By Scott Tibbs, November 16, 2012
Republicans can win the Hispanic vote. There is no reason to cede Hispanics to the Democrats, but we are going to have to deal with reality to win those votes.
Republicans need to get off this anti-immigrant kick. Hispanics are hard working, socially conservative voters - natural Republicans. We need to realize that if not for immigration, we would have a declining population, which would make us a country in decline. Immigration has saved us from that. Democrats are actively trying to destroy Hispanics by making them a permanent underclass, like they did to blacks. We cannot let that happen.
We obviously need to secure the border, because that is an issue of national security. But we have to deal with the tens of millions of illegal aliens who are already here. We are not going to deport all or even a majority of them and we are not going to get them to self-deport. That is nothing more than a fantasy. No matter what you think of people living here illegally, the facts are what they are and we have to deal with reality instead of fantasy.
Making illegals' lives harder does not help, harassing them legally with "papers please" laws does not help, and it annoys their families who are citizens and vote. This means we need a path to citizenship for the people who are here. We need a guest worker program. We need to stop talking about getting rid of the people who are here. They are not leaving.
There is an appeal after every election - even the massive Republican landslide of 2010 - for Republicans to moderate our positions on social issues. If we want to reach out to blacks and Hispanics, that is a bad idea. As I pointed our four years ago, when an amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage was on the ballot in California and Florida in 2008, 70% of blacks voted for it in both states. In addition, 64% of Hispanics voted for the measure in Florida.
Abortion also provides an opening to win both black and Hispanic votes. Blacks are 13.1% of the population and account for 30% of all abortions. Hispanics account for 16.7% of the population and account for 25% of all abortions. (See here and here.) Why should blacks and Hispanics continue to vote for a political party that is decimating the black and Hispanic population by killing so many black and Hispanic babies?
There is no reason for us to cede the Hispanic vote to the Democrats or become depressed about Hispanic support for Democrats. There is no reason we cannot make significant inroads with black voters, if we bring our conservative message on social issues as well as our message of economic empowerment to them.
