Letter and commentary to 2012 GOP Presidential Candidates

by arizona-hispanic-republicans on Jul. 21, 2011

 

2012 candidates: Somos Republicans knows how to reach Latinos

As the 2012 election season approaches, we would like Republican candidates to know the Hispanic voting block can be salvaged and we know how.  It seems to us, at Somos Republicans, the GOP leadership in states and national organizations have been courting the wrong voters.  We felt we were on the verge of a breakthrough a few years ago when Arizona Senator John McCain, came from behind to win the Republican presidential nomination with a platform that included “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” while his losing competitors had all taken ever harder lines on immigration which insulted us personally and certainly drove away potential Latino voters in droves!

President George W. Bush won more Latino votes than any other major Republican candidate.  He realized, as we do, that Latinos are naturally conservative.  And since the American Latino population is the fastest growing segment of the population, we hoped the GOP would attempt to harness that incredible new voting block but they didn’t!

Instead they allied themselves, much to our dismay and occasional disgust, with isolationists, nativists, and a few verbose anti-Latino bigots.  Republicans became so hated among Latinos that when we attended public functions we were treated as though we arrived with a dead skunk!

In the past education and school choice was the lead topic among Latinos in America.  Today, immigration is the primary issue because it’s personal.  Although I’m not an immigrant, I look like one and the unconstitutional laws proposed and passed in some states are deliberately designed to harass all Latinos, including me and my family, so much they will, as the environmentalist radicals at FAIR described it, “self deport.”  For immigrants and citizens alike, that is very personal!

But the situation can be saved.  Because our economy needs more, not less, immigration, Somos Republicans supports all efforts at Comprehensive Immigration Reform and opposes all unconstitutional efforts at immigration enforcement.  We find it unconscionable that any Republican would find cause to attack the Bill of Rights or the Constitution in any way!  At Somos Republicans, we are appalled and evidently alone in our quest to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The objective of this commentary is to expose the fact that not all Hispanic Republican groups actually have the best interest of Latinos in mind.  In fact, we have found that the other groups are best classified as “sell outs” or “vendidos!” We hope Republican candidates will not seek out the dubious guidance of groups like that but instead come to us, Somos Republicans, because we do have the best interest of American Latinos in mind.  We believe that is also the best interest of the Republican Party as well.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there are nearly 50 million Latinos in America and more than 80% of them support Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  A similar percentage oppose Arizona’s unconstitutional SB 1070 and similar state level immigration enforcement measures.  Somos Republicans, based in Arizona but with chapters across the nation, has thousands of members who, like the rest of Latino America, are naturally conservative, Pro-Life and determined to defend the Constitution from all attackers.  Therefore, we support Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the Dream Act and always have.  We; furthermore, denounce Arizona’s SB 1070 and all the variations of that travesty.

If you are Republican running for office in 2012 and you want to know what American Latinos think and you want to reach them, come to Somos Republicans.  We have valuable insight you will find no where else.  We’ll listen too but we’re not fools and we have long memories.

Here are some groups whose leaders are only interested in their own individual advancement and not that of the American Latino.  The RNHA is small and appears to support SB 1070.  LNRC is a national group based in California but has no real operation except in Texas.  LNRC quickly proclaimed SB 1070 to be good policy after it was signed and the Texas contingent has defended it and a similar “sanctuary cities bill” in Texas this year.  ALRA in Arizona is also very small and fervently supports SB 1070 as millions of Latinos across America denounce it.  There are other groups but we do not believe any of them actually have the pulse of Latino America as easily accessible to you Republican candidates as we, at Somos Republicans, do.

Again, if you are Republican, and you are smart or forthright or, better yet, both, then you’ll come to us, Somos Republicans, to learn the truth and make good things happen for America, Americans and the American Latino.  What do we want?  We want only the satisfaction of knowing that we did what was right for America, our home.