New Face, Same Ignorance from GOP on Immigration, Latino Issues

America's Voice Blog

Posted 02/02/09 at 07:27pm

Things were looking up. Last week "Star-Spanglish Saltsman" withdrew from the race for RNC Chairman, and for the first time ever, the GOP appointed an African American, Michael Steele, to be the face of the Republican Party.

Saltsman had withdrawn amid a storm of controversy over his holiday CD, which included the hit tunes: "Barack the Magic Negro" and "Star Spanglish Banner." Huffington Post's, Sam Stein reported:

Chip Saltsman, a former chief aide to GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has withdrawn from the race to be chairman of the Republican National Committee just a day before the vote takes place.[...] Today, immigration groups hammered on Saltsman again, drawing attention to the fact that the CD also includes a song titled "The Star Spanglish Banner."

Stein continued by explaining why this sort of "ill-conceived" (that's one way of saying it) prank is a strong reason why the GOP should reign in the rhetoric, and fast:

Saltsman has contended that the whole thing was meant as a good-humored, albeit ill-conceived, joke. But it hits at the core of what observers inside and out of the GOP see as a major party problem: their incredible failure to win Hispanic votes in the 2008 election.

Hispanics, of course, are the fastest growing constituency in the United States and a cold shoulder to them -- whether in the form of a musical parody or through immigration reform policy -- is not something the Republican Party can afford at this or any juncture.

As Stein argued, and we've been saying for some time, the future of the Republican party depends, in large part, on getting the issues of immigration and minority inclusion right.

Well, New RNC Chairman Steele started things off on a good enough note:

"I think it's an opportunity for us now to move this party forward on the ideas that matter to the voters, and so I'm not in the mood to have people stand in the way and say, "We can't. We've always done it this way. It's impossible to do."

Unfortunately, his desire to "move the party forward" was quickly derailed a moment later, as you can see in this interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: Does the GOP need to change its position on immigration reform, guest workers, path to citizenship, to reach out and say to Hispanics, "You have a home in the Republican Party?."

STEELE: No. Well, I think the GOP's position on immigration is very much the position of many, many Hispanics who are in this country.

WALLACE: Well, wait a minute.

Yes, please wait a minute. In what alternate universe did Hispanic voters agree with the GOP's position on immigration in 2008?

WALLACE: Wait. Is the GOP position the position of George Bush and John McCain, which is for immigration reform, or...

STEELE: The GOP...

WALLACE: ... or is it the position that was build the fence?

STEELE: The GOP's position is secure our borders first. Let us know and let us make sure the American people know that we've taken care of the important business of dealing with illegal immigration into this country. You cannot begin to address the concerns of the people who are already here unless and until you have made certain that no more are coming in behind them.

WALLACE: So no change in the position of the party.

STEELE: No change in the position on the party on that.

WALLACE: You are one of the...
STEELE: How we messaged that is where we messed up the last time. We were pegged as being insensitive, anti-immigrant, and nothing could be further from the truth, because you talk to those leaders in the Hispanic community, they will tell you the same thing.

So, according to Steele, the problem isn't the GOP's position on immigration reform, it's their messaging? Republicans in Congress worked to pass the infamous "Sensenbrenner bill" in 2005 that would have turned 12 million undocumented immigrants into hardcore felons, blocked bipartisan attempts at passing comprehensive reform in 2006 and 2007, and drove millions of Latinos and other Americans to protest in the streets (and ultimately the voting booth) -- and Steele still thinks the GOP is in line with what Hispanic voters want?

Look, the Republican Party is not going to stop bleeding Latino voters until it makes a simple decision:

Option 1) Right the ship and change tactics- as well as just tone- on immigration.

Option 2) Continue to scapegoat immigrants and become a regional party for decades to come.

We hope that the new RNC Chairman changes his tune and becomes a catalyst for real change. The GOP just can't afford another mouthpiece for the Party's status quo as it navigates this colossal identity crisis.

By Paco Fabian
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