Hispanics registered to vote are only 6.8% in California

Hispander Reality Check: Did the passage of anti-illegal Prop. 187 really tilt California to the Democrats for decades by waking the "sleeping giant" of the Latino vote? That's what the courageous Republicans engineering the proposed semi-amnesty Hispander are worried about. I've always believed they were right to worry, in part because I once read that veteran Reagan adviser Stuart Spencer was worried. But Debra Saunders and Dale Franks dispute this bit of CW: They note that the allegedly energized Latino vote failed to save Democratic Governor Gray Davis after he signed a bill allowing illegals to get drivers' licenses, and failed to prevent a Republican governor from being elected on a pledge (since fulfilled) to repeal it. ... They might have added: a) According to the NYT , Hispanics are 34.7 % of California's population but those registered to vote are only 6.8% of the population.** b) The Republicans apparently lost 8% of this 6.8% sliver between 1996 and 2000--a non-trivial but also non-gigantic loss of half a percentage point; c) Welfare changes in 1996--conditioning benefits on citizenship--also may have encouraged many previously non-citizen Latinos to become citizens and voters; d) If, as David Brooks argues <$>, Latinos are such natural Republicans (they're religious, family oriented, and "Mexican-Americans spend 93 percent more on children's music") then are they really going to abandon their ingrained ideological orientation in a fit of identity politics because Congress refuses to legalize their undocumented ethnic compatriots? ... I still think there's something to the CW--and Dick Morris certainly does--but it's worth questioning how much. ... Update: Steve Smith says the real post-187 GOP problem is Asians. If you add the Asian and Latino share of the California electorate from November, 2004, you're talking over 20%, according to the LAT (which I now do not trust even on something routine like this!). ...

http://www.slate.com/id/2138935/

Latinos are not "natural Republicans" unless you are arguing that Democrats are not family oriented, practice less spirituality and don't appreciate music, which I'm pretty sure you are not.

The Thugs have been trying to create the myth of the Republican Latino because they need some way to cover their election fraud.

that the "latino vote" is in any way "naturally" Republican.

GOP. Anybody who has ever caught a whiff of Limbaugh can tell you that this issue has been simmering for over a year - now Limbaugh is saying "I told you so". The GOP House members will brag about their votes against illegals when they run for reelection this fall, and they might very well win, in the Red states as well as in the border states where there is a lot of dissatisfation among non-Hispanics in regard to the illegal immigrants.

Certainly not Hispanics who have to see their relatives and friends or neighbors live a sublife of exploitation.

But, in addition to "values voters", the Thuggery claimed that B* gained ground among the Hispanic voters, everyone parroted it, including people like Donna Brazille, and it was BS. He did no better in 2004 than he did in 2000. It was FICTION.

They tend to have high morals in believing the people should come before profits. This is most certainly NOT a Republican value.

my aunts and uncles do vote Republican. They are wealthy and for them, that comes first.

But I can't imagine sitting around our family table and having a discussion about depriving thirsty people of water, for example. That would simply be impossible.

People come first.

Weren't some non-Hispanic voters fooled by Arnold, too? How does spending money on children's music make one a Republican? Most of the Latinos I know in Houston are Democrats. What's the word from Groovy Austin?

Do you think that "getting Hispanic votes" is the only reason some of us were NOT insulted by the protests?

(Hint: Toss in a few paragraph breaks to make this blog excerpt more readable.)