GOP Latino Outreach; They Need to Stop Digging

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

I’m rooting for the Republican Party to get it’s head straight. I’m a sucker for impossible causes.

To hear the GOP leaders gush about the need to be more inclusive and reach out to the Latino community is a good thing … on a certain, thin, hazy, superficial level. They’re saying the right thing; yes, they do need to be more inclusive and all those things – it’ll do them good. But they have a follow-through problem – like golf (they might understand this analogy), their words slice into the trees. And they keep doing the same thing thinking it’ll correct their game.

For all the talk of the need for inclusiveness and helping Latinos realize that they’re already Republicans, they haven’t changed anything fundamental in their approach, discussions or staff. I hear this from my GOP friends. They’ve gone from dismay to disgust when they talk about their party’s Latino outreach. These are staunch conservatives, and I admire their integrity. In all my conversations with them I’ve never doubted where they stood or what they believed.  So it’s telling for me to hear them criticize the Republican Latino outreach – many have been outcast for speaking out, others are contemplating a party switch.

A recent Gallup Poll about Latino Republicans in Texas is a perfect case in point. The poll found that 27% of Texas Latinos prefer the GOP, as opposed to 21% in other parts of the country. The poll was received as proof that the GOP efforts were on track, that Texas is indicative of a growing trend. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a celebration in the GOP tent.

The Latino Republicans I spoke to rolled their eyes (figuratively … I spoke to them over the phone or online). “This is the excuse they needed to keep doing the same thing with the same people … ” they said. It’s also the excuse they need to keep saying the same thing, but it begs the question: To whom?

The GOP Latino outreach effort isn’t winning converts. Texas is an aberration, because it’s Texas. It’s funny that while the Gallop poll says one thing, many Latino Republicans in Texas are grumbling about the lack of inclusion. And meanwhile, across the nation the Republican outbursts of sincerity about reaching out to Latinos are met with the equivalent of crickets in an empty room.

I love the analogy that Salsa great Ruben Blades made about politics in Venezuela, it works perfectly in this case. The GOP is in a hole when it comes to Latinos, and when you’re in a whole, Blades said, the first thing you need to do is stop digging. And before you do that you need to stop lying to yourself about your situation.

[Photo by AdamBindslev]

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