Thread: Democrats Risk Losing Hispanics

Personally I'm getting sick and tired of the media putting people into categories but if they want to write such stories we'll post them.

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Democrats Risk Losing Hispanics
By GERALD F. SEIB
December 15, 2008

One of the big bonuses Democrats enjoyed this year was a surge of support among Hispanic voters, a surge larger than the party would have dared to dream of just a couple of years ago.
Now, one of the biggest questions Democrats face is whether hardening attitudes toward immigration, aggravated by hard economic times and rising unemployment, will push the party down paths that could undercut that Hispanic support, much as hardening rhetoric undermined Hispanic support for Republicans in the past two years.
The larger Democratic majority's real test with Hispanics, in other words, is at the beginning rather than at the end.
For those who have forgotten recent history, just four short years ago President George W. Bush seemed to be making big inroads among Hispanic voters for the Republican Party. The share of Hispanics pulling the Republican lever for president rose between 2000 and 2004 to the point where winning a majority of Hispanic voters seemed possible. Mr. Bush and his political seer, Karl Rove, saw rising Hispanic backing as a cornerstone of an enduring Republican majority.
Then came the immigration debate of the past two years, when Mr. Bush pushed an immigration-reform plan that included a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants already working in this country. His own party in Congress -- along with some Democrats, to be sure -- rose up to kill that kind of reform, in favor of doing more to secure borders and expel illegal immigrants from the workplace.
That approach surely was in keeping with the popular mood. But the immigrant-unfriendly rhetoric surrounding it dealt a blow to Republicans' hope of making further inroads with Hispanics.
Then came this year's voting. The surge in Hispanic support for Barack Obama was one of the most striking results of the 2008 election -- and one with big potential long-term implications. Two-thirds of Hispanics voted Democratic in the presidential election, up from 53% in 2004, exit polling indicates, while the Republican share fell to 32% from 44%.
Do the math, and that translates to a swing of almost three million votes for Democrats this year. More important, the surge helped Mr. Obama turn the key states of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida.
Republican nominee John McCain lamented over that very turn of events this weekend. In an appearance on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," he told his own party: "Very frankly, one of the issues that we're going to address very seriously is Hispanic participation in the Republican Party....We Republicans are going to have to recruit and elect Hispanic candidates to offices, and do a lot of other things, because that's a growing part of our population."
Which brings us to today. Now the burden of handling the immigration-reform question falls on Democrats rather than Republicans. In calmer times, the party could be expected to push precisely the kind of immigration reform that Mr. Bush tried to get through Congress early this year -- a reform that would include a larger legal immigrant work force and a path toward citizenship for some illegal immigrants.
But that was before the economy went into the tank and unemployment started rising. Pushing any kind of immigration reform, particularly one that includes a path toward legalization, is a lot harder in an environment in which Americans are losing jobs.
That mood was captured late last week by Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who wrote a column in the Des Moines Register pushing a bill he has written to bolster the Internal Revenue Service's ability to ferret out illegal immigrants in the workplace.
"The economic crisis has placed too many families in peril," Rep. King wrote. "According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 9.5 million Americans are out of work and looking for jobs. It's a staggering figure, and is particularly infuriating when you consider that the Pew Hispanic Center estimates 7 million jobs in this country are held by illegal immigrants."
Expect to hear more of that kind of rhetoric if the idea of immigration reform reappears on the political horizon. For that reason, some Democratic leaders in Congress consider the whole idea of immigration reform to be radioactive. Privately, they say they simply want to stay away from it.
Yet those who push immigration reform still expect action. Mr. Obama "himself promised he was going to push on immigration reform in the first year," says Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a nonpartisan advocacy group backing immigration reform.
Mr. Sharry says he is encouraged by Mr. Obama's decision to appoint New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to key cabinet posts; both, he says, are "border-state governors with a strong history of support for immigration reform." Failure to act quickly, he argues, could suppress the Hispanic vote for Democrats in the crucial 2010 congressional elections.
Immigration reform is hardly the only issue of importance to Hispanic voters, of course, but it surely is near the top of the list. Right now, Mr. Obama is riding a huge high with Hispanics. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last week, he got a positive rating from 82% of the Hispanics surveyed.
The trick will be keeping that sentiment intact in an environment in which bad economics could translate into anti-immigrant sentiment within his own party.

http://online.wsj.com

More WSJ open-borders, anti-immigrant, pro-illegal alien claptrap. They just ignore facts that don't suit their agenda, such as that amnesty is an electoral loser -- especially in this time when the economy is at its worst in decades and millions of Americans are suffering.

