Si Si GOP Say California Hispanics

Rush Limbaugh, whose radio career might soon join the Marxism that he so despises in the dustbin of history, has rallied the Republican base and killed many an effort at immigration reform on grounds that it will do the GOP no good with Hispanics. Hispanics are born Keynesians and welfare queens in his manner of thinking. So the GOP can't counter the liberal "Santa with amnesty" he has groused. This, I have argued here and here, represents a complete failure of imagination. The 16th District senate race in California just furnished proof of that by electing Republican Andy Vidak  two days ago.

Reports the Human Events, no friend of illegals:

California Democrats had written off the GOP as nearly extinct after winning a super-majority in the state legislature last November, but their swagger may have been shattered last night as Republican Andy Vidak is reportedly ahead in a senate district that is composed heavily of Democrats and left-leaning Hispanics.

Vidak's opponent in the 16th district senate race, Leticia Perez, a young Latina who worked as a public defender, campaigned heavily on raising the minimum wage and on promoting a new high-speed rail, which she called "the biggest jobs plan in California history."

Vidak is a white, third generation farmer whose campaign drew on the stark divide between "the coastal liberal elites versus the Valley folks." His focus was on job creation, the wastefulness of big government projects like the bullet train, and creating a pathway to citizenship. "We're getting left behind here," Vidak said. "We don't have clean drinking water in some areas of our district, and they want to build an $80 billion bullet train!"

One Hispanic interviewed credits Vidak's success with his "open position" on the pathway to citizenship. "The Republican Party has a lot to learn from him on taking a stance on the importance of immigration reform," Mr. Rodriguez told the Times. "Hispanics are traditionally Catholic and conservative, and that goes hand in hand with the Republican Party. There is no reason why there shouldn't be more Hispanic Republicans."

With Vidak's victory, and with two more senate seats, California Republicans will be able to reclaim their veto on tax hikes.

Wakey, wakey John Boehner!

H/T Cato's Alex Nowrasteh

Comments

[wareagle]

when your piece starts with a buffoonish comment about a radio host moving from stations run by one large company to stations run by an even larger company, how am I supposed to take the rest seriously?

[WTF]

You mean she doesn't have stats showing Rush Limbaugh's ratings are way down and sinking, which would justify her comment?

Shocked, I am.

[CampingInYourPark]

Rush Limbaugh, whose radio career might soon join the Marxism that he so despises in the dustbin of history...

Is this supposed to be an ironic phrase?

[Mike M.]

Limbaugh is one of those guys that when he finally retires, the liberals and their cosmotarian dipshit friends will all be celebrating and claiming that they successfully ran him off the air.

[Matrix]

they'll do the same when he keels over from a heartattack.

[ant1sthenes]

Sure, they'll try to take credit, but I won't believe it unless his coroner dies too.

[SIV]

cosmotarian dipshit friends

I'm so stealing that.

[Joe M]

I have to agree. The linked article said nothing that would indicate Limbaugh's career is in any danger whatsoever.

[Tak Kak]

That proves it! Just like Scott Brown proved that Mass. wasn't completely gone.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I am an open-borders zealot, and this piece sucks.

Rush is harping on *polls* that show this very thing. I see no such figures from Dalmia; only an anecdote about a guy in California who has yet to win. Moreover, immigration reform in its current state is a total libertarian nonstarter thanks to increased Stasi at the border and E-verify.

[WTF]

But anecdotes are data, in Shikha's world.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I revise my original statement. Apparently Mr. Vidak did one. That's my fault.

I still don't know if it has anything to do with his stance on immigration. And neither does Dalmia.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

did WIN.

Wow, that's a hell of an error.

[Paul.]

I see no such figures from Dalmia; only an anecdote about a guy in California who has yet to win.

I kind of agree with this. I'm not sensing a tidal wave of GOP power in the Golden State.

Remember, while hispanics were holding signs saying, "You can't court us and deport us!", the Obama administration said, "Si Se Puede", proceeded to deport a record number of hispanics and increased his support in that demographic over his 2008 levels.

[Brandybuck]

Vidak wasn't running statewide, he was merely running in one of the most heavily Hispanic districts in the state.

[Paul.]

Yeah, I know that, which is why I'm not sure how the conclusion that the GOP tidal wave is coming to California can be drawn. Am I not getting something?

[Careless]

hey, he got like 43,000 votes! Tidal wave!

[Careless]

Something like 4.5% of the people in the district voted for him. California will be up for grabs any day now.

[Hyperion]

OT:

Anyone post this yet? No I don't have time to check...

