Turnout among Hispanics is low, but they are well worth wooing

*From the article: ” … today’s (political) parties have no need to change their policies since Latino voters will move in their direction anyway.” The premise is that political outreach to Latinos is stuck in cliches – Repubicans believe the Reagan addage: Latinos are Republican, they just don’t know it; and Democrats are complacent with low Latino voter turnout. What’s new and important is that this is The Economist saying it, a publication I’m sure the Party leaders read and heed. And if the Parties’ leadership still dosen’t get it …  VL

By The Economist

TWO UNHELPFUL CLICHÉS, one of them loved by Democrats, the other by Republicans, haunt discussions of the Latino electorate and its power. Folk on the left see in present-day California a vision of how America as a whole will look by mid-century. They point to the moment in 2014 when Latinos overtook whites as the largest single group in the state. Then they note that the Hispanic boom coincided with the collapse of the once-mighty California Republican Party after its leaders promoted harshly anti-immigrant laws in the 1990s.

When politicians of the right talk about Latino voters, they almost invariably quote Ronald Reagan’s remark to Lionel Sosa, a campaign adviser, that “Latinos are Republicans, they just don’t know it yet.” By this, they mean that conservative church-going, entrepreneurial, family-loving Latinos are being tricked by Democrats.

As with most clichés, there is a smidgeon of truth to both.

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