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Since their defeat in the 2008 elections, the Republican party knows it has to build a better relationship with Latino voters but to date they refuse to seize those opportunities that could begin the process.
It’s been over a month since the GOP took a pounding at the polls by Latino voters for underestimating the ire they stirred among Latinos for constantly vilifying Hispanic immigrants and advocating punitive immigration measures.
There are reports that those in charge of steering the party’s future are still analyzing what went wrong during the elections and trying to figure out what needs to change.
Virginia Republican Chairman Jeff Frederick, who saw the Republicans lose his state to the Democrats, told a group of newspaper editors that “the Republican party needs to change from within. We need to start building relationships.”
However, Frederick’s statements and the GOP’s actions imply that the Republican party isn’t yet ready to start building those relationships. For one thing, it hasn’t changed its line of attack when it comes to addressing immigration reform, one of the top five most important issues to Latino voters. Otherwise, they wouldn’t stand silently by and watch innocent Latino immigrants get murdered.
In a one-month span, two unrelated Ecuadorian men in New York have been brutally murdered because of who they were or perceived to be.
The first victim was Marcello Lucero of Patchogue, New York, who died at the hands of seven teenagers on the prowl for anyone who looked “Hispanic.”
The most recent victim is Jose Suchuzhanay of Brooklyn who was left brain-dead from his attack because his murderers thought he was gay for walking arm-in-arm with his brother after having had too much to drink at a party. The surviving brother reported that the murderers shouted both anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs as they beat Jose to death.
Some will argue that it’s too harsh to lay the blame of these hate crimes at the feet of the Republican party. Yet, there’s no denying that the party has had a hand in negatively molding a dangerous national attitude about Latinos.
A simple GOOGLE search reveals that since 2006 rhetoric delivered by some Republicans running for office on a platform featuring illegal immigration helped fuel a mass paranoia not just about Hispanic immigrants but even the term “Hispanic.”
There’s no clearer example of this than what is currently happening in Oklahoma. Traditionally a Red state and soon to be governed by a first-ever Republican-controlled legislature, Oklahoma is also home to a sizable Hispanic population.
In 2004, the Democratic-led legislature created the Advancement of Hispanic Students in Higher Education Task Force to study and make recommendations on how to recruit and ensure that more Latino students graduated with Bachelor’s degrees.
In July of next year, authorization of the task force is up for renewal and members are in a panic about changing the name.
The reason? “Hispanic” is seen as too much of a “lightning-rod-type-word” for Republican legislators who might not want to refund the task force because of it.
One Republican legislator suggested that the task force change “Hispanic” to “international students.” A ridiculous and insulting suggestion since international students automatically insinuates those students from other countries who need no help, financial or otherwise, to stay in school.
Also, the suggestion of using “international students” completely discounts that the task force was set up specifically for Hispanic students and that Hispanic students belong here by virtue of their citizenship or having grown up in this country.
If Republicans were truly interested in proving their good faith in wanting to repair the damaged relationship with Latino voters then they should have joined with their Democratic colleagues who recently pledged to pass strong hate crimes legislation in the next Congress in response to the murders of the Ecuadorian immigrants.
Yet, not one Republican stepped forth to lend their support to this effort.
It’s hard to believe the Republican party sincerely wants to improve its relationship with Latino voters when it stubbornly insists on doing business as usual — a strategy that’s already proven there’s no quicker way to lose the Latino vote.
Comments (2)
I have to take a couple issues with this post.
1) While not knowing the details of this incident, I would BET MY LIFE that the murderers in this sad crime are not Republicans. They are most likely pathetic gangbangers in NYC- not exactly a fertile ground for GOP recruitment.
2) About hate crime legislation, let's think about it step by step. Do you think that these murders would have been prevented with hate crime legislation? Would they have thought, well I want to kill these people and I am willing to face state homicide charges, but I choose not to because of whatever additional charge I may face from a hate crime law. Obviously not. The answer is to enforce our homicide and other traditional laws. The people who did this should go to jail for the rest of their lives. Why they murdered them is of no importance. If they killed them for the money in their wallets, that is no less offensive than killing them because they are Latino. Both show a wicked disrespect for human life. And both deserve the same amount of disapproval from society.
Take issues with Republican immigration policy or what not, but to me this post smells of taking advantage of the deaths of two people to score political points against the Republican party.
Posted by Tom Williams | 14 de Diciembre 2008 a las 02:06 AM
Posted on 14 de Diciembre 2008 02:06
Well I certainly agree with Tom Williams about the uselessness of hate legislation; I'm against supplemental legislation, whch are basically only redundant laws that neglect the fact that existing laws, enforced correctly, will do the job.
However, Tom, even though the murderers in the example might or might not be Republicans, I think Marisa Trevino's point is that the Republicans (and all their associated talk show and television right wing minions) have laid the groundwork of frustration and anger throughout segments of the population so inclined to listen to them or to listen to people who listen to them. The flames of hate spread like wildfire, and when you have Sarah Palin standing up there before her crowd throwing out dog whistle words and other disguised hate speech, you are seeing first-hand what the GOP is capable of. It is quite adept at stoking the flames of racial discontent and it suits their ends quite well.
Posted by neomonkey | 21 de Diciembre 2008 a las 09:38 PM
Posted on 21 de Diciembre 2008 21:38