LAPD beats up bicyclist for not using lights

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't think I've ever SEEN a cop in Playa Del Rey. It's the sleepiest beach community there ever was.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

All the cops hang out at LA's Smallest Bar.

http://www.laweekly.com/bestof.....r-1509868/

[jesse.in.mb]

I'll have to keep an eye out for them. If I'm there it's usually to grab coffee at Tanner's or lunch at The Shack as a midpoint on a bike ride (there may also be some volleyball player ogling involved). I've liked the dinner options I've had in PDR though (Destini Cafe and The Tripel).

[Paul.]

Jesus...

[Pro Libertate]

One thing Romney did that I like (assuming I'm recalling this correctly) is to tell black voters that he actually wanted to help improve their economic situation, unlike the Democrats. While he was likely full of shit, too, it's an excellent point--do you want to see people dependent on government, living in, at best, lower-middle class conditions in perpetuity, or do you want an opportunity to do better, even much better?

A strong economy would allow for that. As fucked up as the GOP is on so many issues, if it would beat that drum along with the one for dramatically less spending, it could do some real good. Naturally, they'll do no such thing.

This argument works for everyone, Hispanics included.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I don't get why everyone assumes voting Hispanics are all in about immigration. Most immigrants I meet want to shut the door behind them.

[Mad Scientist]

The town where I live in SoCal is about 70% Hispanic, and this is my take as well. Many have a "I got mine, fuck you" attitude towards further immigration.

[Tak Kak]

I think you're on to something, strong economic appeal and remaining strong on border defense would probably bring much of the GOP's increasingly alienated white base back as well as many Hispanic citizens back to the national polls.

Rightly or wrongly.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The United States needs immigration reform, but not just any reform. It can't be another poorly considered piece of "comprehensive" legislation that will speed our economy's collapse under the strain of our bureaucratic government's weight.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

And they told me you were only good for snark...

[Paul.]

It can't be another poorly considered piece of "comprehensive" legislation that will speed our economy's collapse under the strain of our bureaucratic government's weight.

You don't see the snark in that? That's what government does.

[jesse.in.mb]

Your thoughts are intriguing, but your proposal sounds like it's going to get in the way of passing a landmark DO SOMETHING law. We can't have that.

[Dweebston]

Hispanics are born Keynesians and welfare queens in his manner of thinking.

And this distinguishes them from run-of-the-mill GOP voters... how? On the one hand the hostility shown on some fronts by right-of-center mouthpieces certainly impacts Hispanic voters. How could it not? He's ingratiating himself with a certain breed of ethnic jingoism that sells to a certain class of blue-collar conservatives.

On the other hand, the GOP of late can't be said to have a clean hands in the FREE SHIT splooge. Bush's compassionate conservatism and warfare welfarism puts the lie to whatever vestiges of Goldwater or even Reagan survived the 90s. So his line on illegal immigrants is that they might identify with Republican welfarism, so let's continue alienating all Hispanic voters.

A pox on both their houses.

[Dweebston]

And a pox on pronoun-antecedent clarity. "His line" is Limbaugh's.

[anon]

Wait, are you suggesting people might actually not want to be piss broke their entire lives!?

Novel idea.

[Ken Shultz]

"Hispanics are traditionally Catholic and conservative, and that goes hand in hand with the Republican Party."

This is a telling statement.

He's saying that he sees the Republican Party as the party of social conservatism, and if he's actually said "social conservatism", I don't think he'd talking about the kind that thinks the welfare state is degenerating the Protestant work ethic.

I don't mean to short change the Hispanic work ethic--Mexicans are hard working people. But the conservatism that appeals to them coming from the Republican Party isn't the conservatism that Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan were selling.

When I was living in Mexico, it struck me how huge a difference there was between the traditional American idea of selfishness and the Mexican idea of selfishness. The American idea of selfishness has traditionally included people who feel entitled to take things that don't belong to them. The Mexican idea of selfishness is all about people who are unwilling to share what they have with others.

Add to that the social conservatism of devout Catholics, and they don't look like Goldwater/Reagan Republicans to me. They look like Irish Catholics from Boston, who I don't think anybody typically associates culturally with the Republican party.

[Tak Kak]

Catholics have long been the Charlie Brown of the Democratic party, they might be better off as Republicans at this point.

[Ken Shultz]

If they did, we should be prepared to see the Republican party become a whole lot more culturally conservative than it is now and whole lot less welcoming to the ideas of libertarians.

[Tak Kak]

Of course, I don't for a second think things will become more libertarian.

[Ken Shultz]

Why not?

It's happened before.

When I was born, there were hundreds of millions of people living under the yoke of communism.

