The only thing missing in the campaign of Trump are brown shirts!
I can't but believe that Republican outreach to Hispanics (to the extent that it exists at all) is harmed not helped by the presence of Rubio and Cruz in the primary race.
Cubans represent 3.5% of the Hispanic population and presumably Cuban Americans are justifiably proud of Rafael And Marco and will support their candidacies.
But is it so hard to understand that many of the remaining 96.5% of American Hispanics -- those here as legal immigrants, those who are descended from legal immigrants, those who are the children of "illegal" parents living in fear of deportation, and those who have been Americans for generations -- must harbor deep resentment towards Cubans who enjoy privileged status when it comes to immigration?
The New York Times has reported on the steady stream of Cubans who now "breeze across" the Mexican border and immediately start registering for food stamps, Medicaid, and work permits. Are we to think that poor and working class Hispanics will forget this inconvenient truth when they look at Cruz and Rubio?
Cubans represent 3.5% of the Hispanic population and presumably Cuban Americans are justifiably proud of Rafael And Marco and will support their candidacies.
But is it so hard to understand that many of the remaining 96.5% of American Hispanics -- those here as legal immigrants, those who are descended from legal immigrants, those who are the children of "illegal" parents living in fear of deportation, and those who have been Americans for generations -- must harbor deep resentment towards Cubans who enjoy privileged status when it comes to immigration?
The New York Times has reported on the steady stream of Cubans who now "breeze across" the Mexican border and immediately start registering for food stamps, Medicaid, and work permits. Are we to think that poor and working class Hispanics will forget this inconvenient truth when they look at Cruz and Rubio?
Its not just immigration. The Republican audit after Romney's 2012 identified the party's need to expand beyond its base. Trump's success, on the other hand, is achieving the polar opposite result with the party isolating itself to a dwindling core of angry old white men.
Two Hispanic friends of mine in their 40's were pivoting towards the Republican party just two years ago. Today each feels marginalized, even ostracized by the party. Both are conservative by nature, and in fact one is a royalist. They have since done a complete pivot leftward.
It's not just Trump either. What about Steve King- or the relentless, breathless, & negative Fox cable coverage? My friends also (along with lots of moderate Republicans) are astounded at the obstructionism the party is displaying. How on earth did the party expect this would turn out? So much for our representative democracy (& color-blind meritocracy.)
It's not just Trump either. What about Steve King- or the relentless, breathless, & negative Fox cable coverage? My friends also (along with lots of moderate Republicans) are astounded at the obstructionism the party is displaying. How on earth did the party expect this would turn out? So much for our representative democracy (& color-blind meritocracy.)
A significant minority of Latinos come from long-standing traditional republican affiliations, in Texas because the Democrats were the party of discrimination and in Miami because of the Cubans, especially among the older generation. One should not expect specific areas with Republican voting traditions to change quickly.
But polls overstate Latino republican support due to those areas.
1) The Latino community is very young, and even the young adults are heavily discounted in much of the polling as they tend not to vote;
2) polls tend to over-represent people born here and those more fully integrated into U.S. society. They under-represent native Spanish speakers, even among those who are citizens.
3) When poll responses get massaged (weighted) because there were not enough Latino respondents, you end up with a picture of the community based on an older and more conservative Latino sample.
The Republican catastrophe is much worse than it looks but there is one one saving grace: Republicans rhetoric is viciously anti-immigrant. But Democrat Obama is the head of the government that is actually carrying out a savage attack on our communities.
He betrayed his promise on immigration reform and instead gave us record deportations and record criminal prosecutions for immigration violations. Even his November 2014 executive action has backfired: one more unfulfilled promise while deportations continue. And he has been absolutely disgraceful on the Central American refugees.
But polls overstate Latino republican support due to those areas.
1) The Latino community is very young, and even the young adults are heavily discounted in much of the polling as they tend not to vote;
2) polls tend to over-represent people born here and those more fully integrated into U.S. society. They under-represent native Spanish speakers, even among those who are citizens.
3) When poll responses get massaged (weighted) because there were not enough Latino respondents, you end up with a picture of the community based on an older and more conservative Latino sample.
The Republican catastrophe is much worse than it looks but there is one one saving grace: Republicans rhetoric is viciously anti-immigrant. But Democrat Obama is the head of the government that is actually carrying out a savage attack on our communities.
He betrayed his promise on immigration reform and instead gave us record deportations and record criminal prosecutions for immigration violations. Even his November 2014 executive action has backfired: one more unfulfilled promise while deportations continue. And he has been absolutely disgraceful on the Central American refugees.
I watched the American Hispanic ad for Mrs. Clinton and it is moving. A young woman is comforted by the candidate.However I just do not buy into it because I know it is paid for with the funds of The Clinton Election INC. A corporation of donors who have bought stock in a product. The shareholders, some of the top supporters, were recently contacted for the purpose of telling them that their investments might not do as well as anticipated in the Nevada Caucuses. This might mean that their portfolios were headed for a slight decrease until the next quarterly statement. PS, you can SHORT on that.
1
And it was the Clinton 1996 welfare reform and especially the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996" signed by Bill Clinton that started the anti-Latino immigrant holy war. Hillary is nothing but a hypocrite, as she actively campaigned for the welfare reform and even today refuses to repudiate those laws.
