by: Roberto Lovato
>Until very recently, Phoenix businessman Elias Bermudez was content to >wander the desert in search of faces that might bring some color to the >overwhelmingly white tent of Republicanism. As an >evangelical Republican in mostly Catholic and Democratic Latino Arizona, >he was a lone voice in the political wilderness. But the 56-year-old >activist and radio DJ took solace in knowing that a political prophet of >a previous era, Barry Goldwater, had found success knocking on the >rickety doors of the huge ranch houses and shacks dotting the same >desert landscape, launching the first commercial radio station in >Phoenix--and a grassroots revolution. Bermudez had initially been won >over by the GOP because, he says, it backed his efforts to leave the >"shadows" of undocumented life and become a citizen, then the first >elected mayor of San Luis, Arizona, a border town of about 21,000--89 >percent Latino--that he helped incorporate. And like many of the roughly >40 percent of Latinos wooed by Karl Rove and longtime GOP Latino >strategy guru Lionel Sosa into voting for George W. Bush in 2004, >Bermudez joined the party because it "believed more in family, morality >and the ability of the individual to succeed by pulling himself up by >his own straps." He broadcast his beliefs weekly on his popular radio >show, Vamos a Platicar (Let's Talk), where he translated Rove's and >Sosa's carefully crafted messages about Americano dreams for tens of >thousands of potential recruits in the poor, Spanish-dominant sectors of >Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. > >But then Arizona politicos like Congressman J.D. Hayworth and other GOP >legislators began pushing "some of the most hateful legislation in the >US," in Bermudez's words. (Consider for example Goldwater's nephew and >GOP gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater, who proposed building a "tent >city" where undocumented immigrants would be indentured "as labor in the >construction of a wall [along the border] and to clean the areas of the >Arizona desert that they're polluting.") Bermudez was, he says, >"sickened" by the proposals on various state ballots in recent >elections--four passed in Arizona--denying basic rights, like bail, to >immigrants. These GOP-led initiatives, he believes, embolden >those "flag-waving white people yelling at me, 'You're no better than a >Mexican dog' and those I see at protests who burn the Mexican flag or >wear it as a diaper or on the bottom of their shoes." > >So, rather than go deeper into the tent of Republicanism, Bermudez opted >to tear it down. > >"I began a campaign to target Republicans," he said. During the >elections, the born-again activist immigrant DJ used media and >grassroots organizing methods to help oust anti-immigrant politicos like >former TV anchor Hayworth, who was elected as part of the Gingrich >revolution in the politically fateful year of 1994. > >The roots of the Republican Latino debacle of 2006 lie in the launch of >the immigration wars that began with California's Proposition 187, >a 1994 ballot initiative that denied education and healthcare to >undocumented children. Bermudez's conversion and the fact that only 29 >percent of Latinos voted Republican this past election indicate that the >appeals to the lower instincts of the white base come at a steep >electoral cost. And in this era of narrow victories and contested >results, with black support of the GOP mired near the single digits of >the post-Southern Strategy era, securing a significant percentage of the >vote of Latinos, the country's largest minority group, is imperative for >the GOP. In the same way that appealing to the desire among some whites >to segregate the health, education and basic rights of blacks cost the >GOP their votes for decades after Jim Crow, similar appeals to deny >health, education and basic human rights to Latino and other immigrants >may cost the GOP critical votes in the era of Juan Crow. The effects of >such dynamics may be felt even more powerfully in the 2008 elections, in >which 12 million new immigrant voters (303,600 in Arizona alone) could >participate, according to a study by the Illinois Coalition for >Immigrant and Refugee Rights. These are especially bad omens for the >Republicans when we consider that foreign-born Latinos were largely >responsible for the historic increase in Latino support for the GOP >engineered in the '04 elections by Rove and a now glum Sosa. > >From his office in San Antonio, Sosa lamented that "even though the >President has been extremely vocal about a comprehensive immigration >reform package, most Latinos will remember what the [anti-immigrant] >Congressional position was--and that can't be good for the future of a >[Republican] party that needs more than just the white vote." > >For his part, Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen sees similar omens in >the statistical tea leaves of a country that will be half minority by >2050. "Whites are the only group giving Republicans more >than 50 percent of their vote. Even among white women they came in at 50 >percent. They're not only a minority among minorities, but a minority >among the majority." > >At a recent Washington gathering of African-American, Latino >and other representatives of the newsmedia that serve 51 million >nonwhite Americans, Bendixen showed his enthusiastic audience how "the >'macaca' vote destroyed