By: Daniel Nardini
For Republicans in the State of Texas, it is pay-back time. The defeat of the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in last year’s election was more than just that for Texan Republicans—it was a political massacre. With a 38 percent Latino population, Texas Republican politicians should have taken into account that any anti-immigrant (and especially anti-Latino) speeches and legislation would have had truly detrimental effects on the Republican Party in that state. Apparently the politicians’ windpipes did not connect with their brains. From 2011 and well into the election, Republican legislators were passing 38 pieces of legislation aimed at demonizing Latinos.
Among the state laws that were passed included not giving driver’s licenses to the undocumented and not allowing Texas state cities to pass sanctuary laws protecting the undocumented. On top of that, the Texas state legislature—mostly dominated by Republicans—tried to pass laws similar to Arizona’s that included giving the police the power to check any and all those suspected of being “illegal” to be searched, make English the only legal language in the state, make it impossible for any business to obtain a business license if they “knowingly” hire illegals, and even go so far as to outlaw Latino studies. Clearly, Texas Latinos felt targeted, and the presidential election showed how they voted. Even in a solidly Republican state like Texas, only 27 percent of all Latinos in Texas voted for the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
No statistic could be more clear to Texas Republicans. Many Republican politicians are now fearing for their political jobs as Latinos are letting the Texas State Republican Party know that their political office jobs could be next. But it goes further than that. Many Latinos are also voting with their feet and leaving the Republican Party in droves. So now the Republican Party in Texas has to reinvent itself to accommodate to the needs and aspirations of Latinos in the state. This will mean that many of the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino factions in the Republican Party will probably have no future in the party they now control. These anti-Latino bigots have shattered their own party, and those Republicans and Latinos in the Republican Party will have to wrestle control from these bigots to save the party from becoming a minority organization. In this respect, the fight has only begun.
Lone Star State Out in the Cold
By: Daniel Nardini
Among the state laws that were passed included not giving driver’s licenses to the undocumented and not allowing Texas state cities to pass sanctuary laws protecting the undocumented. On top of that, the Texas state legislature—mostly dominated by Republicans—tried to pass laws similar to Arizona’s that included giving the police the power to check any and all those suspected of being “illegal” to be searched, make English the only legal language in the state, make it impossible for any business to obtain a business license if they “knowingly” hire illegals, and even go so far as to outlaw Latino studies. Clearly, Texas Latinos felt targeted, and the presidential election showed how they voted. Even in a solidly Republican state like Texas, only 27 percent of all Latinos in Texas voted for the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
No statistic could be more clear to Texas Republicans. Many Republican politicians are now fearing for their political jobs as Latinos are letting the Texas State Republican Party know that their political office jobs could be next. But it goes further than that. Many Latinos are also voting with their feet and leaving the Republican Party in droves. So now the Republican Party in Texas has to reinvent itself to accommodate to the needs and aspirations of Latinos in the state. This will mean that many of the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino factions in the Republican Party will probably have no future in the party they now control. These anti-Latino bigots have shattered their own party, and those Republicans and Latinos in the Republican Party will have to wrestle control from these bigots to save the party from becoming a minority organization. In this respect, the fight has only begun.