CNN’s Ruben Navarette is warning that the GOP might not do too well among Latino voters in 2012, which is a bit like, well, like Herman Cain warning that the GOP may not do too well with African-American voters like myself. But here’s his opening:
On behalf of all those Latino voters who have figured out that the Obama administration is the most hostile to Latino immigrants of any administration in the last half century and who are looking for an alternative, let me say this to the Republican presidential candidates: “Bienvenidos to Florida! Now, behave yourselves.”
The Obama administration is the most hostile to Latino immigrants, and Navarette’s solution is the current Republican Party? You could power suns on that level of denial and still have enough juice left over for purely recreational use of a couple Large Hadron Colliders. What does he expect, a comfortable and plush catapult that any of these jokers running for President Obama’s job would use in a heartbeat to fling people back over the border while screaming about tacos?
I mean damn, I thought the Hermanator was deep into self-hatred, but this guy is making my soul hurt.
Baud
It’s not denial. It’s about the power of suggestion. Say something with enough conviction a number of times, and people who aren’t paying attention start to internalize it. It’s the only play in the GOP playbook, but it works surprisingly well.
MattF
Immigration is the issue that’s being used to filter the few remaining members of the set R-sub-B = [Republican-with-a-brain] from the GOP. Pretty soon, it’ll be the empty set.
Davis X. Machina
There’s enough folks in that particular community — actually communities, to be accurate — living close enough to the edge, for their votes to be predicated upon a self-interest that looks like us to be self-interest.
With time, and growing prosperity, they may well start in some numbers to define their self-interest is ways that don’t look like self-interest to us — policing strangers’ uteri, choice of mates, taste in deities and prayers — but that looks like self-interest to them.
A bottom-of-the-second-quintile GOP voter who’s all in for God-guns-and-gays isn’t voting against his self-interest as he defines it, he’s voting against his self-interest as we define it — in economic terms. A top-decile Democratic voter is doing exactly the same thing.
amk
@Baud: Bingo. Typical rethug tactic accusing the opponent falsely of what you yourself are engaging in.
And the stupid voters will buy it.
Brian R.
Wait, what? Someone needs to listen to the tapes of the Nixon White House. I’m pretty sure Obama doesn’t use the word “wetback” nearly as much.
Ron
Deporting people here illegally is being “hostile to Latino immigrants”? I guess one could take that view, but by that standard, the GOP fucking hates Latino immigrants.
greennotGreen
@Davis X. Machina: A top-decile Democratic voter is doing exactly the same thing.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. Is the “we” for the Democratic voter the same “we” that’s defining the voting habits of the “bottom-of-the-second-quintile GOP voter”? ‘Cause that would still be us. As a top decile person (or soon to be – I don’t know where that cut-off is) I think my progressive voting is very much in my economic self-interest. The more equitably the wealth of the nation is distributed, the better the economy; the better the economy, the better my stocks do. Single-payer health care cuts out the profit-sucking middle man, holds down costs, so the less I have to set aside for the lung transplant my nephew may one day need (due to a heritable condition.)
Now, if what you meant was that the top decile Democratic voters’ voting habits seem to be against their own self-interests in Republican eyes, well, I can’t explain irrational thought.
Chyron HR
Hey, at least he didn’t say that Latino Democrats are “brainwashed”. Or that they vote to give themselves handouts because they’re “lazy parasites”. Or that they live in “mud cities”.
Relatively speaking, the GOP loves the Latino community. So why don’t those ungreatful b**n*rs vote Republican?
Davis X. Machina
@greennotGreen: You’d almost certainly enjoy a lower top marginal rate of income tax, preferential treatment of non-wage income, and if you hit the jackpot, the estate tax has gone away. There’s a greater chance that you will, as is your right, prefer to purchase or employ private alternatives to public provision in, say, education, or medicine, or amusement, that you will nevertheless pay for.
From a balance-sheet perspective, you ought to vote Republican. From a balance-sheet perspective.