the Republicans in Virginia." The 78 >percent of the electorate that is white went disproportionately for >Allen, said Bendixen, who added, "That means the 22 percent that is the >ethnic electorate defeated Allen." > >Asked about the future of the GOP following an election that witnessed >the largest Latino vote in an off year, the passionate Peruvian pollster >responded by harking back to what happened in previous immigration wars. >"The only historical measure we have is the California experience >in 1993-94. The Republicans offended Latinos with their [anti-immigrant] >ads, and we saw a very strong reaction there in '96, '98 and 2000. It >lasted at least three political cycles," said Bendixen. > >In what may portend a 187-ization of the nation, he and other analysts >of the Latino electorate believe that this time around the national >Republican appeal to the white core may be even more >costly for them than it was in 1994. Since then, they say, GOP policies >and the activities of the Minutemen and others in the burgeoning >industry of anti-immigrant politics have negatively affected the lives >of US and foreign-born Latinos and further poisoned the atmosphere. Even >Latinos like Bermudez have begun to question whether they want >to be members of a party that has so little sympathy for desperate >immigrants who die in deserts like the one surrounding the Barry M. >Goldwater [military] Range outside Yuma. Leaning his head to the side as >if giving a prognosis to a patient in a hospital bed, Bendixen >predicted, "This will last at least three election cycles, if not more." >Add to this the long-term legacy of Hurricane Katrina, controversy over >the renewal of the Voting Rights Act and continued electoral >race-baiting like that in the Harold Ford Jr. "Call me" ad, and the >future of the GOP looks very white--and not so bright. > >But there's one important thing that Bendixen and Sosa agree on, >something that could alter the fortunes of the GOP: The Latino vote is >fluid. "The immigrant vote is a swing vote," says Bendixen, adding, "The >question is, Will Democrats strongly support comprehensive >immigration reform? If they don't, Latinos could turn against them." >Sounding as if he's getting ready to launch GOP Latino vote campaign >2.0, Sosa concurs with Bendixen, arguing that Latinos won't >necessarily respond to anti-immigrant policies in the same way that >blacks responded when the GOP pursued its Southern Strategy by playing >to the racial fears of whites. "I don't believe the damage is >irreversible. The Latino vote is still in contention." > >The GOP's refusal to write off the Latino vote, while giving up blacks >for lost, is reflected in the fact that it just elected immigrant Mel >Martinez GOP chair while at the same time resurrecting supposedly >repentant segregationist Trent Lott (who said this year's immigration >protests "make me mad") as its minority whip. The fissures over >immigration within the Republican coalition will play out in the lead-up >to the 2008 presidential election, as potential candidates cover the >pro- and anti-immigrant spectrum between reformer John McCain and >Minuteman favorite Tom Tancredo. > >But assuming that the Democrats are poised to pounce on >Republican racial woes is a critical mistake. Many Latinos >still remember that the exponential increase in immigrant >deaths in the desert began not with the Minutemen patrols but with Bill >Clinton, who launched "Operation Gatekeeper" in 1994. A >considerable number of Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer's candidates >and recently elected Democrats are hardly experts at microtargeting >nonwhites. Harold Ford, the "rising star" who was being considered to >chair the Democratic Party before his name was removed from >consideration, is both victim and perpetrator of racial scapegoating, as >is evident in the Dixiecrat-like anti-immigrant ads he and many of the >"pragmatic" and "populist" crop of new Congressmembers ran. And many >Latinos will not soon forget that it was Democratic Congressional >Campaign Committee chair Emanuel, along with recently elected majority >whip Steny Hoyer, who pressured House Democrats to support legislation >calling for the construction of the Mexican border wall loathed by >Bermudez and millions of other Latinos who marched earlier this year. > >While a segment of the Republican Party (and a good number of Democrats, >including white liberal and progressive Democrats) still believe in >"race neutral" politics, the 2006 elections make strikingly obvious the >centrality of race and ethnicity in the politics of a darkening and >diversifying United States. For their part, the Republicans must rebuild >and color the tent burned down during recent elections. And while the >short-term prospects of freshly victorious Democrats look promising >among nonwhites, recent electoral history speaks loudly to the >volatility of the political and racial moment. As they scour >the country for votes in '08 and beyond, both parties would do well to >wander in deserts like those in Arizona in search of their souls. > > > >This article can be found on the web at: > >http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061218/lovato > > > >Visit The Nation >http://www.thenation.com/ > >Subscribe to The Nation: >https://ssl.thenation.com/ > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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