If you don’t vote for (insert name) then you are isolating yourself from (insert ethnic group/sex) and therefore (insert ethnic group/sex) won’t vote for you and/or your political party. Could there be any political position more condescending or insulting? We think so little of your philosophy, your politics and your culture that merely because someone happens to share your ethnic makeup we will vote for him or her.
From Politico:
Republicans’ dilemma in connecting with the growing Hispanic electorate will be on vivid display Tuesday: GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote overwhelmingly against confirming Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latino nominee to the Supreme Court. And the Democratic Party chairman will address the nation’s largest Latino political group — partly in Spanish. No national GOP official is speaking.
Clearly it is ideology that motivates people – not who is in what position. If that weren’t the case then Hispanics would have flocked to the Bush administration after Alberto Gonzales became Attorney General and Blacks would have broken with their decades long reliance on Democrats after Colin Powell and Condi Rice each became the Secretary of State. Obviously that didn’t happen because merely placing a minority in a high profile position within a Republican administration was not going to convince many to change their voting patterns. What evidence is there that by voting for or against Sotomayor the GOP will pick up or lose Hispanic voters? If anything Republicans stand to lose support by casting aside their ideological foundations and backing a candidate merely because of her sex and who her parents were. Such an action is the hallmark of political expediency and is exactly why so many people are cynical when it comes to politics.
Now, as a separate matter the fact that no Republican is addressing La Raza is a serious problem.
The Republican National Committee says no national party official will be speaking at the convention.
There’s plenty of evidence out there that the GOP needs Hispanic support to remain politically relevant on a national level. Not showing up means we are ceding vital ground to the Democrats. This is a stain on Michael Steele’s tenure as RNC Chairman. There is absolutely no reason why Republicans wouldn’t be attending this conference. Yes, La Raza has its problems, but the fact of the matter is they are a dominant voice within the Hispanic community. To simply ignore them only perpetuates stereotypes of the Republican Party and hampers our ability to come back in 2010 and 2012.
Good post – it touches on the debate we had a few weeks ago about diversity for diversity’s sake. The practice is shallow and it denies any true agency to a broad ethnic group.
That said, I think it is fairly absurd that politics address ethnic groups as static entities. We hear about winning the Hispanic and Black vote, but it seems generally framed as an either/or proposition – either the blacks/Hispanics vote Dem or GOP. Can you imagine a talking head discussing “the white vote”?