Republicans Give Up On Hispanic Vote
I have heard many in the news media refer to the Supreme Court hearings on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination as boring and having very little real news value. Chris Mathews and Peggy Noonen even complained that she was “over coached” and stiff. A boring and uneventful nomination hearing was exactly what the President wanted for his first Supreme Court nominee and for most of the country boring is exactly what they saw.
There was one segment of the population, however, that watched every moment of the hearings with rapt attention. For Hispanics, this hearing was a truly historic event and they watched very closely to see not only how the nominee performed but also how she was treated. One of the few Spanish speaking members of the Senate, Robert Menendez recently stated “The mere fact of the historical nature of it, that is was first, made the community pay attention”. And what did they see when they tuned in? Their nominee being attacked again and again by Republicans for taking pride in being a “wise Latina woman”.
I have stated in my previous post that the Republicans entered this nomination hearing with no unified plan on how to present themselves. Instead, they chose to individually burnish their conservative credentials by showing how tough they could be on President Obama’s nominee. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem if Obama had chosen a liberal white male but was a disastrous course of action when dealing with the first Hispanic nominee for the Supreme Court. The image presented to the Hispanic viewers was one of a bullying, bigoted and condescending group of Republican white males. This was compounded by some of the more vocal “leaders” of the party like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Pat Buchanan vilifying her day after day as a racist and unqualified to serve on the bench. It would have made so much more sense for the Republicans to recognize the trap Obama had placed them in and to choose discretion as the better part of suicidal valor. In the end they couldn’t help themselves and the Republican party as a whole will be the ultimate loser.
If the Republicans want to win back control of Congress and the White House in the future they will have to appeal to an Hispanic community which represents the fastest growing group of voters in the country. This hearing, however, has only solidified the idea in most Hispanics mind that the Republican party is not a welcome place to hang their hat. The Republican Senators in that hearing lost more Hispanic Votes in three days then the party could ever hope to make up in three years. It is almost as if they had chosen to give up on the Hispanic vote altogether.
Don’t they see how they are hurting themselves or are they “bark watchers”, not just not seeing the forest for the trees, but not even the trees themselves?
This myopia will certainly hurt their chances unless someone from the party has the courage to stand up and not just point out the problem with their collective conduct but also offer a more constructive way to behave.