Their Problemas With Latino Voters

He may not be the right person to be saying it, but when Sen. Harry Reid said he can't understand how any Latino could be a Republican, the Senate majority leader was very close to being correcto!

In my opinion, if Reid had said he can't understand how Latinos "could vote for Republicans" — following the wave of anti-Hispanic racism, xenophobia and hatred promulgated by GOP leaders across the country — he would have been much more accurate.

"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK?" Reid told a predominantly Hispanic crowd while campaigning for re-election in Nevada. "Do I need to say more?"

Well, apparently, the senator did need to say more!

Most Latinos, including many Republicans, know exactly what Reid meant to say. Yet a spokesman for his far-right Republican opponent — the tea party-backed Sharron Angle — had the audacity to try to paint Reid's remark as an "insensitive racial comment." It was the pot calling the kettle black!

Of course, Reid's remarks became a hot topic of discussion in the far-right propaganda machine known as Fox News Channel. Quite hypocritically, people on the network found Reid's remark "stunning." Some idiotic published reports accused Reid of having played the race card. Some made it seem as if a huge number of Latinos were terribly offended by Reid's "racially charged" remarks. The exaggerations were hilarious!

Yet had Reid been a little clearer, had he explained that seeing many Hispanics voting for Republicans would be inexplicable, especially following the GOP-proposed racial profiling of Latinos, he would have made a stronger case. If he had reminded his audience of GOP efforts to censor textbooks, deny birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants and stand in the way of comprehensive immigration reform, he would have made more sense.

If he had told them that GOP leaders want to penalize even U.S. citizens for befriending and transporting undocumented immigrants, if he had reminded them that even Sen. John McCain has betrayed them, if he had mentioned some of the other GOP-driven efforts to bash immigrants in various states, if he simply had shouted, "Arizona!" no doubt he would have been much more convincing.

But even when Reid tried to clarify what he was trying to say, his campaign staff ran away from the race issue. His staff released a statement noting that "Sen.

Reid's contention was simply that he doesn't understand how anyone, Hispanic or otherwise, would vote for Republican candidates because they oppose saving teachers' jobs, oppose job-creating tax incentives for small businesses, oppose investments in job-creating clean energy projects, and oppose the help for struggling, unemployed Nevadans to put food on the table and stay in their homes."

The problem is that Reid and other Democratic Party leaders lack the moral standing to call themselves true champions of Latinos. If Reid had tried to push comprehensive immigration reform through Congress when he presided over a supermajority in the Senate, if he had led Democrats to reject enforcement-only measures to crack down on illegal immigration without giving some kind of amnesty to undocumented immigrants already living here, he would have a much more solid foundation on which to stand when he speaks to Latinos.

Reid and his party's leaders assume that simply by pointing to the GOP's Draconian ways, they have the Latino vote in their pocket. Democrats always have won the Hispanic vote by default. All they have to say to Latinos is this: "Look, I know I haven't done much for you, but what are you going to do, vote for Republicans who promote hatred against you?" In very poor phrasing, that's exactly what Reid was trying to say.

Democrats really don't feel they need to say more. And unfortunately, considering the opposition, this time they are right. If there is a swing in the Latino vote in the midterm elections, it's inconceivable to believe that it would not favor the Democrats.

On Election Day, after having been under attack for so long, Hispanic voters surely will strike back at the Republicans who have chosen to scapegoat Latinos in destructive efforts to energize their so-called base of right-wing extremists. And they will continue to do that on many Election Days in the future.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some Latino Republican politicians who support comprehensive immigration reform are obviously ashamed of the anti-immigrant direction their party has taken. On Spanish-language television, you see them either painfully struggling to explain the Draconian ways of their GOP colleagues or trying to change the conversation. Latino Republican politicians are walking a very fine line between the people and the party they claim to represent.

Hypocritically reacting as if they were offended by Reid's remarks, some of them said Latinos are Republicans because they care about the economy and the deficit and the blah, blah, blah — as if their race-baiting GOP colleagues were nonexistent.

You can't cover the sun with one finger. And it would be just as difficult for Democrats or Republicans to cover their problemas with Latino voters.

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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