Latinos Saved Harry Reid, Nevada and the Senate

The Los Angeles Times wrote up an interesting piece about the critical boost Latino voters gave Harry Reid in this election (in case you don’t remember, Sharron Angle has a hard time telling Latinos, Asians, etc. apart).  When they tell you that we live in post-racial American, chomp on this:  in response to Angle’s racist rhetoric and advertisements, Reid received two-thirds of the Latino vote and even LARGER chunks of the vote from Asians and blacks in Nevada, even as Angle took white voters by a DOUBLE-DIGIT margin.

The story continues:

Reid’s success with minorities is a microcosm of how he handily clinched victory, winning 50% to 44%. A flurry of mailers and commercials helped demonize Angle as outside the mainstream.

Immigration became a key undercurrent in Reid’s bid for a fifth term when Arizona’s tough measure to control illegal immigration was signed into law in April. Nevada’s nation-leading unemployment rate fed into some voters’ perception that undocumented migrants were draining social services and pilfering jobs.

Angle tried to capitalize on the sentiment with ads featuring thuggish-looking Latino men and the claim that Reid was ‘the best friend an illegal alien ever had.’ Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno, called the ads ‘borderline racist.’

Early in the campaign, some analysts predicted sluggish turnout among Latinos disappointed with Democrats’ failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Angle’s border-crackdown rhetoric, however, spurred Latinos to the polls, much like anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187 did in California years ago.”

What does this all mean?  It means the Democrats have, again, benefitted from Latino voters but, again, not really come through with them.  Some of our commenters on Facebook have mentioned that the best thing any political party could do right now would be to create jobs with good benefits.

The Democrats have been in power for several years, did pass a stimulus that benefitted me and other laid-off journalists, they did pass health care (after letting Republicans take it to the chopping block so they could then not support it), they addressed financial aid, but they totally backed down on immigration reform.  Lame.  At one point President Obama and Rahm Emmanuel both said that immigration reform would have to wait until the president’s second term.  Even lamer.

Look Democrats, there’s a reason Latino Republicans kicked your ass in this election:  Stop taking Latino voters for granted.  Democrats feel cock sure that Latinos will vote their way so support white candidates over Latino candidates while the Republicans are all-too-happy to back a Latino to boost their inclusion “street cred.”