WSJ: Conservative Latinos Rethink Party Ties
May 2, 2010 by The I-Team
Filed under News affecting the 2012 Elections
I’m not jazzed about the title, but it is how some of our members are feeling here in Arizona. It is what it is.
Miriam did a good job with the article. Thanks, Miriam!
By MIRIAM JORDAN
Adam Bustos, a third-generation Mexican-American, has voted Republican since Ronald Reagan ran for president. But he has been reconsidering his party affiliation since Arizona State Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest immigration law last month.
“I’ve been thinking I might leave the party,” said Mr. Bustos, a 58-year-old Arizona native. “A lot of my Latino Republican friends have been talking about it after this law.”
The new Arizona law requires police to question people whom they suspect are in the U.S. illegally. Supporters say the law is necessary to combat rampant illegal border crossings. Opponents say it can’t be enforced without violating civil liberties.
Many Hispanic-Americans say they feel stung by a law they allege invites racial profiling, incites hatred and discriminates against all Latinos.
The law in Arizona was passed by a Republican legislature and signed by a GOP governor. Republican lawmakers in Texas, Utah and several other states have said they would consider introducing laws similar to the one passed in Arizona.
Conservative Hispanic voters, in particular, say they feel betrayed by Republican Party leaders who have supported the law.
<snip>But even some of the most conservative Latinos were jolted by the Arizona law. Deedee Blase, a Mexican-American resident of Phoenix who served in the Air Force, said she favored tighter border security and a conservative political and economic agenda. “Now I feel like we are living in the 1960s, and Arizona is the new Alabama,” she said.
Ms. Blase last year helped found a group called “Somos Republicans,” which translates to “We Are Republicans.” The goal was to raise support for Republicans among fellow Hispanic voters. In a letter urging Gov. Brewer not to sign the bill into law, the group described it as “a direct slap in the face to Hispanic-Americans.”
Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com
Source: WSJ >>>
This law only brings to the open what Hispanic republicans and conservatives have in their hearts always known. The Republican party is not a party for non-whites. Never has been. Never will be. It is a party designed to protect the “values” of whites.
Time to act accordingly. Leave the GOP now. It will never change. So you must.
Eljefe,
Make NO mistake, we are not the cut and run types. The dixiecrat bunch may want us to leave, but we ain’t leavin’. We are digging our heels in and will bring this party back to the Party of Abe Lincoln…come hell or high water.
Too many stinkin’ people are flip floppin’ all over the place. No wonder our country is a mess. Nobody is resolved in ideology.