When my parents were born, black kids weren't allowed to attend public schools with white kids, and Americans of Japanese ancestry--men, women, and children, were rounded up by the thousands and imprisoned in camps in the desert for the crime of being of Japanese ancestry.

I saw communism implode right before my eyes! I saw marginal tax rates and the capital gains tax slashed in my lifetime. I've lived to see the recreational use of marijuana legalized in two states!

Why can't thins become even more libertarian?

[Ken Shultz]

Do you realize we've basically gotten rid of the draft?

No more conscription!

In a lot of ways, things are much better than they used to be. George W. Bush and Barack Obama have succeeded in making the future look more bleak than it used to--but my money's still on free people outmaneuvering those who would constrain them.

[Paul.]

I've lived to see the recreational use of marijuana legalized in two states!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Do you realize we've basically gotten rid of the draft?

No more conscription!

We've got a new kind of crypto-conscription. That free healthcare doesn't provide itself.

-but my money's still on free people outmaneuvering those who would constrain them.

The problem is it's getting harder and harder to outmaneuver in the form of barriers to entry.

The progressives are directly responsible for creating this mythical "1%", because that's about the percentage of people who can really make it big in this country.

The idea of starting an empire from wheeling a food cart up and down Madison Ave. is long gone.

Ok, yeah, I'm depressed today. Sue me.

[Ken Shultz]

If we're not going to get ahead of ourselves, then let's not assume that whatever emerges after ObamaCare implodes will necessarily be worse than ObamaCare.

My best guess? Insurance companies no longer screen for preexisting conditions and the individual mandate goes on the dustbin of history.

And being "conscripted" into paying for other people's healthcare isn't the same as being conscripted into the Army to fight the North Vietnamese or wherever the next rotten president wants us to fight.

And, yeah, the Progressives suck, but we've had worse!

I don't know, maybe I'm being overly optimistic. I just came back from riding my bike for a couple of weeks, across Death Valley, crisscrossing the Sierras, going far up North towards Shasta (all of it on the twisties in the Mountains), camping next to mountain streams, fishing for trout, and the I rode down the California coast south from Fort Bragg, camping on the beach, all the way to Jalama Beach.

You couldn't bring me down with a Patriot missile right now!

[Ken Shultz]

I was semi-charged by a black bear on the shore of Lake Tahoe.

Highway 4 east of Bear Valley--is motorcycle heaven! I haven't seen a more beautiful place since I left the Shenandoah Valley--and there weren't any twisties like that in Virginia.

I met a really nice hippy chick...

And you want me to worry about ObamaCare?

Dude, you need a vacation!

[Paul.]

If we're not going to get ahead of ourselves, then let's not assume that whatever emerges after ObamaCare implodes will necessarily be worse than ObamaCare.

Fair, but I thought things couldn't get worse than Clinton's plan in the 90s.

And being "conscripted" into paying for other people's healthcare isn't the same as being conscripted into the Army to fight the North Vietnamese or wherever the next rotten president wants us to fight.

Of course this is true. I'm just being negative. We're getting the soft, western socialism that just rots slowly until you're greece and you run out of other people's money. We should be thanking our lucky stars that Greece doesn't have an effective military, otherwise they'd have invaded someone by now. Imagine what happens when we run out of other people's money.

I don't know, maybe I'm being overly optimistic. I just came back from riding my bike for a couple of weeks, across Death Valley, crisscrossing the Sierras,

I read up to here and had to go have a lie-down.

[Ken Shultz]

The world is full of Awesome!

[Tak Kak]

Yes, in the private sphere (mostly, anyway) things have gotten better, and will continue to do so.

But that sphere has been shrinking long before O&W came around and I suspect it shall continue.

Not forever though, the State can only expand so much before it falls apart. That doesn't mean things will be better then either though.

[Ken Shultz]

What's private sphere about internment camps, the desegregation of public schools, and the end of conscription?

[Tak Kak]

I didn't disagree that it's good that government stopped doing those things. Hence "mostly."

But that's hardly evidence for the tide shifting.

[Paul.]

What's private sphere about internment camps, the desegregation of public schools, and the end of conscription?

According to the Occupy Movement, the private sphere IS and internment kamp!

[Tak Kak]

Are those meddling kids still around?

[Careless]

And it's completely delusional. The only way Hispanics have been social conservatives is by being anti-abortion, and they're not even that anymore.

[Mike M.]

Yep. And they often tend to have big families with lots of children, which is considered gauche today by most Anglo leftists ("breeders", etc.), so that is considered to be a socially conservative tendency.

[Careless]

And most of them born to single women.

[Ken Shultz]

I bet you'd find their marriage rates are much higher than the average Americans'.