About 63% of American Hispanics are Mexican mestizo, mulatto, Garifuna, African and Native along with 9.2% of Hispanic Americans who are Puerto Rican in similar categories. While a mere 3.5% of Americans are Cuban most of them are not white like Rafael Edward Cruz and Marco Antonio Rubio.
Cruz is a natural born citizen of Canada and is only half Cuban. While Rubio was born in America to two Cuban parents. While Rubio may be an American citizen for some purposes it is questionable whether the Founding Fathers intended that he is a "natural born citizen" qualified to be President of the United States.
If Donald Trump is nominated and elected POTUS his third and current wife would be a Slovenian born First Lady. Trump's first wife was Czech born. Trump curently has two broods of "anchor babies". Trump's mother was bron in Scotland. If John Ellis Bush is nominated and elected President, then America will have a Mexican born First Lady.
Cruz is a natural born citizen of Canada and is only half Cuban. While Rubio was born in America to two Cuban parents. While Rubio may be an American citizen for some purposes it is questionable whether the Founding Fathers intended that he is a "natural born citizen" qualified to be President of the United States.
If Donald Trump is nominated and elected POTUS his third and current wife would be a Slovenian born First Lady. Trump's first wife was Czech born. Trump curently has two broods of "anchor babies". Trump's mother was bron in Scotland. If John Ellis Bush is nominated and elected President, then America will have a Mexican born First Lady.
1
An interesting argument but there are really few Hispanic leaders anymore that can stand up to this. La Raza perhaps, but there is no Cesar Chavez. And, as someone said, why don't less well off Americans hate billionaires? Because, just like lottery players, they want to keep the hope that they can be the same eventually. Will be interesting with the opening of Cuba if Cuban Americans remain politically active or will they seek, as many are, to re-establish themselves in Cuba. That puts the onus on the non-Cuban Hispanics to develop a well functioning and politically active presence, which is hampered by fear of facing deportation harassment.
As someone said, we trust Hispanics to clean our pools, mow our lawns, cook and clean, and most important, to take care of our children. Why do we think they would be bad citizens? And why does the Republic establishment run on a Cuba friendly, other evil, platform?
As someone said, we trust Hispanics to clean our pools, mow our lawns, cook and clean, and most important, to take care of our children. Why do we think they would be bad citizens? And why does the Republic establishment run on a Cuba friendly, other evil, platform?
More damaging to the Republican party than what Trump says, is how it is received and embraced by the GOP electorate. He is leading by big margins, after all. Why would any Hispanic want to join that club?
9
Don't forget Cruz and Rubio are part of that favored group of Cubans that did not have to play by the rules of normal US immigration law. Ask the rest of Hispanic immigrants legal and illegal how they feel about it. I have many times told my Cuban friends that Castro was the best thing to happen to them. Otherwise they would be living in a 3rd world dictatorship of the right wing variety.
14
Neither Cruz nor Rubio were "part of that favored group of Cubans that did not have to play by the rules of normal US immigration law," as they were U.S. citizens from birth and not immigrants at all.
Nor were the parents beneficiaries of any Cubans-only immigration laws: Rubio's parents came in 1956; Cruz's father in 1957, both before the 1959 revolution and the 1961 economic blockade, which is when the differentiated treatment of Cubans as privileged anti-communist exiles began.
The claims by Rubio that his parents came fleeing the 1959 revolution have been thoroughly debunked.
Ted Cruz's father came to study at the University of Texas in 1957. There is a whole immigrant-overcomes-adversity narrative that does not concord with known facts. For example, he is said to have worked his way through college washing dishes for 50 cents an hour. At the time the minimum wage was a dollar.
The claim by Cruz's father that he received U.S. political asylum after getting his college degree in 1961 may be true. But at any rate there were no quotas for Western Hemisphere immigration to the United States until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, and being white, middle class and college educated, he would not have had any problem staying here (as the case of Rubio's parents demonstrates).
It is quite irritating to have people who do not know the facts to be pontificating about Cubans, Latinos and immigrants (I am all three).
Nor were the parents beneficiaries of any Cubans-only immigration laws: Rubio's parents came in 1956; Cruz's father in 1957, both before the 1959 revolution and the 1961 economic blockade, which is when the differentiated treatment of Cubans as privileged anti-communist exiles began.
The claims by Rubio that his parents came fleeing the 1959 revolution have been thoroughly debunked.
Ted Cruz's father came to study at the University of Texas in 1957. There is a whole immigrant-overcomes-adversity narrative that does not concord with known facts. For example, he is said to have worked his way through college washing dishes for 50 cents an hour. At the time the minimum wage was a dollar.
The claim by Cruz's father that he received U.S. political asylum after getting his college degree in 1961 may be true. But at any rate there were no quotas for Western Hemisphere immigration to the United States until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, and being white, middle class and college educated, he would not have had any problem staying here (as the case of Rubio's parents demonstrates).
It is quite irritating to have people who do not know the facts to be pontificating about Cubans, Latinos and immigrants (I am all three).
3
"For the Republican Party to grab Hispanic voting power, its only real hope right now is to put its faith in voters." What a non-sensical conclusion. Republican voters are those listening to the cannibals in the clown car who are all anti-immigration. No Latino would dare enter that little tent of horrors inhabited by Trump and company. The 2012 GOP post-mortem report was DOA.
11
The problem is that the Republican "brand" IS anti-immigration and anti-hispanic. For 1.5 decades now Republicans seem to think marketing and political platforms and policies are different things. In contrast to the poor white voters who constantly vote against their own self-interest, Hispanic voters have Republicans figured out for the hypocrites that they are.
