Tea Party: Don’t Say “Republican” To Latinos, Say “Conservative”

Is changing voter attitudes as easy as swapping one descriptor for another? In political circles, it can be. But what about in Latino politics, specifically? According to a Reuters report, a Texas Latino Tea Party activist thinks that changing a single word will make a difference:

“Whenever the word ‘Republican’ is used, it was almost like an automatic wall that falls,” George Rodriguez, president of the San Antonio Tea Party, said at a conference organized by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Yet when we used the word ‘conservative,’ people were more responsive.”

Many Latinos are repulsed by the Republican anti-immigrant stance and rhetoric. In 2008 Latinos voted almost 2 to 1 against Republican Presidential candidate John McCain. And in  Texas, specifically, 61% of Latino voters rejected Republican Rick Perry.

But the idea behind the conservative-versus-Republican change belies another thought, that Latinos, by and large, are politically immature:

“For some reason, these folks continue to vote liberal, only because their parents did,” (Rodriguez) said. “When you ask them, ‘Why do you vote like that?’, they don’t know, they don’t know, they just do it.”

So the Tea Party believes, apparently, that Latinos (“these folks”) can be lulled by simply changing one word?