by Dr. Tony Magana

The political shock felt by the Democrats in Massachusetts could be only a slight tremor compared to what may happen in the traditionally Democratic and predominately Hispanic South Texas election scene where the Tea Party movement is growing. A political debate held in the Rio Grande Valley shows Hispanics views mirror those developing across the country.Since before World War II the most southern area of Texas along the Mexican border, known locally as the Rio Grande Valley, has been a staunch Democratic bastion tightly controlled by a “party boss system”.  With a population that is nearly 90% Hispanic (the highest percentage in the U.S.) conventional wisdom has always been that local candidates will be only Democrats.

The Republican party made significant inroads in getting Texas Mexican-Americans to vote for state-wide and national candidates during the Reagan and Bush era by addressing socially conservative issues attractive to Catholic and evangelical protestant Hispanics until the beginning of the second George W. Bush term.

The Obama campaign managed to capture almost 70% of the Hispanic vote by portraying himself as a somewhat conservative Democrat. Many Hispanics perceived anti-immigration movements by some in the Republican party to be veiled racism. Mainstream media pundits predicted that Hispanics as a group who had previously been thought of as swing voters would now forever vote way to the left.

Now we are one year and counting after the Obama election and find that the liberal pundits predictions about Hispanics especially in a Democratic stronghold may be faulty.  When the Tea Party movement began last spring in South Texas, the first reaction of local media and political pundits was that no Mexican-Americans would be involved.

Last weekend a live debate which was simultaneously streamed online was held in Edinburg,Texas where political candidates from both the Republican and Democratic primaries in Congressional as well as local elections participated.  This is by itself an unusual event, because the status quo has always been for the Democratic party bosses to decide who runs in the primary rather than have true open primaries.

Conventional mainstream media “wisdom” is that Hispanics views will be always be left of center (ignoring  that Marco Rubio in Florida, a Reagan conservative, is ahead of incumbent Governor Crist).  The McAllen Candidate Forum held today was sponsored by organizations of the Tea Party movement but most of those presenting themselves as candidates were Hispanics.  The viewpoints they expressed publicly in the hopes of being elected were very much at odds with conventional liberalism.

Should children of illegal aliens be allowed to stay in the U.S. or be given citizenship? Almost of all them agreed that children born to parents who are in the U.S. illegally should not be allowed to stay in the U.S. or be given citizenship.  At first glance this coming from Hispanics looking for office in a predominantly Hispanic community might seem shocking.

The great farm labor organizer, Ceasar Chavez, was a strong advocate for stopping illegal immigration because he recognized that uncontrolled immigration only weakened the bargaining position of farm workers to earn a decent wage.  Uncontrolled immigration harms the poor and relatively uneducated workers in the Hispanic community most.   When you understand this it is not so hard to comprehend how the Hispanic community will support immigration controls. However, what got the Republican party in trouble was that the rhetoric about immigration from certain politicians sounded much more like thinly veiled racism than a concern for workers.

Should photo identification be required for voting? Almost all the candidates strongly supported this idea and one even noted that such a requirement is currently the law for voting in Mexico.  Although some well meaning liberal organizations have tried to portray this as discriminatory against Hispanics,  a poll done in the state of Texas has shown that a majority of Hispanics would support such a measure.

Hispanics support photo identification because they have all experienced machine politics controlled by party bosses. They inherently distrust the fairness of the election system and feel that a photo identification would do more good than harm.

Should American history be taught differently? Almost all the candidates support the idea of teaching our children about American values of religion and free enterprise.  Liberal advocates forget that Hispanic immigrants came to America to become Americans and to share American values.  This does not mean giving up all of one’s cultural heritage but neither does it mean that high school history should be courses in everything America has done wrong.

Other conservative ideas expressed included supporting a flat tax, preserving secret ballot in union elections, being more aggressive in war against terrorism (keeping Guantanamo open and using military tribunals), cutting Texas taxes,  and balancing all government budgets.

In the end, liberal pundits should not be so surprised that Hispanic Americans would tend to share similar values with other Americans because if you ask them to describe who they are in one word it is not “Hispanic” or “Latino” it is American.

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Copyright 2009, Dr. Tony Magana. Some rights reserved.
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