15
This article does much harm to everybody by mixing the terms Hispanic with other terms that should not be used as synonyms. I have gone to school with Hispanics since the first grade and I went to graduate school with native Hispanics, Mexicans, Cubans, Venezuelans, and many from other countries including Spain. Immigrants and illegal immigrants are different things. Hispanics like all other people are individuals.
1
Hispanic is a generic term for people who come from areas historically colonized by Spain, and generally who speak Spanish. Really the only people who could conceivably be wrongly grouped into this are Brazilians, Jamaicans, and Haitians.
If your point is that Trump was talking about Mexican immigrants in particular and not Hispanics as a whole, well, you're right.... but I rather think Mr. Trump was being unintentionally specific, and meant more along the generically racist lines that Hispanics are like that, and not just Mexicans.
If your point is that Trump was talking about Mexican immigrants in particular and not Hispanics as a whole, well, you're right.... but I rather think Mr. Trump was being unintentionally specific, and meant more along the generically racist lines that Hispanics are like that, and not just Mexicans.
2
Add 'moderates' to groups who feel unwelcome. (I was listening when Ted Cruz's campaign ads against David Dewhurst, fellow Republican, attacked him as "a moderate". Cruz won that primary election). Being called a RINO -- a Republican In Name Only -- is the kiss of death within the GOP. RINO is another name for 'moderate'. The GOP only wants to elect 'real conservatives'.
6
I'm sorry for the Latino voters who object, but 11 million illegal immigrants has had a terrible effect on American working class wages and jobs. Depending on the source, some say it has no effect, and others say it does. Common sense and experience, however, tell working class Americans that huge numbers of illegal, vulnerable workers, who will work long hours for peanuts without the rights earned long ago by unions, have a negative effect on the working conditions and pay of all legal working-class Americans. Of course it's great for businesses and upper-class folks to have really cheap labour. But no one believes them any more.
The US needs secure borders. It needs a humane way to expel illegal aliens who have no roots in America. And it needs to make vulnerable illegal immigrants -- who have worked hard, raised a family, and built America -- full citizens with all the rights and responsibilities that this status entails.
The US needs secure borders. It needs a humane way to expel illegal aliens who have no roots in America. And it needs to make vulnerable illegal immigrants -- who have worked hard, raised a family, and built America -- full citizens with all the rights and responsibilities that this status entails.
1
This reasoning is why most of us hate seeing each year's high school graduating class. It kills the economy for the rest of us.
2
It is not the "illegal" immigrants per se that depress wages, but rather their illegality. Because they are at risk of being deported, they have no leverage to bargain for good (or even statutory minimum) wages. Once the threat of deportation is lifted they will have that bargaining power, and that will tend to push the wage scale up for all workers (especially in our current near-full-employment economy)
Quite aside from the wage level issue, it is pure folly to think that we can deport 11 million people without causing a contraction in the economy that leads to a depression of record proportions. They were let in and permitted to remain with the tacit acceptance of both parties, particularly the Republican business establishment, and they fill an economic need here. And btw, they have generally been here for ten to twenty years. They are part of our communities, and mass deportation would be a social as well as an economic catastrophe for this country.
Quite aside from the wage level issue, it is pure folly to think that we can deport 11 million people without causing a contraction in the economy that leads to a depression of record proportions. They were let in and permitted to remain with the tacit acceptance of both parties, particularly the Republican business establishment, and they fill an economic need here. And btw, they have generally been here for ten to twenty years. They are part of our communities, and mass deportation would be a social as well as an economic catastrophe for this country.
8
The thing is, demonizing and deporting is a stupid idea (although, I'm sure, satisfying to racists). The problem has always been a purely economic one, the best way to shrink the number of Mexican immigrants in a humane way is to go for policies to improve the lot of all workers such as the $15 dollar minimum wage (and enforce it, particularly targeting businesses rather than immigrants). Immigrants get more rights and higher wages, and thus the businesses have less reason to hire them over other workers and the net emigration that already exists picks up steam. Want to accelerate it more? Stabilizing countries in Central America would be a great start, but that is more easily said than done, of course. Those that leave probably consider their country of origin home, hopefully they have fruitful lives; those that stay probably want to be Americans, and that is what our country is built on, case closed.
The dirty secret always was that demonizing latino immigrants kept the labor cheap by putting all of the bargaining power in the hands of employers, making many businesses happy, but politicians never 'really' wanted to stop them from coming, despite the massive show of force we put up at our border. What's currently happening was always the dream scenario for Democrats, Republicans shoving Hispanics towards them despite the fact they were essentially complicit in our nightmare of an immigration policy.
The dirty secret always was that demonizing latino immigrants kept the labor cheap by putting all of the bargaining power in the hands of employers, making many businesses happy, but politicians never 'really' wanted to stop them from coming, despite the massive show of force we put up at our border. What's currently happening was always the dream scenario for Democrats, Republicans shoving Hispanics towards them despite the fact they were essentially complicit in our nightmare of an immigration policy.
1
WHEN will the R's stop viewing Hispanics as recent immigrants? In fact, even the "mainstream media" talks about Hispanics as recent immigrants, which tells you a lot about their mindset.
Hispanic society is NOT about recent immigrants, or first generation immigrants. We've been in the U.S. longer than the Mayflower descendants!
The degree of mindlessness is incredible, and sad to see.