Suffern ACE
Ah. So the Latinos have their own Ameriblog.
aimai
@Davis X. Machina:
Very nice. Also, look at the number of young hispanic republicans who are attracted to Ron Paul. As far as I can see these new, young, hispanic voters are attracted to the libertarianism and see it as totally devoid of history and racial complication. I think that younger hispanics, like older Cubans, are eager to see themselves as above and outside of the “racial” aspects of the Republican alliance–they think they are voting their interests. They don’t realie they are the junior partner in a group that considers them a racial minority.
aimai
jibeaux
He’s been proactive at policing the border and at deporting criminals, which is nothing that I nor most Americans of any hue have much problem with. I have heard the complaint that the administration’s been too aggressive on deporting people for minor offenses. But here’s the thing, if you want to reform the broken immigration system, it’s a touchy issue, and any politician actually wanting to accomplish that has to come to it with “credibility.” Which means you have to start with the tough love — let people know that you have no problem aggressively working on deterring illegal immigration. Then you can talk about how there are millions of hardworking, law-abiding people here already who have children in schools, who may own businesses, who spend money, who are integral parts of the community and the economy, and we have to be realistic about their future in this country and offer them a way to normalize their status. Like fucking REAGAN did. Obama is now talking about part 2 of immigration reform. Republican politicians never, ever will. Even if they’re decent, nonracist people — and I haven’t seen any evidence that Mitt Romney, at any rate, is racist — Latinos are not their voters. Millions more Latinos voting is a death knell for them. They will never fight for it, and they will never fight for the ones already here.
kdaug
@greennotGreen:
Ding.
Rational self-interest.
greennotGreen
@Davis X. Machina: Short term, you’re right, especially the estate tax thing, but long term, I still think I’m right. The more we starve government, the more individuals have to foot the bill for the things government used to provide. I seriously do not want to live in a gated community, but I think paying my own private police force is going to offset the savings you cited.
jonas
@jibeaux: A lot of Republicans see “normalizing status” and read “locking in Democratic voting majorities for decades to come”. Which is true, I suppose. People will remember which party worked to make them part of the American dream and which party liked to make jokes about feeding them to crocodiles.
jibeaux
@jonas: Yeah, I know, and they think Democrats are completely cynical about the whole thing and are just trying to get new voters. It’s weird to me, it’s not that there’s anything wrong with trying to get voters, but we have an enormous underground economy of 12 million people whose illegal status affects everything from education to crime to social services to health care to traffic accidents and everything in between, and if you propose working towards a solution that slowly, gradually, brings those people out of the shadows so that we can cut down on all of the associated problems that come with them being vital sectors of the economy but illegal, then you’re accused of pandering for votes. I guess I’d like to think that I’d want to work towards a realistic immigration policy even if I were a Republican because it’s good public policy, but if I were interested in good public policy then I wouldn’t be a Republican, so I can’t square that circle.
Svensker
@jibeaux:
This. The Obama administration has been much tougher on illegal immigration that the Bush admin. You can think that’s good, or not, but it’s also not a huge stretch to turn their policy into “hostile.”
It just slays me that the wingers think Obama is some hippie-dippie sockalist leftist.
Chris
Ruben Navarette? Is that the same guy who writes for PJMedia every now and then, trying to convince them that Latino voters are not in fact destroying their economy and do not in fact have secret Protocols to rule America and steal their women? And gets torn to shreds in the comments section for it?
I’ve read some of his work. From what I remember, there was an increasingly desperate vibe of “I hate Obama too! I hate liberals too! I can be one of the gang! Why won’t you let me?”
Chris
@aimai:
Funny, Muslim Americans were one of those minorities that saw themselves as above the racial component of the GOP, voting consistently Republican in very large margins all the way through 2000. Look where they are now.
Someone needs to remind these guys of that example of they’re even thinking about going GOP. If you’re just a little bit nonwhite, it doesn’t matter how much you agree with the GOP or how long you’ve been in the coalition: it’s still not your party, it’ll never be, and it’ll turn on you like a rabid dog the minute it thinks it has a reason.
Roger Moore
@greennotGreen:
Needing to hire your own security force to keep the peasants at bay is not an adequate alternative to living in a society where the peasants don’t need to be kept at bay. Perpetual fear of political violence is no way to live.
gene108
@Chris:
People vote with their pocket books. Muslim business owners, doctors or whatever are better served by Republican economic policy and don’t (or didn’t) feel threatened by the racial politics of Republicans, which primarily focused on animosity towards African-Americans.
Suffern ACE
@gene108: As long as they don’t want to build a place to gather and practice their faith, they’ll get the full support of their local Republican Party.