[Careless]

Not just not "much higher" but slightly lower. Hispanics are not social conservatives, at all. Having high rates of unprotected sex doesn't change that.

[Ken Shultz]

The marriage rate of Hispanic women is actually higher than that of white women in this country--certainly at younger ages.

And the divorce rate among Hispanic women is much lower.

Here are the Census Bureau's marriage and divorce tables in spreadsheet format, with "white" and "Hispanic" broken out separately:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/soc.....ables.html

Have at it!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I bet you'd find their marriage rates are much higher than the average Americans'

Careless wasn't referring to marraige rates, but to out-of-wedlock births.

And yes, Hispanics have higher rates of this than whites.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/n.....es.pdf#I04

[Ken Shultz]

Do you suspect that has anything to do with the cultural influence of Catholicism?

If abortion is more unacceptable than sex before marriage, that doesn't mean that they're aren't socially conservative. It may just mean their social conservatism is more influenced by Catholicism than Protestantism.

In some places the two traditions may overlap, but this isn't the same social conservatism that the Protestants in the GOP are used to. And that's part of the point I've been making.

[Ken Shultz]

Like I was saying before, in Protestant traditions that were influenced by Calvinism, if you're rich or poor, that largely has to do with your standing with God. If you're poor and you stay poor, it's probably your own fault.

"The Protestant work ethic (or the Puritan work ethic) is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and history which emphasizes hard work, frugality and diligence as a constant display of a person's salvation in the Christian faith, in contrast to the focus upon religious attendance, confession, and ceremonial sacrament in the Catholic tradition."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic

Like I said, I remain skeptical that, despite what that one Hispanic voter saw as what was desirable from a Hispanic perspective about the GOP, if there's a cultural inclination towards one party's traditional policies or the other, I think most Hispanics will be naturally drawn (culturally) to the Democratic Party--not the Republicans.

[Ken Shultz]

That "more children" thing, when you're talking about immigrants, is a product of being more socially conservative...

Anglos tend to think of "socially conservative" as people who don't have children until they can pay for them, but, even here in the U.S., we were more like Mexicans in regards to children not so long ago.

Back in the 1950s, Americans expected their children to get married right out of high school, and that's mostly what they did. Even as socially conservative as we were in the 1950s, i.e., parents didn't expect kids not to have sex when they were 18--they just expected them to get married first.

That's the kind of social conservatism these Mexicans have. We see a 23 year old woman with three kids, and our culture tells us that she must have had loose morals to have so many children so young. In Mexican society, preaching abstinence is absurd, so--because you're conservative--you marry your kids off much younger than we would.

Also, it's important to remember that, just as in the United States, the poorer you are, the more devoutly religious you are, and the people who brave the desert and the coyotes and come here to take menial jobs? They're typically coming from the bottom of the economic ladder in Mexico, meaning they tend to be more devoutly religious. Believe me, they're socially conservative.

Their descendants are the ones who voted to ban gay marriage in California. It wasn't the white people in Orange County who put Prop 8 over the top.

[Careless]

Hispanics were in favor of legalizing gay marriage before it was cool. I think it was a majority of them by 1999.

[Eric Bana]

Why do people constantly talk about citizenship?! There could be a plan to grant legal residency with certain restrictions on becoming a citizen.

[Ken Shultz]

I agree that the Republicans are seen to be stonewalling when what they need to project themselves as doing is offering a better alternative plan.

At some point, however, you have to start being inclusive.

When all your proposals keep boiling down, in practice, to keeping the Mexicans out, it's unreasonable to expect voters of Hispanic ancestry not to get suspicious.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

There is little evidence immigration is of a primary concern to Hispanic citizens.

[Ken Shultz]

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that Hispanic voters see the Republican party as being hostile to them.

[Acosmist]

Rush Limbaugh is rapidly losing market share to Shikha Dalmia. NO ONE DENIES THIS.

[Matrix]

They aren't the Stupid Party for nothing.

[SeaCaptain(Yokeltarian)]

Rush Limbaugh, whose radio career might soon join the Marxism that he so despises in the dustbin of history, has rallied the Republican base and killed many an effort at immigration reform on grounds that it will do the GOP no good with Hispanics.

COSMOTARIAN MAD! COSMOTARIAN SMASH!!!11!!

"Marxism that he so despises in the dustbin of history"

This sounds like some snarky bullshit straight from Daily Kos.

[entropy]

Um... far as I can tell the win in that hispanic district had nothing to do with immigration policy or amnesty.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, that's just Shikha on immigration. She's not capable of serious articles on that issue.

[Mendelism]

She writes articles on other issues?