Hispanic society is NOT about recent immigrants, or first generation immigrants. We've been in the U.S. longer than the Mayflower descendants!
The degree of mindlessness is incredible, and sad to see.
19
@Fdo Centeno: Thank you for pointing this out. Yes, some of us have families who have been in this country a very long time. As you say, Spanish settlements predate the Mayflower.
2
I was poll-watching once on Sanchez St. in San Francisco's Noe Valley, when a fellow named Sanchez came in to vote. More or less jokingly, I asked him if he were related to the street. Yes, in fact. His was one of the founding families of the city, before any Anglos even knew where the place was.
3
Shocking! Can it possibly be true that, unlike some followers of Trump, who would vote for him even if he committed murder on Fifth Avenue, that might not be true of Hispanics? That perhaps what he he says DOES matter to them??
When I'm not shaking my head in amazement at this circus, I can't help but wonder if maybe there really IS method behind Trump's madness. Only way that could be true, though, is if his real alliance is with Democrats, where, oddly enough, it used to be, and he is now acting as a suicide bomber among the Republicans.
But nahh, they'd never fall for that, would they? They'd have to be so unthinking that .... well.... they'd vote for a candidate even if he committed murder on Fifth Ave.
When I'm not shaking my head in amazement at this circus, I can't help but wonder if maybe there really IS method behind Trump's madness. Only way that could be true, though, is if his real alliance is with Democrats, where, oddly enough, it used to be, and he is now acting as a suicide bomber among the Republicans.
But nahh, they'd never fall for that, would they? They'd have to be so unthinking that .... well.... they'd vote for a candidate even if he committed murder on Fifth Ave.
6
Mitt Romney was not just hostile to Hispanics, like all his Republican colleagues past and present, he was and is hostile to reality in general. When your base relies on Fox for its "news", it kind of comes with the territory.
7
Let me clear about one thing, I am not a supporter of Donald Trump. That said, the republican party establishment should blame itself for the alienation of Hispanic voters. They had laid the foundation for someone like Donald Trump to come along long before Trump arrived. As a trial lawyer, during a trial I know there are certain questions on certain subjects I can't ask unless my opponent has, as we say, "opened the door." Well, Trump's predecessors had opened the door long before Trump arrived. All he did was walk through it with guns and trumpets blaring.
20
Can we please, please stop saying that Rubio's parents FLED Cuba. They left before Castro came to power. They came for jobs in Vegas. They were immigrants who did not have to flee. They decided to move. Rubio tries to trade on the phony story he's always told. At least once a month someone writing in this paper repeats it. It's not true!
26
They fled the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar. The Cuban Revolution happened for a reason, you know.
2
The other clowns in the Republican primary deserve some of the blame for taking the low road on immigration reform. They oppose recognizing imagrants as people with rights and needs.
7
Currently, the overview of the Republican Party is far from favorable. Between the bombast of Trump and the apparent slick/sleaziness of Cruz, the picture presented is not remotely logical. More frightening is the apparent acceptance of the two men to American voters.
The Hispanic vote has become an important factor in politics as has the vote of Blacks and women and that is how it should be.
The Republicans are spitting in the eye of too many voters. I hope this perception lasts through the election and American voters wake up to the travesty being presented them.
The Hispanic vote has become an important factor in politics as has the vote of Blacks and women and that is how it should be.
The Republicans are spitting in the eye of too many voters. I hope this perception lasts through the election and American voters wake up to the travesty being presented them.
8
Trump is the GOP on sodium pentothal. We only know what Romney and the party "elite" think when they're caught on hidden camera/microphone. If Trump has a saving grace, it's that he speaks the GOP mind, unfiltered, so voters (Hispanic or otherwise) know what the party is about. Painting Trump as the "problem" in some respects misses the point.
30
SOOO True!
5
Cruz and Rubio are Cuban, and as such they do not share the same legacy of immigration as non-Cuban Latino voters. Cubans have always been welcomed into this country and their rightful presence here has never been questioned. There is a special immigration law just for this purpose, a relic of the cold war. Cubans are, as a result, generally wealthier and much better off than other Latinos who required many years just to get their immigration status cleared, much less begin to thrive in this country. To this extent, there is an enormous difference between the political interests of a Cuban immigrant and any other Latino immigrant.
21
Cruz and Rubio are white Cubans.
No disingenuous "story line" can save the party, period. Don't blame it all on Trump. To any cognitive observer, the GOP has become the party of and for white men.
18
So, am I to understand that there are 55% of Latino voters who don't think the Republican party is "hostile" to them and their interests? Who are these folks -- ones who think that the Republican party is way beyond hostile?
8
Like many commentators, Ms. Vavreck mistakenly blames Donald Trump for damaging the Republican brand with Hispanics. Trump is merely saying, in a more direct and raw way, what every candidate (with the possible exceptions of Kasich and Bush) are saying. The problem of the Republican party and Hispanics is that the party is hostage to an angry, irrational, right wing that wants to blame immigrants (especially those that don't look like them) for their ills, rather than the 1% who have been stealing from the rest of us for decades, and the party which has been facilitating this theft. Don't blame Trump for that.
38
The problem of the Republican Party is that working poor Hispanics simply will never vote for Republicans. Even the 1986 amnesty, signed by Reagan, did not turn Hispanics into Republicans. In fact, the Republican share of the Hispanic vote DECREASED from 37% for Reagan before the amnesty to 30% for his VP and successor George HW Bush a mere two years AFTER the amnesty.