Chris
@gene108:
Sure… until they have a reason to focus it on someone else. A decade ago, that was Muslims. If tomorrow they see any value in doing the same to Cuban or Vietnamese Americans or some other longstanding Republican minority, those many years of loyal voting aren’t going to help them.
Meanwhile, they’re not that much better served by Republican economic policy, especially with a Democratic Party as pro-business as it is right now.
Jerzy Russian
I recall several years ago Rubin Navarette was being interviewed by Al Franken’s on some Air America show broadcast from San Diego. Franken asked something about the stolen election in Florida in 2000, and Navarette said something to the effect that “Al Gore should have won by a bigger margin.” Navarette also said “Gore did not even win his home state”, to which Franken replied “Bush did not even win his home country!”
That was the moment I stopped respecting and paying attention to Navarette.
Sasha
The belief that some of the most egregious anti-Latino policies have occurred during this administration’s tenure is absolutely correct. Of course, you’ll have to ignore the relevant detail that pretty much all of those policies were initiated, championed, and/or enacted (or, in the case of pro-Latino policies like the DREAM Act, killed) by Republicans.
Considering that Repubs also conveniently ignore the relevant detail that the economy declined during Obama’s tenure because of policies that were initiated, championed, and enacted by Republicans before he took office, don’t be to shocked if the meme that the Obama administration is “the most hostile to Latino immigrants of any administration in the last half century” becomes an article of faith among the Right. In fact, you can pretty much bet on it.
ericblair
@Roger Moore:
This is what a lot of the gooper 1%ers don’t get. You finish your job of squeezing every last nickel and bit of security out of the teeming masses, and get ready for bulletproof S600 sedans, armed guards, and kidnap insurance for your kids. Buncha naive pricks in their own way.
Chris
@Sasha:
NO, NO, NO! It was Clinton, Carter, and Barney Frank! It was all them!
DanielX
Project much, Ruben? It ain’t Democratic governors in Alabama, Arizona, etc etc…..
The Moar You Know
Ruben Navarette used to be a local columnist here in San Diego before he hit the big time with his self-hating brand of Latino Republican punditry. It’s not an act for his betters, either – he believes the shit he peddles through and through.
I don’t know what the Hispanics call their equivalent of “Uncle Tom”, but Navarette is that to the bone. I’d be shocked if, when he dies, his last words weren’t “defend white privilege”.
Surreal American
My local wingnut fishwrap carries Navarette’s column. So it’s no surprise to me that he’s still trying to sell his “Democrats are Teh Suck, xenophobic GOP is Teh Awesome” line to Latinos.
Yutsano
@The Moar You Know:
Tio Tomas. Doesn’t have quite the same resonance though.
Hungry Joe
@Chris: @The Moar You Know:
Yeah, Navarette was an editorial writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune. I enjoyed skimming his column to see if he was maintaining his 1:3 ratio — about every third column he scolded Latinos for not seeing that they were better off supporting the GOP.
Phil Perspective
@Chris: It’s exactly that same guy!!
kindness
Obviously Ruben is looking to make the jump to Fox.
And while I want to like and agree with Ruben, he’s typically way too conservative in both what he thinks California Hispanics think like and what Democratic plans and ideas are. Yup, he’s pretty much a Republican tool and a dumb shit at that.
Phil Perspective
@jibeaux: That isn’t going to stop illegal immigration. Want to stop illegal immigration? Fine heavily, and jail, the employers who break the law hiring them. Who do you think were the roofers, and others, during the last few years of the housing boom in the USA?
kindness
@gene108:
Yea unless you are talking about Arizona, Alabama, Georgia….
Brachiator
@Davis X. Machina:
The Estate Tax has gone away? No, that’s not right. The estate tax rate for 2010 was zero, but it has returned, with some dumbass modifications.
And you want to end preferences for tax exempt income, and the exclusion for capital gains, punishing a lot of middle class people?
@aimai:
There are many Latinos who carry their own racial baggage. They identify intensely with their European heritage, identify as white, and hate others with as much intensity as the most rabidly racist American. Add to this a disdain for aboriginal Latinos.
This fits in quite well with the fetid wing of the GOP.
