{"id":12785,"date":"2023-08-03T23:26:25","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T23:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=12785"},"modified":"2023-08-09T20:04:32","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T20:04:32","slug":"gop-dont-blame-us-we-told-you-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=12785","title":{"rendered":"GOP, Don\u2019t Blame Us: We Told You So"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alex Gonzalez & Linda Vega<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the last eight months, we have consistently argued that Mitt Romney has been cocooned by his advisers about what matters to Latino voters.  Eight months ago, Mitt Romney\u2019s team hired the same old circle of friends (Latino \u201cWashington insiders\u201d) to formulate self-fulfilling polls suggesting that Romney could win over the Latino vote by only talking about the economy and avoiding issues such education, immigration, and healthcare.   But it is now evident that this made-up premise was a terrible mistake that now even Bill Kristal agrees is not enough to win over independents and Latinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April we wrote about Leslie Sanchez\u2019 polling company that came out with numbers suggesting that:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among one most obvious \u201cfindings\u201d in the focus group by Ms. Sanchez and Gov.  Barbour is that Latinos are disillusioned as they believe that Obama failed them.   Also, 20 to 30 percent of independent \u201cswing\u201d Latino voters lean Democrat, but do not have a strong affiliation. Moreover, these swing voters are also worried about the dismal economic direction of the country, which can be an opportunity for Conservatives candidates.  Essentially, Sanchez and Barbour argue that if Republican candidates in swing states can pen down an economic message and avoid talking about immigration,  Latinos who are still hurting because of the failed Obama\u2019s  economic  policies,  can turn around and vote for conservative candidates, even if they lean Democrat.   As a result, these \u201cqualitative Key findings\u201d dispel any myth that Latinos are a monolithic voting bloc. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based and these \u201cfindings,\u201d for which were paid for by the RNC and Romney campaign, Romney\u2019s advisers and the RNC instructed all the \u201cin-circle\u201d Hispanic Republican operatives in D.C.  and Florida to stick to economic message.  Moreover, the RNC resorted to the same circle of operatives in Florida by hiring Betina Inclan of Florida Hispanic outreach coordinator to spread the economic message.  However, they didn\u2019t include Hispanic Republicans from the southwest\u2014which is where Romney will need more help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Latino Republicans elected officials from the Southwest were told to avoid the immigration and education issues and merely stick same economic message and magnify the \u201chistoric\u201d high unemployment levels of 10.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, we have Republican advisers in D.C. and Florida, who have no vested interests in the Southwest, who have cocooned Romney and the RNC into thinking that Latinos don\u2019t want to talk about immigration and education.  They also presume that all Latinos who vote Democrats are inherently poor.  And herein lies the fundamental problem for Romney: he has surrounded himself with advisers that prevent him from getting close to the voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two competing theories behind the Latino effort within the GOP.  First, since Latino employment is still at 10 percent, if the message stays focused only on jobs and the economy,  Latinos will forget about healthcare, education, and immigration\u2014as the GOP Latinos Washington insiders keep repeating.  But this theory has failed since the number in favor of Romney has not changed since March of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the other theory behind the strategy by the GOP for Latinos is that since Latinos have a traditional low turnout, Mitt Romney\u2019s campaign is hoping that a low turnout among Latinos will give him enough advantage in Florida, Colorado, and Nevada with blue-collar \u201cwhite\u201d voters who dislike Obama. But this is also a risky option because the theory failed in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is that the GOP is running a very undercurrent ideological wave, and thus, social issues and the hardening of the Party on education, immigrating, and healthcare is making Latino voters suspicious  of Mitt Romney.  Everybody agrees that Romney is a decent American, a great father and husband, and a stellar member of his community.   But the problem is that he has entrusted his campaign to a circle of advisers who in turn have cocooned him too much from \u201creal American\u201d Latino voters.  Pundits who keep driving his campaign too far to the right on socials issues are also scaring the voters to the  Obama camp.  Republican Latino pollsters in D.C. who get paid to make self-fulfilling polls tell Mitt Romney what he wants to hear, utterly denying where the pulse of the Latino voters is; and they all, lamentably, are contributing the failing campaign for heart and minds of Latino voters and are potentially destroying the  future of Republican Party, at least with Latinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, these advisers and Republican Latinos in D.C. and Florida are completely abandoning the most successful Republican campaign message in recent history which was laid out by George W. Bush.  He  eloquently hit the nail on head when he stated that  \u201cRio Grande family values, \u201d do not end at the border.  Latinos embraced this message and understood it enough to vote for Bush twice.   Unlike the two failed theories about the economic message and low  Latino turnout currently within the Mitt Romney campaign, the Rio Grande family values is a proven strategy has potential to really win over Latino voters because it speaks to their heart, as it did in 2004 when 44% of Latinos voted for President Bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Gonzalez & Linda Vega For the last eight months, we have consistently argued that Mitt Romney has been cocooned by his advisers about what matters to Latino voters.  Eight months ago, Mitt Romney’s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,78,72],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slider","8":"category-linda-vega","9":"category-lrtv-articles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13652,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12785\/revisions\/13652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}