1
There's a bridge in Arizona I can sell to anyone who really thinks that the Republicans actually do care about Hispanics. Or women. Or minorities in general. The only minority the Republicans care about is the 1%.
61
I'm not a Republican voter. But I wonder why it is the press continues to pretend that Trump is hostile toward hispanics, or in some way "doesn't want them in the country".
His opposition is to *illegal* immigrants. Trump is the only one who seems to care about unemployment among wage-earning Americans, who can't get jobs that have been taken by illegal immigrants: restaurants, construction, etc.
The left claims to care about issues like, for example, high unemployment among black Americans. But then they offer amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants, who in many cases are competing for the same jobs.
His opposition is to *illegal* immigrants. Trump is the only one who seems to care about unemployment among wage-earning Americans, who can't get jobs that have been taken by illegal immigrants: restaurants, construction, etc.
The left claims to care about issues like, for example, high unemployment among black Americans. But then they offer amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants, who in many cases are competing for the same jobs.
4
Sorry, Bob, but if you are in real danger of losing out to an "illegal" for a job, you have even bigger problems than not having a job. The jobs left for you or the "illegals" are not much better than begging. The GOP and its fellow-travelers in service of the 1% have assured you of a permanent place at the bottom of the ladder whether you have a job or not. You're stuck.
Better and better for fewer and fewer.
Better and better for fewer and fewer.
9
Please remember that all those jobs "taken by illegal immigrants" were hired by someone who is saving labor costs by hiring and exploiting undocumented aliens and is making a greater profit by doing so. These are the people against any kind of immigration reform.....it would result in increased labor costs and reduced profits.
Even Forbes-that bastion of liberal thought-shows the premise of undocumenteds stealing jobs is wrong.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2015/08/28/how-do-illegal-immigran...
I know it is hard to fight the desire to love Trump's idiotic positions with facts, but please do try.
Even Forbes-that bastion of liberal thought-shows the premise of undocumenteds stealing jobs is wrong.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2015/08/28/how-do-illegal-immigran...
I know it is hard to fight the desire to love Trump's idiotic positions with facts, but please do try.
9
Ag-i-culture: will anyone "compete" with illegal immigrants (and their children, legally allowed to work in the fields) for agricultural jobs?
Whatever goes around comes around. The seeds of hatred Republicans have been spewing for the past ten plus years are beginning to sprout the sort of normal human reactions one might expect.
Imagine where the republicans would be if their white racist base actually had the intelligence to understand what "their " party has in store for Them should they gain the presidency. The attacks on muslims, immigrants, African Americans,women and the like will give rise to the Republicans' most favored attacks of those on social security, medicare, healthcare and, well, oh, the so called middle class who would vote them in.
Trump may be perceived by the establishment as "the problem", but Cruz, Rubio and Bush would be no less dangerous to America and the world.
Imagine where the republicans would be if their white racist base actually had the intelligence to understand what "their " party has in store for Them should they gain the presidency. The attacks on muslims, immigrants, African Americans,women and the like will give rise to the Republicans' most favored attacks of those on social security, medicare, healthcare and, well, oh, the so called middle class who would vote them in.
Trump may be perceived by the establishment as "the problem", but Cruz, Rubio and Bush would be no less dangerous to America and the world.
38
I am not sure how much long "Jesus is a Republican" can hold people of faith.
16
Keep in mind that the damage to the Republican brand didn't have to come to this. There was a bipartisan immigration bill that passed the Senate and was stopped in the Congress because of the silly Hastert rule. There were enough votes to pass the bill but John Boehner just wouldn't let it be voted on. He caved to the most extreme voices within his party instead of the establishment politicians and the voters are rewarding him by voting for the non-establishment candidates. This wound is completely self-inflicted.
32
The author writes as though Trump's attitudes and language are outliers for the party, transgressive, but every candidate is vying to depict himself as harsher and more resolute to deny outreach to those in the country illegally. That Cruz and Rubio are themselves children of immigrants merely makes their hatefulness toward others worse. The party has painted itself into a corner--it *can't* reach out to minorities or women without abandoning the core policies it has trumpeted. This was a problem identified in 2012 as the "need for outreach," without acknowledging that outreach involves changing the party itself, not putting on a better mask.
24
If you're not white, male and Christian, the Republican Party has a problem with you.
67
Don't tell that to Cruz, Rubio and Carson.
1
Not any Christian, just fundamentalist.
7
You forgot rich and straight.
5
Let's get this straight Trump didn't create this problem, the Republican Party does not like Hispanics period. They also don't like blacks, Muslims, women, labor, aetheists, gays, the President of the United States or his supporters. The Republicans hate more then 70% of the American population. It's just taking longer then it should for everyone to read the memo.
90
Rubio, Hispanic. Cruz, Hispanic. Carson, Black. Fioroni, a Woman.
You were saying?
You were saying?
1
Show us Republican Party support for rubio, cruz or fioroni.
1
Oh, Hank, come on. Cruz, Rubio, Carson, and Fiorina are the exceptions that prove the rule. Any party can trot out candidates like these, but the question is, what do their advocated policies do for, or to, those who aren't wealthy lawyers, neurosurgeons, or former CEO's? What effect would those policies have on the vast majority of Latinos, African-Americans, and women who bear no resemblance to these candidates? The GOP's hostility to persons of color may be veiled (except in the case of Trump), but it is absolutely there, in the policies they advocate.
