right wing") on immigration than Romney. Maybe time for an updated article?
Lionel Sosa, a Texas strategist who advised John McCain on appealing to Latino voters.
Yeah, and that advice was so good McCain got a whopping 30% of the Latino vote. Why take advice from a proven loser?
...and if the former governor intends to use the state as a model if he's elected president, it sends an unmistakable signal to Latino voters about what to expect from a Romney administration.
Nah, it just means that Mittens will say anything to get elected. You can bet when he talks to Latino voters--he'll say the opposite.
Immigrants are not illegals. Immigrants are legal. Why should illegals get more rights than citizens who have worked hard all their lives? That's what's been happening, and it's wrong. It has nothing to do with their ethnicity, since if the illegals were from another ethnic group, it would still be wrong what they're getting away with.