Continental Divide
As Democratic candidates continue to court people of faith, the Republican Party's bid to hold on to such voters, particularly evangelical Hispanics, is slipping.
Nearly four in ten Hispanic voters and two-thirds of Hispanic evangelicals backed Bush in 2004—and those numbers were headed up for 2006. "Conservative projections had 53 percent of all Hispanics and 80 percent of born-again Latinos going Republican," said Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Then immigration came to the forefront of national discussion. Republicans generally pegged it a law-and-order issue and talked tough, leaving an opening for Democrats to appeal to Hispanic voters. "Democrats are saying, 'Let's talk about your family and your faith,'" Rodriguez said. "They're saying, 'The other side doesn't want you.'"
In the 2006 midterm elections, Latino support for Republicans sank. "Exit poll numbers showed Hispanics shifted away from the Republicans," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "Latinos gave 30 percent of their vote to Republican candidates, a 10-point swing."
If the pattern continues, the resulting double-digit dive could mean millions more lost votes for the Republicans in 2008. Although Latinos will likely cast only 6.5 percent of the votes in November, according to Lugo, they may double that showing in swing states like Florida, New Mexico, and Colorado.
The country's largest minority group, Latinos tend to oppose gay marriage and say that abortion should be illegal. More than 80 percent are Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, or evangelicals. But as voters, they often feel a tension between their support for conservative positions on social and moral issues, and ...
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Beau in NC
The "elephant in the living room" (no pun intended) is that while Republican politicians are talking tougher, knowing that their hard-core base wants Mexicans back in Mexico, they decline to get specific about just what moving them would involve. The worst case scenario would be a massive "trail of tears" unlike anything we have ever seen in this country. If you want a hint what it would be like, rent the film "Children of Men" and pay particular attention to the refugee removal system. Now, I am not suggesting that this scenario will happen. The majority of the GOP is not that heartless. But what will happen? Consider how many teenagers and young adults (I think I heard a figure of close to a million) are A) Here illegally, because they were brought here as infants or small children, B) speak English like native-born Americans C) have never seen Mexico D) have younger sibling who are citizens by virtue of birth here, and D) don't want to move. What happens to them?
Ben
This article fails to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. Many (most?) evangelicals would like to see illegal immigration stopped, and legal immigration made easier. There is also a perception (I don't know if it is really true or not) that Hispanic immigrants are unwilling to learn our language. If that is true, then it needs to change (if I moved to Mexico, I would expect to learn their language); and if it is false, then evangelicals need to be educated. But if we fail to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration, many evangelicals feel that their views are being misrepresented, as in this article.
Jn 17, 21
Christians were illegal less than two thousands years ago. Thank God they did not gave up and became law obedient citizens of Rome. What roman god would we be following now? Thank God Christians from Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Algeria, Eritrea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Gaza and the West Bank, Mindanao, Philippines, Syria, Belarus, India, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Bhutan, Indonesia, Morocco, Tibet (China), Brunei, Iran, Nepal, Tunisia, Burma (Myanmar), Iraq, Nigeria, Turkey, Jordan, North Korea, Turkmenistan, China, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Comoros, Laos, Qatar, Vietnam, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen are willing to be "illegal". Man's nature is migrant; we will always move looking for a better life. We see this everyday going within America's borders and all over the world, sometimes disregarding man made laws and borders; there is a stronger law called survival.