3
If it is true that net migration is at effective zero, we should be disturbed, because this means that for many Mexicans, America and Mexico are now at par. Mexico has climbed, and America has declined. NAFTA and the illegal migration wave of the 1990s and 2000s are not ancient economic history: we’re living it right now. Are our leaders (or those who do their thinking) a bunch of idiots, as Trump says, or was this the plan all along, as Sanders says?
The two parties are all twisted up. Conservatives would have a hard time finding much about George W. Bush’s administration that by their standards they could call conservative; it might have been a lot of things, but conservative is not up there. And liberals would have to admit that Bill Clinton (from after the 1994 Congressional election) had governed more conservatively than Bush.
The two parties are all twisted up. Conservatives would have a hard time finding much about George W. Bush’s administration that by their standards they could call conservative; it might have been a lot of things, but conservative is not up there. And liberals would have to admit that Bill Clinton (from after the 1994 Congressional election) had governed more conservatively than Bush.
2
No, it would not mean that US and Mexico are at par. It would mean two things: 1. The degree to which the US offers an income and quality of life premium has fallen, to a meaningful extent, as the Mexican economy has developed and expanded, 2. More importantly, the risks and costs associated with illegally emigrating to the US are much higher than they were years ago, and unacceptable to much of the Mexican and Central American population that otherwise would seek to make the now very hazardous journey, and 3. Even if the US does not have a perfectly secure border, it is appreciably more difficult to cross it than it was in prior years, when net immigration into the US was high. For all 3 reasons combined the flow of immigrants to the US across our southern border has greatly diminished. But it does not mean that we are on par with Mexico and Central America. You have to factor in the externalities.
6
Trump and Cruz aside, the GOP would also have to expel Limbaugh, Savage, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, Lou Hobbs, etal. That would necessarily split the party, and might,eventually, happen.
At this point, though, these kind of elements seem to have injected a level of partisanship that resembles a civil cold-war. Nativism is just one skirmish ground. The Supreme Court has become another. This isn't principal or ideology. Just power politics as the GOP has come to play the game.
At this point, though, these kind of elements seem to have injected a level of partisanship that resembles a civil cold-war. Nativism is just one skirmish ground. The Supreme Court has become another. This isn't principal or ideology. Just power politics as the GOP has come to play the game.
10
Does anyone really think it’s only Hispanics the GOP has a problem with? Every immigrant group has to be concerned about the vitriol directed at Hispanics. The party of Lincoln lost the Blacks many years ago and now they are poised to lose the Hispanics. In the black community any talk of voting Republican is looked on as treasonous. More sooner than later the feeling will be the same in the Hispanic community. The other groups of immigrants have to believe after they deport the Hispanics that they will be next. To think if Cruz or Rubio is the candidate of the right that Hispanics are going to break the walls down to vote for them is ludicrous. Ask any black person are they even thinking about Ben Carson? Just think if Clarence Thomas ran for any office where would his support come from? Someone should remind the GOP once you let the Genie out of the bottle it is almost impossible to get him back in.
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A Mexican's culture more closely mirrors the ideology of the Republican than it does the Democrats. Once naturalized, the newly minted Americans, no longer needing the Democrats support, will steadily effect their second migration, that to the right of American politics.
Hispanic cultures are rife with homophobia, misogyny and racism. Trump would be embraced as the second coming should he be a Mexican politician running for the PRI's nomination.
Hispanic cultures are rife with homophobia, misogyny and racism. Trump would be embraced as the second coming should he be a Mexican politician running for the PRI's nomination.
1
This should come as no surprise. The Repiblicans have been playing to their racist, nativist, know nothing base ever since they inherited disaffected Dixicrats in 1964. With Trump's ascendance, the Republicans are just reaping what they've sewn. I'd love to see Obama nominate a Hispanic to the Supreme Court just to watch the Republicans squirm.
27
He already has — Sonia Sotomayor! As you might expect, the squirming was divine. ;-)
10
Or Mrs. Clinton or Sen. Saunders should select Julian Castro as a running mate.
2
If we thought the Republican primary race was spectacular, gladiatorial entertainment, now we can enjoy the interesting, inevitable "squirmishes" during the process to appoint a new Supreme Court justice.
4
Don't blame the messenger. Don't blame Trump. He merely voiced what too many republicans really think. It's not even that clear Trump believes most of what he says. If the party goes extinct, it would be richly deserved. Cosmic justice.
Then the Rockefeller Republican types can rebuild the party from ground-up. Not that there aren't bad seeds there (or in Dems for that matter), but the know-nothing's have hijacked the party and it's time for them to be exposed as the ugly racists and un-American scoundrels that they are.
In a way, Trump is the savior for the GOP. Sooner they crumble the sooner we will get back a sane half of our political system.
Then the Rockefeller Republican types can rebuild the party from ground-up. Not that there aren't bad seeds there (or in Dems for that matter), but the know-nothing's have hijacked the party and it's time for them to be exposed as the ugly racists and un-American scoundrels that they are.
In a way, Trump is the savior for the GOP. Sooner they crumble the sooner we will get back a sane half of our political system.