ThresherK
@Chyron HR: The surprising thing is that Navarette hasn’t filed the obligatory “GOP PR push for Latino vote will really shake things up” story.
You can substitute any other sector you wish: Jewish, African-American, women. These press releases typically pop up with the croci every quadrennium, and suckers in our Librul Media act like they’ve discovered something.
trollhattan
Somebody needs to hit control+alt+delete on Navarette’s bwaaain. It done gone and blue-screened on him.
Rafer Janders
@Brachiator:
Well, Latino/Hispanic is a cultural/linguistic category, not a racial one. There are Hispanics who are black, tere are Hispanics who are (American) Indian, there are Hispanics who are blonde and blue eyed, there are Hispanics who are ethnically Japanese or who have pale white skin and red hair, etc.
gene108
@kindness:
How do those laws threaten people, who’ve been here long enough to have Green Cards and/or are U.S. Citizens?
The illegal Muslim / Asian pool of immigrants is pretty small and the legal immigrants aren’t threatened by these laws.
I’m just trying to point out that despite all the race baiting by Republicans over the years, if they aren’t singling out your race or religion, you won’t feel threatened by it and may embrace Republican policy, because it better serves your interests.
Chris
@Hungry Joe:
@Phil Perspective:
Thanks for the confirmation y’all. It certainly sounded like him.
@Phil Perspective:
To their credit, the State of Texas passed a bill doing exactly that.
Well, almost exactly that.
Actually, what they did was pass a bill strenuously punishing anyone who employed illegal immigrants, EXCEPT those who employed them for house chores or… a few other exceptions, where they said “we can’t do this or we’d have to arrest EVERYONE.”
If there’s a more blatant admission that we can’t live without immigrant labor, I don’t know what it is. Why don’t we just admit that policing immigration is as much of a lost fucking cause as policing alcohol (or drug) consumption? Yeah, yeah, I know…
Brachiator
@Rafer Janders:
Not quite what I’m talking about.
Many Americans don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, the Latino variant of racism, caste and colorism, which is often strangely independent of actual ancestry. A while back, I overheard a guy trying to impress a woman he wanted to ask out by boasting about how he was descended from the Conquistadors. Seriously.
Another guy I know insists that his daughters say that they are Spanish, even though they are Mexican, with clear indications of Indian ancestry.
A lot of this is best summed up in the fiercely ironic poem by Fernando Fortunato Vizcarrondo, DINGA Y MANDINGA, about a Latino who hides his grandmother in the kitchen when his light skinned friends come over.
Yesterday you called me Negro,
And today I will respond to you:
My mom sits in the living room,
And your grandma, where is she?…
__
The poor woman is dying
Seeing herself so abused.
Even your dog barks at her
If she ever steps out to the living room.
And yeah, a lot of these types strongly identify with Republicans, even if it means denouncing some of their own.
Leah
@The Moar You Know:
I certainly agree with your evaluation of Navarette as a tool and a fool, but at the risk of seeming pedantic, the Uncle Tom in Stowe’s actual book is a far more complex figure than is suggested by the current use of being an “Uncle Tom.”
Similarly, I wish we could get rid of the notion that conservative minorities like Navarette, Justice Thomas, Thomas Sowell and so many more are self-hating. It’s not themselves they hate, it’s all the other members of various minorities and especially the insincere white folks,(the true racist plantation owners), who have actively participated in the various liberation/civil rights movements which most of us see as not only good for African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, the Disabled, and Gays, etc, but also for this country.
Does anyone think the uber-caucasian Robert Bork is self-hating? Of course not. He clearly feels superior to 99% of his fellow Americans.
Sociopaths aren’t self-hating. They may have many unconscious conflicts, but having no inner life, no real conscience, no ability to feel shame – see Clarence Thomas’ performance at his confirmation hearing, both before and after the issue of Anita Hill came up – they are almost incapable of self-hate.
Zander, not a criticism of you; I’m so delighted you are posting here.
brendancalling
Not a fan of right-wing Ruben, BUT: Adam Serwer notes that in his one term, Obama’s admin deported 1.06 million undocumented people, compared to 1.57 million across both Bush terms.
A lot of these deportations break up families, as well. If I was Latino, I would consider that pretty hostile. Not as hostile as the Republicans right-wing Ruben supports, but hostile enough to allow Ruben to demagogue the issue.