Harry Reid: How Can Any Hispanic Person Be A Republican ?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seemed to make a pretty emphatic play for the race card yesterday:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid questioned on Tuesday how Hispanics could be Republicans.
Speaking with Hispanic supporters Tuesday at Hermandad Mexicana in Las Vegas, Reid took several shots at Republicans, blaming them for the fact that comprehensive immigration reform has not yet been passed.
“I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK,” Reid said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Do I need to say more?” he asked.
Reid went on to claim that it was because of Republicans that Democrats have been unable to pass immigration reform in Congress. The truth, of course, is that Democrats haven’t even attempted to bring an immigration reform bill to the floor of either chamber, largely because the issue is as controversial for them as it is for the GOP.
The Majority Leader was no doubt speaking to a sympathetic audience when he made those remarks, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Hispanic Republicans in Nevada come forward in response to this.
Update: And that didn’t take long, here’s what one Hispanic Republican has to say:
Well Harry, let me introduce myself. I am the daughter of Cuban exiles who have seen first hand the failures of liberal and socialist policies in their native country. My father in fact, was a political prisoner in Cuba for five years because the government deemed his speech against repression and dictatorship “hateful and dangerous.” Sort of like what you democrats say about the tea parties, although you have not thrown their members in jail… yet.
The United States, with President Richard Nixon at the time, welcomed Cuban exiles. Only in the United States was there a country where they would allow immigrants of oppressive and regressive nations, come to make a better life for themselves and their family. A country that was the antithesis of the misery and desperation of Cuba. My father looked at the platform of the republican party that endorsed small government, lower taxes, and strong defense, while the democrat party embraced Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, murderers and tyrants, as some sort of folk heroes, and endorsed larger governments taking power away from the people.
Although I wasn’t born in Cuba, I witnessed for myself liberals governing the state of New Jersey. I saw the failed policies of former Governors Jim McGreevy and Jon Corzine. Unions ran the show, uncontrolled and limitless spending, massive corruption, and the highest property taxes in the nation. I, as a thinking, tax-paying citizen, can not fathom why I would support democrats that have ran this state to near bankruptcy. Heck, I see it in a larger scale in Washington, DC. Yes Harry Reid, I do think and watch the news.
Also Reid, in case you didn’t know, Latinos have a mind of their own. As much as I think your a bigoted, lazy thinker, you might have admitted what all democrats think of Hispanics who are on the right side of the aisle. You belittle us, think we need the nanny state to help us with our woes. Hispanics are actually a religious, pro-life, pro-business, and hard-working poeple. You know the stuff Americans are made of. I know many Latinos who work more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to earn their keep and give their children the life they couldn’t have in their native countries.
And Marco Rubio, Republican candidate for Senate in Florida isn’t too pleased either.
Reid’s comments strike me as the some sort of belittlement you see from the left directed toward black conservatives/Republicans. It seems that they can’t understand when someone doesn’t fit into one of their neat little ethnic/racial stereotypes.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seemed to make a pretty emphatic play for the race card yesterday”
Well, but he has a point, don’t you think? I mean, a lot of the rhetoric coming out the GOP seems tinged with anti-Hispanic overtones. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s only aimed at illegals. But answer me this, just looking at a legally-resident Hispanic and an illegally-resident Hispanic, how do you tell the difference?
” I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Hispanic Republicans”. Fewer every day, I’d bet.
Well, if your a police officer and you have detained or arrested them, you ask if they are a US citizen or if they were born in the United States as required by the US State Department to ensure compliance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and ensure notification of their consulate occurs for foreign nationals. Then if their answers are inconsistent you might develop reasonable suspicion that they are not lawfully in the US at which time you might make an inquiry to the US ICE for confirmation.
You’re presuming that American citizens of Hispanic heritage would some how be inclined to support illegal immigration based on the racial characteristics of the current illegal alien population. Do you have any facts that would support his supposition? Otherwise, like Reid’s remark, it’s a little insulting to Americans of Hispanic heritage to presume they judge everything by race.