9
Even though I am a life-long D, I regret seeing the cage the Rs have forged for themselves. When/if the GOP implodes, it will leave a huge, virtually irreplaceable hole in our representative government. For possibly decades, many good-hearted, honest conservatives will lose their political voices, having a much-reduced role in governance. America needs diversity of opinion, healthy debate, and ultimate compromise to maintain stability in a world that is increasingly intolerant and dangerous.
The possible demise of the GOP is tragic, not something to cheer about or gloat over.
The possible demise of the GOP is tragic, not something to cheer about or gloat over.
4
I worry about the opposite, not that the GOP will implode but that they will win in November, giving power to the nativists and strengthening them in the future.
Also, I don't think Trump is the only one to blame. Most of the others put each other down by pointing out when they favored welcoming policies toward immigrants, accusing each other of offering amnesty, for example. So most of the candidates believe that immigrant-bashing is the way to win, not just Trump. He is just more gross about how he says it.
Also, I don't think Trump is the only one to blame. Most of the others put each other down by pointing out when they favored welcoming policies toward immigrants, accusing each other of offering amnesty, for example. So most of the candidates believe that immigrant-bashing is the way to win, not just Trump. He is just more gross about how he says it.
9
Second that.
2
One can hear the death rattle of the republican party. This is what happens when a healthy, necessary organization allows a hostile takeover by BIG democracy-destroying money masters. Just like hostile takeovers on Wall Street the new "owners" are nothing but predators out for all the power and money they can get and the rest of us be damned. Time for Americans to find and support socially conscious democrats and independents who actually want to serve America. No one has shown that desire as much as Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton. SHE has my vote and thanks for having the courage to step up and represent women - and the men who love and respect them - in OUR restored democracy. November 8 cannot come soon enough.
32
Trump is certainly the loudest and most blatant anti-immigrant voice in that party, but to suggest he is the only one is laughable. The other candidates are just as hateful, they just know how to more effectively use the dog whistles that the GOP has mastered over the years.
37
C'mon, you can't pretend that Cruz and the others have what one might call a friendly approach to minorities of any race or ethnicity. These guys are pandering to frightened white folks.
41
Why doesn't the Republican Party cut him loose? Make the statement that his brand is not the Republican brand and be done with it. Clean house. Let him run as his own little party and take a few folks with him. In the long run it is obviously the best thing for the Republicans. They may lose the presidential election but will likely keep the Senate and a political future. Otherwise, in the words of Mr. Priebus ... "We are toast."
6
How could they do that? In the US, anyone can run for anything in any party he likes.
1
Great. The have nots voting for the haves. Unbelievable!
8
Donald Trump is hardly alone in his implacable hostility to anybody-who-is-not-white, particularly Hispanics and Muslims. I can recall quite a lot of hate speech flowing from any number of Republicans. It started with the tea party types, then the mainstreamers kicked in to pander to the GOP base of primary voters. Trump, while despicable, is hardly the only guilty party. This was going on long before Donald Trump joined the party.
57
This was going on since long before the tea party. There were strong traces of it in the 1964 election. Goldwater himself was not an overt racist (he had even once belonged to the NAACP), but his party was more than glad to benefit from backlash to the Civil Rights Act. Their racist opportunism came to full flower in Nixon's Southern Strategy, and was further invigorated by Reagan by the time he started his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi with the welfare queen trope.
One might even argue that the GOP sold its soul in the election of 1876, by sacrificing Reconstruction for the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. And Teddy Roosevelt was never able to recover it. Long, long ago.
One might even argue that the GOP sold its soul in the election of 1876, by sacrificing Reconstruction for the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. And Teddy Roosevelt was never able to recover it. Long, long ago.
8
Anyone who thinks anti immigrant Cubans, like Canadian refuge Rafael Cruz or lying about his parents being "exiles" Rubiobot, are going to win the Mexican American vote is the real dreamer.
For 50 years the Mexicans have watched as Cubans are greeted with a SNAP card, a Medicaid card and Supplemental Social Security Income, without having worked one hour in the US.
Last year Mexicans have watched 45,000 Cuban walk across the Mexican/US border, while Mexicans are hunted like rabid dogs and deported at the drop of a hat.
Whereas Cuban's cannot be deported. High heeled, zip-up bootie aficionado Rubio's brother in law, Orlando Cicilia, did 13 years, federal, for drug trafficking and is footloose and fancy free in Miami, today.
For 50 years the Mexicans have watched as Cubans are greeted with a SNAP card, a Medicaid card and Supplemental Social Security Income, without having worked one hour in the US.
Last year Mexicans have watched 45,000 Cuban walk across the Mexican/US border, while Mexicans are hunted like rabid dogs and deported at the drop of a hat.
Whereas Cuban's cannot be deported. High heeled, zip-up bootie aficionado Rubio's brother in law, Orlando Cicilia, did 13 years, federal, for drug trafficking and is footloose and fancy free in Miami, today.
83
I agree. Not much love lost between Americans of Mexican descent and Cubans. New Mexico has a large Hispanic population. Many families go back to colonial times. And while certainly not a monolithic voting group, New Mexico is pretty reliably Democratic. I have a hard time believing either Cruz or Rubio would change that.
btw, Rubiobot? I would have gotten there. But maybe it fits so well that it was unavoidable.
btw, Rubiobot? I would have gotten there. But maybe it fits so well that it was unavoidable.
12
It is no accident that Trump hit a nerve with the GOP rank and file. He is saying aloud what they feel, and the rest of the front of the pack is with him. Cruz and Rubio - neither of whose parents fled the Cuban revolution, by the way - are arguing over which of them is for "amesty", in Republican-speak. Trump does not so much damage the GOP brand as he sheds light on it.
