Blacks, Hispanics At The Core Of The Democrat Rainbow Coalition

Blacks vote for Democrats in this country like all of them were their cousins. The Democratic Party does not have a more staunch group of supporters. And hence I imagine a high tech boom in Harlem, among other things.

But Bush managed to dent into the Hispanic vote with his mangled Spanish, and that was not good. A Hispanic co-passenger in a bus in Florida once told me when she was at high school her teacher used Bush' Spanish talk as an example of how n-o-t to speak Spanish. Go figure.

But, seriously. There has to be an all-out effort to court the Hispanic vote.

1. Apply the spentrum/dialogue concept on gay marriage rather than the litmus test concept. (The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power)
2. Articulate progressive family values.
   
3. Offer progressive, cuttinge edge immigration policy. There can be no room inside the Democratic Party for any hostility to immigrants. And such hostility among the Republicans has to be exposed and fought.
   
4. Bi-lingualism.
   
5. Quality public education, universal health insurance for all children on US soil.
   
6. Increases in college financial aid.
   
7. Mainstream issues of jobs and wages. Create jobs. Increase the minimum wage. Introduce micro credit in the most destitute neighborhoods, and urban renewal programs, and economic empowerment zones.
   
8. In a city like New York, non-citizens should be allowed to vote. No taxation without representation.
   
9. A major emphasis on US-Mexico relations.
   
10. Help with institution buliding in the young democracies in Latin America.
    
11. Fight voter intimidation of the ethnic minorities with the passion of a civil rights movement.
    
12. Tough on hate crimes. Tough on hate speech.
13. Howard Dean should take a crash course in Spanish. You don't have to get fluent, but you do have to be able to meet and greet. I will do it with you.
    
14. Deaniacs, let it be a fashion statement. Let's all of us learn at least some Spanish.
    

These are just some of the early stage thoughts. I am sure there are many more. And even these need to be cultivated.

Dick Morris: "The biggest reason for Bush's victory was that he finally cracked the Democratic stranglehold on the Hispanic vote. While Gore won 65 percent of the Latino community, holding Bush to a mere 35 percent, Kerry only carried the Hispanic vote by 55-45, paving the way for the Bush victory. Since Hispanics cast 12 percent of the vote in 2004, their 10-point movement to the GOP gave the president an additional 1.2 percent of the national vote. Take a similar amount away from Kerry, and the Latinos gave Bush a 2.4 percent edge in the general election balloting. Since Bush beat Kerry by only 3.1 percent, how important was the Hispanic vote? Vital and crucial. There are two reasons for Bush’s success among Hispanics. The most important seems to be his emphasis on social values issues, particularly his opposition to gay marriage. ...... Bush worked very hard to win the Hispanic votes. He reversed traditional Republican positions opposing the interests of Latinos. He endorsed bilingual education, reversing decades of Republican agitation for English-only policies. He opposed benefit cuts to documented aliens and rejected out of hand the contention that the children of undocumented workers should be denied public education. He even embraced a version of amnesty that permitted illegal immigrants to gain lawful status and eventual citizenship. Bush may have begun to crack the unholy triple alliance of blacks, Hispanics and single women that anchors the political base of the Democratic Party. These three groups accounted for 54 percent of John Kerry’s vote on Tuesday even though they cast only about one-third of the total vote in the election. Bush still lost blacks by 89-11. He lost single women by 64-36 (while carrying married women by 9 points), but his gains among Hispanics permitted him to win the election anyway."

The Hispanic Vote Elects Bush
PUERTO RICO HERALD: Many Hispanic Voters Skeptical On Bush's Promise
Kerry Has Strong Advantage Among Latino Voters (washingtonpost.com)
Hispanic vote key to Bush win
NPR : Kerry Woos Hispanic Vote; Bush Up Next
VDARE.com: 11/10/04 - Bush Didn't Win 44% of Hispanic Vote - The ...
VDARE.com: 12/09/04 - NRO Rebunks Bush’s Hispanic Share Myth
Richard Nadler on Hispanic Vote & Election 2004 on National Review ...
CNN.com - Kerry, Bush, court Hispanic voters - May 5, 2004
Bush, Kerry try to swing Hispanic vote in their direction - 04/13/04