I always thought I may be Latino or a Latino. I’ve never been comfortable with the term to know the proper usage. Hispanic is another word that vexes me. I’ve never met a Mexican or Puerto Rican that used it. It’s always upper middle class white people. Anyway, according to this story, polls show Latinos agree with me on a wide range of issues. Either I’m Latino or they are becoming me.
Immigration is only the 6th-most-important issue for Latino voters in California when casting a vote for a candidate for U.S. Senator or for U.S. Congress, according to a statewide survey conducted by Univision.
When registered Latino voters were asked to name their most important issues, the results, in order, were: education (21%), jobs (16%), government spending and the deficit (15%), social security (13%), “how what they do will affect my wallet” (10%), health care (9%), immigration (8%), and crime and personal safety (5%).
An overwhelming 86% of those surveyed support comprehensive immigration reform. However, a majority–53%–of registered Latino voters in California also answered that they believe that, “…we should require borders to be secured before providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”
Furthermore, when asked, “Which of the following is your major concern or complaint about the Republican Party?”, only ten percent of those surveyed named Republican opposition to immigration reform.
The number one gripe was that Republicans “care mostly about corporations and big business” (17%). Other concerns, in order, were that Republicans: care only for themselves (17%), favor the rich (14%), are against immigration reform (10%), don’t stand up strongly for their beliefs (7%), “don’t understand people like me” (6%), and favoring white people not minorities (5%).
I’ve said for years that the problem we have is both parties are sock puppets for multi-nationals and the banksters. The Democrats are better at pretending they are for the average guy, but that’s because most of them are a little nuts. Republicans, on the other hand, think being the friend of CitiCorp and Haliburton is the same as being business friendly. These are not businesses. They are fiefdoms.
The second complaint is another with which I agree. The GOP leadership has known for a long time how to turn their promises to the base into results, but they refuse to do it. They prefer the status quo as that’s where the easy money resides. They use the middle-class to lever riches for themselves from the political system. Democrats, at least, try to follow through with their promises to destroy the country.
Of course, the big take away is that immigration is meaningless to the prospects of the GOP with Latinos. As a newly minted Latino, I have a different interpretation. Like the majority of my new race, I want a secure border, expedient deportations and sensible policy about who and how many immigrate here. I DON’T WANT AMNESTY.
All I want is to ape the rules and practices which Mexico itself applies to illegal immigrants. Who could object to that, except for the custom of beating them on the way out?
The problem is that the fraction of latinos who favor unrestricted immigration keeps going up. IIRC, those latinos opposed to unrestricted immigration used to be around two-thirds about 20 years ago. If we keep flooding the country with illegal immigrants, eventually you get to the point where the majority favor it.