The Republicans keep think it is a p.r. problem, a messaging issue. No, it is a policy issue. They contuine down the same path holding back progress both economically and socially and wonder why everyone isn't marching back towards the ninteenth century with them. They should not blame Trump. He just says bluntly what they do policy-wise. They need to blame the hatefulness of themselves, their policies, and their owners.
The Republicans keep think it is a p.r. problem, a messaging issue. No, it is a policy issue. They contuine down the same path holding back progress both economically and socially and wonder why everyone isn't marching back towards the ninteenth century with them. They should not blame Trump. He just says bluntly what they do policy-wise. They need to blame the hatefulness of themselves, their policies, and their owners.
77
You said what I was thinking as I read this piece. This article contends it's a messaging problem. It's not. All of the front-runners and a large portion of their primary voters espouse vitriol and outright hatred toward immigrants, whether here legally or not. Trying to attract more Hispanic voters by changing the party's message is like putting lipstick on a pig and calling it a pretty lady.
13
It should be noted that the Growth and Opportunity Project concluded that the party's anti-immigrant message was not the problem, that the message need not change, rather the packaging was what needed changing. And so it has, just not in the direction the Project participants envision. The Project concluded that the best course of action was to avoid putting the party's stance on immigration up front during the elections and to avoid any discussions that would lead Latinos further away from the party. Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and other party leaders disregarded the "packaging" issue, and have fully brought the party's stance on immigration to the forefront. For the GOP to even get Latinos to listen, it would need to change its stance on immigration, not just the message or the packaging, a step that NONE of the Republican presidential candidates (except maybe Bush), the leadership, and, to a large extent, the rank and file, are willing to do.
7
I agree completely that Trump is just shedding light on the vile underbelly of the R party. It seems that too often when Trump flouts how tough he is on radical issues, the other candidates jump in and try to vie for being equally extreme.
4
Read "Adios America" by Ann Coulter.
2
As an "East Coast Republican" living in the West, the current Republican brand is sullied.
None of the candidates are espousing a solid economic program - one based on reality of the world we live in - just "Voodo Economics" (GHW Bush).
None of the candidates have a vision that will bring people together, minimize differences' only emphasize differences. It doesn't matter where one comes from, we are all human, we deserve to be treated with respect. In fact the religious right want to accentuate these differences by using "God" as their unifying message, recent statistics indicate that over 20% of US citizens do not believe in a "God".
Looking back nearly 100 years ago, the conclusion one can have is that all the Republican candidates are fascists of one sort of another (with exception, perhaps of John Kasich.
The "brand" is a dinosaur more suited for the Spanish Inquistion than the 21st Century. I don't see how any caring, thinking human being - Hispanic, Afro-American, Asian, Euopean - of any religious persuasion (or none) support the current "vehement rhetoric".
None of the candidates are espousing a solid economic program - one based on reality of the world we live in - just "Voodo Economics" (GHW Bush).
None of the candidates have a vision that will bring people together, minimize differences' only emphasize differences. It doesn't matter where one comes from, we are all human, we deserve to be treated with respect. In fact the religious right want to accentuate these differences by using "God" as their unifying message, recent statistics indicate that over 20% of US citizens do not believe in a "God".
Looking back nearly 100 years ago, the conclusion one can have is that all the Republican candidates are fascists of one sort of another (with exception, perhaps of John Kasich.
The "brand" is a dinosaur more suited for the Spanish Inquistion than the 21st Century. I don't see how any caring, thinking human being - Hispanic, Afro-American, Asian, Euopean - of any religious persuasion (or none) support the current "vehement rhetoric".
48
No, no, John Kasich is a soft-spoken, more polite fascist. That's his trick. Republicans, in general, have been no friends to immigrants, or brown people.
30
The author ignores the anti-immigrant bias of the GOP base primary voters. That bias has led to negative policies toward Latinos by most of the other GOP candidates. Even Rubio who championed a reasonable policy at one point has moved to a much harsher line to assuage the base. Trump is a problem, but he is not the only problem.
45
Interesting that the RNC would clearly identify the issue of inclusion. This is as much, or more than any other issue highlights the fallacy that the Republican Party has any semblance of cohesion. The party has become so beholden to the main factions that it is impossible for rational politicians to be heard.
The RNC is the party that gave America some of it's greatest political minds. If Cruz and Trump want to make America Great Again, they might want to consider that the minorities that they will not stand beside, will become a majority that will never vote Republican. Ultimately that's very bad for democracy in the US.
The RNC is the party that gave America some of it's greatest political minds. If Cruz and Trump want to make America Great Again, they might want to consider that the minorities that they will not stand beside, will become a majority that will never vote Republican. Ultimately that's very bad for democracy in the US.
8
The dogs bark, and the caravan passes on.
Nothing seems to be able to stop the Trump train, not even the trashing of whole demographics or former U. S. Presidents. One can only hope that the country as a whole isn't taken in by the abhorrent rhetoric of the Donald.
The party of Lincoln has come to sad times indeed. One only wonders what's next.
Nothing seems to be able to stop the Trump train, not even the trashing of whole demographics or former U. S. Presidents. One can only hope that the country as a whole isn't taken in by the abhorrent rhetoric of the Donald.
The party of Lincoln has come to sad times indeed. One only wonders what's next.
22