GOP chairman changes immigration tune on Spanish TV

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele went on Spanish television recently, saying that Arizona’s SB 1070 didn’t “reflect the beliefs of all Republicans.”

I don’t recall him saying anything remotely close to that in English media. I don’t blame him for saying that. The political reality is that the future of all political parties in the United States must include room for Latinos; the increasing numbers of Latino voters speaks for itself.

So when the GOP chairman found himself before a niche Latino audience, he softened the immigration rhetoric.

What I find interesting about this is the way Republican Party leaders acknowledge a Latino electorate, go on Spanish television to speak directly to it and generally woo voters of Latino descent. And yet a sizable and very vocal segment of their political ranks opposes the notion of hyphenated Americans.

This is a problem that GOP leaders seem to be handling well or, rather, as well as can be expected. Hypersensitized anti-hyphenated-America people don’t watch Spanish media. It’s a safe place to deliver a sanitized version of the right’s immigration sentiments.

The Democrats don’t have that problem. At its worst, the left’s immigration record is lackluster, but the Latino slice of the electorate pie skews historically Democratic nonetheless. The Democrats say in Spanish what they say in English, and all’s well. It’s the GOP that walks the fine, un-translated line.

National politics must include a Latino strategy, regardless of whether rank and file partisans like it or dislike it. Voters of Latino descent are a large part of the political calculus, even more so with two months left before the midterm elections.

So how do you balance an electoral need with a political imperative? How do you acknowledge an important voting segment without alienating another voting bloc that seeks to eliminate the very idea of segmentized politics?

That is the GOP’s dilemma.

So Steele goes on Spanish TV to tell his amigos that all is well with immigrants and immigration reform, that the ballyhooed Arizona law is not as popular among his party’s partisans as it may seem.

Meanwhile, his party’s candidates leverage the immigration debate for every non-Latino vote they can get.

The problem with this plan is the assumption that U.S. Latino voters are monolingual Spanish speakers, that they have no media contact beyond their daily telenovela and that non-Latino rank-and-file Republicans have no idea what they’re doing.

The Democrats, on the other hand, have the luxury of sitting back and watching the GOP try to untangle itself from this rhetorical knot. They have no record on immigration to speak of this political season, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

And while that may be good for Democratic politicians, it may not be so good for Latino voters.

Republicans see the Latino vote as important enough to hide behind a language camouflage. Democrats seem to be self-satisfied, knowing they carry the Latino electorate in their back pocket.

If you want to see where the political line is drawn don’t look in the sand, look at the TV remote control.