The party that supports enforcement and implements it will rid the country of the illegal voters and therefore will bring the Hispanic vote their way. I'm talking the legal Hispanic vote here not illegals voting fraudelently! Legal Hispanics want the laws enforced just as much as the rest of us do. Its the illegal aliens that are opposed along with their supports, i.e. big business and globalists.

Originally Posted by avenger

The party that supports enforcement and implements it will rid the country of the illegal voters and therefore will bring the Hispanic vote their way. I'm talking the legal Hispanic vote here not illegals voting fraudelently! Legal Hispanics want the laws enforced just as much as the rest of us do. Its the illegal aliens that are opposed along with their supports, i.e. big business and globalists.

You are absolutely right, avenger! After all, it's the US citizens with the hispanic surnames who are being victimized the most, by illegal aliens and their enablers. How many have had their identities stolen, their lives destroyed?

In addition, McCain was the one pushing for amnesty, not Obama. McCain put his neck on the line for amnesty and lost big time.

Originally Posted by avenger

The party that supports enforcement and implements it will rid the country of the illegal voters and therefore will bring the Hispanic vote their way

Listen to yourself, what makes you say that? Illegals can't vote, heck legal immigrants can't vote. What school did you go to son? also, focus on the legal vote not on the fraudulent votes.

Originally Posted by closeborder

Originally Posted by avenger

The party that supports enforcement and implements it will rid the country of the illegal voters and therefore will bring the Hispanic vote their way

Listen to yourself, what makes you say that? Illegals can't vote, heck legal immigrants can't vote. What school did you go to son? also, focus on the legal vote not on the fraudulent votes.

Oh, you shouldn't have said that. Avenger is going to come right back and bury you on this one. It's common knowlege that illegals do, indeed, vote in our elections. Where have you been?? At a beach with your head in the sand??

The Dumbocrats also lost a lot of voters over their support of illegal immigration. They lost mine and I was a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool Dumbocrat. Now I am an Independent and will never forget what the Dums did to us. They no longer support working Americans, so this working American no longer supports them. I will never vote Democrat again unless I know they support my views on illegal immigration and I will check the record, not listen to their rhetoric.

I remember when they first started trying to get me to contribute to the Democrats this election time! It was actually quite funny. They would try to "debate" me on illegal aliens, and I shot down every argument the caller came up with. They would then get their "supervisor" on the phone, who tried to "debate" with me. Shot their debate down too, so they gave up.

This went on every time they called me until, finally at the end when I told them when they ceased to defend illegal aliens they would again get my money and my vote, they would just sigh and give up. I could tell they had heard it so many times they were tired of hearing it.

I'm an American first...and I support Americans first.

"Listen to yourself, what makes you say that? Illegals can't vote, heck legal immigrants can't vote. What school did you go to son? also, focus on the legal vote not on the fraudulent votes."

Listen to youself. Did you just waken from a Rip Van Winkle 20 year nap??? Have you never heard of ACORN? Are you really a closeborder??

Originally Posted by closeborder

Originally Posted by avenger

The party that supports enforcement and implements it will rid the country of the illegal voters and therefore will bring the Hispanic vote their way

Listen to yourself, what makes you say that? Illegals can't vote, heck legal immigrants can't vote. What school did you go to son? also, focus on the legal vote not on the fraudulent votes.

I have seen an amnesty that has resulted in millions of more illegals entering the country. I've seen congress try to push amnesty with 80% of the American citizenry adamantly opposing it. They have passed a bailout with 80% of the American citizenry opposing it. The president has issued a bailout for the auto industry with 70% of Americans opposing it and it is not even constitutional and I have seen ACORN and its voter fraud issues. I have seen a president elect that is willing to spend millions of taxpayers money instead of producing a simple document. Now what part of history have you studied?

Originally Posted by closeborder

Originally Posted by avenger

The party that supports enforcement and implements it will rid the country of the illegal voters and therefore will bring the Hispanic vote their way

Listen to yourself, what makes you say that? Illegals can't vote, heck legal immigrants can't vote. What school did you go to son? also, focus on the legal vote not on the fraudulent votes.

What good is a legal vote if there is a fradulent vote to undermine it? Illegal invaders have not allowed their illegal status to interfere with their self-perceived right to work, drive automobiles, receive welfare ( I know...they don't do that either... right?) or a host of other laws they are willing to break on a daily basis.

So...why would you believe they wouldn't be voting in our elections? What...because it's against the law for them to do so?

LOL...ok!