“The truth, of course, is that Democrats haven’t even attempted to bring an immigration reform bill to the floor of either chamber, largely because the issue is as controversial for them as it is for the GOP. ”
No. The truth is that anyone –Republican or Democrat– attempting to bring an immigration reform bill is going to be faced with a horde of squealing nativist banshees fattened up on a diet of lies and bad faith arguments.
If Democrats do put forth immigration reform, I suspect it will have a fate similar to CIRA 2007. Why bother?
the some sort of belittlement
It’s not “the some sort of belittlement”; it is insulting paternalism and condescension. As a Latina, I assure you that “Hispanics” come in all races, ethnic origins, religions, shapes and sizes, from nearly two-dozen countries that mainly share a language.
The Dems see “Hispanics” as a block of nameless faces separated by race who will want to remain dependent on Democrat entitlement programs, eternally dependent on the government, after having arrived here in the USA by breaking the law.
And by the way, “Hispanic” is a US construct. Outside the USA we may still refer to ourselves as Latinos – primarily as Argentinian, Colombian, and in my case, Puerto Rican – but not as “Hispanics”.
Any article that ends with, “As Michelle Malkin said best . . .” is bound be just awesome.
Nevada is not exactly swarming with conservative Cubans, Doug. The Cubans in South Florida have been Republican for decades. But the Republicans are killing themselves with Latinos in the Southwest and they will regret it someday.
@JKB
“You’re presuming that American citizens of Hispanic heritage would some how be inclined to support illegal immigration based on the racial characteristics of the current illegal alien population.”
I’m presuming nothing of the sort. I wasn’t even talking about illegal immigration. What I did presume to do was the pose the question from the point of view of an Hispanic American, who, because of his or her ancestry, is being placed in a suspect category by a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric originating from the GOP. I’m not Hispanic, so I suppose you could take some comfort in the speculative import of the question. But one would foolish to suppose that the anti-immigrant thrust of much of the GOP’s rhetoric won’t redound the party’s disfavor in the coming years. Of course, you’re free to believe what you wish.
See Factsheet, Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics and Arizona’s New Immigration Law (http://pewhispanic.org/factsheets/factsheet.php?FactsheetID=68)
I’m not asserting that any of this is necessarily good news for Democrats, only that it’s bad news for Republicans.
@Pug
“The Cubans in South Florida have been Republican for decades.”
The older Cubans; I understand that the younger generations are not quite as Republican. Which make sense, not that they’re not Republican, but that they wouldn’t necessarily hold the political views of their grandparents.
<blockquote>Well Harry, let me introduce myself. I am the daughter of Cuban exiles who have seen first hand the failures of liberal and socialist policies in their native country</blockquote>
Of course, according to the current Republican platform, her parents came here illegally and were only allowed to stay because of a shameful amnesty during the 1980’s. They then had an “anchor baby” daugter. And if we believe Republicans like Lindsey Graham, Palin, etc. who want to eliminate birthright citizenship, the whole family should really be stripped of their citizenship and deported back to Cuba.
I noticed many here use anti-immigrant when the truth is the GOP is anti-illegal alien. Immigration indicates comming through the gate not climbing over the fense. What is commonly misnamed undocumented immigrants are really invaders who come to take what they are not entitled to. Many, on the left would like to think citizens of latino background are less American than those of European stock. Good luck with that. Its funny how when people see what the left truely offers, they tend to turn away. I liked how the President of the AFL-CIO clearly stated there was no deficit crisis. This joker has the Presidents ear. By the way, how do the unions feel about criminal invaders?
<blockquote>I noticed many here use anti-immigrant when the truth is the GOP is anti-illegal alien.</blockquote>
This is like saying Mayor Daley isn’t anti-gun, he’s just against illegal guns. When all guns are illegal, the distinction becomes meaningless.
Legalized immigration from Mexico is more or less impossible right now, and the anti-immigration have repeatedly blocked any attempt to create legal avenues for people to come to this country. And now we have the move to end birthright citizenship, which seeks to deny people who aren’t immigrants at all, much less illegal immigrants, citizenship.
We call the anti-immigration movement that because it is anti-immigration. Their emphasis on the word ‘illegal’ is just a ploy to avoid having to address their real motivations.