I thought this was very interesting:
South Of The Border - Down Mexico Way
July 2, 2001
Giving the lie to the seemingly ineffective but ongoing campaign by the Democrat Party to malign George W. Bush’s intellect, one can see glimpses of a brilliant and strategically significant policy emanating from his White House.
This policy is a laser guided missile meant to strike at the heart of Democrat electoral viability.
If successful, it could mark the attainment of a true Republican governing majority. Such a coalition would give the GOP access to the reins of power for a period of time that could rival the 40 years the Democrats have held sway over DC. Spread over even a fraction of this timeframe, it would also allow them to “re-populate” the entrenched bureaucracy, the upper level Civil Service positions (such as the Department of State) where much latent Democrat power still lies.
The Bush White House has identified and is prepared to exploit the most glaring vulnerability facing the Democrats – without capturing nearly all of the African American vote they are simply no longer a factor in national electoral politics.
Hispanic Power
Considering that, for whatever reason, it is the apparent desire of African Americans to forever vote for their Democrat plantation masters, adding a potentially larger and still growing Hispanic pro-Republican block as a counter balance would serve to neutralize the Democrat’s hold on this group.
The fact that traditional and extremely partisan African American leaders are at the same time publicly self-destructing makes such a challenge even more enticing. Deprived of radical leadership, the religious core of the African American community may well respond even more positively to GW Bush’s “faith based” initiatives. Response up to this point among Black clergy has been overwhelmingly positive - one of the reasons the left is fighting it so ferociously.
Also troubling for the Democrats is the dirty, not so little, secret that there exists considerable racial tension between Hispanics and those of African American ancestry – as the recent Los Angeles Mayoral election clearly demonstrated. In this light choosing a political party other than the Democrat becomes an even more viable option for Hispanics looking for an alternative and a way to differentiate themselves.
That this sea change in policy flies in the face of conservative orthodoxy, seemingly taking a plank from the Libertarian Party with regards to immigration, is obvious and in itself a sign of bold “out of the box” thinking.
This was unanticipated by the Democrats. They are exceedingly worried because Bush is singularly equipped to exploit their weaknesses, not the least of which is his fluency in Spanish and his background as governor of the second largest border state.
"He's romancing them and appealing to them at a personal level and the Democrats are doing nothing…Bush is connecting with Hispanics because he grew up around Mexican Americans and feels comfortable with them, very similar to the way (former President) Jimmy Carter felt comfortable with African-American voters," Miami pollster and Democrat Party advisor, Sergio Bendixen
The Bush Administration will be doing much more than merely actively courting the Hispanic vote; at its heart the goal here is to turn the Democrat open border-trap against them.
Democrat policies have left us with essentially no southern border, this fact cannot be denied. It is estimated, by even pro immigration news sources such as the New York Times, that possibly one million illegal Mexican nationals migrate into the United States every year.
Republican dogma has preached borders, language and culture as a tenet of faith, but every Republican effort to implement this philosophy and curtail illegal immigration have been effectively cast by the opposition as anti-Hispanic, essentially racist and have resulted in a very strong backlash that is easily fomented by radical politicians in states with significant Hispanic populations.
When you combine the numbers of native-born Hispanics with those who are legal immigrants and then fold in those who are “undocumented” they are overwhelmingly the fastest growing minority population in the United States, having soared in numbers by almost 60% since 1990.
More bad news for the Democrats - they are predominantly Catholic - a conservative pro-life religion. They are strongly committed to the nuclear family and possess a strong work ethic and a desire to succeed. Radical concepts like reparations are alien to their cultural way of thinking and thus are seldom heard passing their lips.
One mechanism of implementing this change builds on Bush’s already excellent relationship with Mexican President Vincente Fox. Together they seeks to forge a new relationship that will, on its face, reduce the hazards of Mexican illegal immigration on one hand but on the other will allow Fox to take steps to actively discourage illegal immigration, a huge departure from the past.
Jorge Castaneda, Mexico’s Foreign Minister, maintains that his nation will be willing to actively discourage illegal crossings if a “package” deal is struck with Washington, terming it “shared responsibility”.
Hispanics cast 35% of their votes for Bush in the 2000 election showing significant gains even before the new policy could be put into action.
Bush Seen In Positive Light
With less than 200 days in office Bush is already receiving greater job approval, marginally, from Hispanics than Caucasians.
A Gallup poll released June 17th shows that 6 in 10 Hispanic Americans approve of the way George W. Bush is conducting himself in office. News of this has produced shock waves within the Democrat Party.
Approval As A Function Of Ethnicity - Source Gallup Organization
Institution Overall % White % Black % Hispanic %
Presidency 55 58 36 59
Congress 51 50 49 55
Supreme Court 62 63 52 48
Furthermore what may look to some (and which has been roundly and unthinkingly condemned by short sighted knee-jerk media wags) as simply conceding as inevitable, a continued onslaught of illegals streaming into the United States, is really another clever facet of the Bush endgame.
Recent studies indicate that if Mexico's economy continues to grow at 5 percent per year, it will have the capacity to absorb all newcomers into its domestic job market by 2005, thus mitigating the issue as a factor.
Certainly life north of the border will always be appealing to some but it will no longer be the default answer to grinding Mexican poverty and zero job growth.
That NAFTA is also hugely responsible for creating the seeds of Mexican self sufficiency, a fact totally unanticipated by jingoist loose cannons like Pat Buchanan, conceivably will cut him and dividers of his ilk off forever from this New Republican Party - more brilliance.
Combining internal job creation with increased Mexican governmental attention to border integrity potentiates both.
How will this play in the Hispanic community?
Mexico will see a young, vital, fluent Spanish speaking president who hails from a border state and is extremely comfortable in their presence.
They will observe his obviously warm close personal relationship with reformer, Vincente Fox, the first non-PRI party leader in over 70 years (the fact that the Clinton White House actively worked against his election will be hammered home in political advertising).
Additionally they will watch Bush take the Republican Party into a totally new territory, previously owned by the Democrats. This will underscore his "compassionate" conservatism, giving it a strong mooring and validation.
They will contemplate the fact of who they really are: an essentially conservative, faith and family based, pro-life, hard working people with little philosophically in common with the bound concubine of the radical faction of African America, the Democrat Party.
The policy has yet to be fully played out, indeed it is just being discussed but the distance it has already been advanced and the intellectual vigor of the argument itself is indeed impressive.
This one could be a near slam-dunk. |
