re: #404 lostlakehiker

Time, here and now in the US, has a built in bias toward minority concerns. But will that minority be liberal? Mexico, taken as a whole, is not exactly liberal. New Mexico just elected (re-elected?) an Hispanic woman governor. Republican. It is by no means certain that when today’s Hispanic youth reach voting age, they will be indistinguishable in their politics from Tom Harkins.

Things will be different. But in what ways, we shall find out when we get to the future.

Well here’s the thing. Minority youth voters are actually pretty socially liberal. Just like white youth voters are more socially liberal than their parents. And here’s another thing. The Dem candidates tonight did great with Hispanics. Abbott actually did not meet his expectation and I think Gardner in Colorado only got 24%. The other thing is frankly actions. Hispanic voters have seen a lot of condescending behavior to them from GOP politicos. They’ve seen John McCain go from a genuine friend on issues to them to someone repeating the same old platitudes about building the dang fence and don’t get me started on people like Steve King or Louie Gohmert who want to make them out to be all cartel drug mules. And finally there’s bread and butter type issues. Education is an important issue to the Hispanic community. Many of these people are going to be the first people in their family attending college. They’re not going to think too highly of a party that seems to shun public education and has supported cutting student loans and also strongly continues to oppose the DREAM ACT. Once maybe the GOP had a legitimate shot at competing for the Hispanic vote but I really think they blew their load once they went against one of the few sane political instincts I think President Bush had.