Hispanic voters

The San Diego Union Tribune offered an editorial opinion the other day that Hispanics had returned to the Democratic Party after discovering the Bush and his “Big Tent” friends were unable to deliver an open border for illegals.

The editorial then went on to talk about solutions to the problem.

As usual, I consider the source. The Union Trib is decidedly left wing and pro-illegal alien. They have consistently preached the need for amnesty. It is a bit of a surprise since San Diego is hard hit by the illegal invasion. You can’t get more of a border state mentality than San Diego.

You can’t blame the people. The battle is fought there with tunnels and drug dealers and coyotes in the news almost daily. Heck, it is almost a suburb of Tijuana.

As further evidence of their liberal views, the Union Trib is home turf for Rueben Navarrette. Rueben is always good for an essay on why the illegals are a necessary part of our society.

Anyway…back to Hispanic voters. The editorial makes the assumption that brown people vote on one issue only; immigration reform. Jerry Campagna, the editor of a Spanish/English newspaper in suburban Chicago, makes the same mistake.

Jerry says that Republicans got “spanked” in November of 2006 because the Hispanics reacted to strong talk on illegal aliens. I think that’s wrong. To state that is to say that Latinos don’t care about deficit spending, scandals, the Iraq war, and a dozen other lesser issues that make up the mind of the voter.

Maybe the fraudulent voter has only one issue- remain in the United States. No one really knows the size of that problem. Democrat politicians have resisted investigations and voter ID laws as though it were a plank of the platform.

Heaven knows that in Illinois it would be simple to get a voter card. All you need is a utility bill and the willingness to sign that you are a citizen. There are no other requirements. And the person receiving the application is a party hack who will gladly sign you up. So the door is wide open for fraud.

Like most information relative to illegal aliens, no one knows for sure.

But the editorial makes some interesting points about the need for Latinos to stay in the political game. It suggests that the worst thing that could happen is that Hispanics will be forgotten as everyone assumes they will vote Democrat and stop courting them.