Posted by
Patrick Henry on Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:40:23 AM
While some have expressed surprise at Harry Reid's amazement that anyone of
Hispanic heritage could possibly be a Republican, they shouldn't be. Reid is a
desperate man driven to desperate measures to stay in office. And he is exercising
a carefully thought out Democratic calculus that if they can maintain 80% of the
black vote, capture two-thirds of the Hispanic vote and hold onto just 36% of the
white vote they can win the elections and stay in power.
Although the calculus is flawed, Reid's main problem may be that in "profiling"
Latinos, he has greatly misunderstood their long-term motives and aspirations, and
seriously underestimated their intelligence. While it might lock in a few votes for
him and his Democratic cronies in the short-term, which is likely as far as Reid
can see, it is a formula for long-term disillusionment and defection.
While living in Houston, Texas, I worked side-by-side with many Latinos, both
men and women. Our particular mission was to help high-need families with young
children, and given Houston demographics, most of them were Latino, as well. Some
were undocumented, some here legally. Over a 15 year period I learned some major
differences between Latinos and other indigent populations. Harry Reid should be
so lucky.
First, I found out that Latinos are smart -- not so much in terms of I.Q., but in
terms of life lessons, the ability to absorb and replicate and the wisdom to apply new
skills and ideas to life situations. This characteristic makes them highly adaptable to
new and changing conditions, and unafraid to confront new challenges from which
many of the poor normally retreat. It results in a quiet confidence that issues in their
being able to do something unassisted once they have learned how to do it.
Then I discovered that Latinos will run, not walk through open doors of opportunity.
Most of them are far less interested in a handout than they are in the chance to succeed.
One fellow I met was an auto mechanic who was here legally, although his wife was
undocumented. He worked at a shop where he was being exploited and grossly under-
paid. He, his wife and four children lived in a tiny, rat-infested, two-bedroom apart-
ment. We helped him get an SBA loan so he could open his own shop, and his wife
to get into an amnesty-to-citizenship program. Someone brought an older model
Mercedes in for repair and never returned to claim it. Under a mechanics lien, he
seized the vehicle and soon his wife was driving a Mercedes. Business boomed, and
he was able to save a downpayment with which he purchased a repossessed home
with four bedrooms and a pool. Later, he was able to buy a used Mercedes of his own.
I could cite many, many, many instances of similar Latino success that came about not
because they were given handouts, but because they were given a chance. Industry and
a work ethic are the rule, rather than the exception.
Latinos have a very strong commitment to family values, and those who have made
their way upward stand more than ready to mentor others, whether family, friends or
complete strangers in how to succeed in America. Today, I count some of the Latinos
with whom I worked among my best and most trusted friends. They will be the first
to say that Harry Reid has it all wrong.
What they came here for was a chance they did not have in Central America, Cuba
and Mexico. They did not have the chance because of incredible poverty and unemploy-
ment, government control of business and corruption in high places. They understand
that an anti-business government imposing high taxes and Draconian controls is not in
their interests if they want to become successful, affluent and even have their own shop.
The Democratic promises of handouts, mostly empty, may buy a few short-term votes
from the poor, the unenlightened and the desperate. But thinking Latinos will ultimately
reject Democratic socialism because it runs contrary to their economic interests. One
recent poll showed just 12% of Latinos favoring Republicans and 42% favoring
Democrats. But if you parsed the participants to exclude illegals and the very poor
living on the government dole, you would get a radically different picture. The more
Latinos succeed and the more they understand Democratic socialism, the more open
they are to Republican alternatives. It's the process of growing up.
Reid and the Democrats are banking on the fact that Latinos won't grow up soon.
Their calculus is legalize (through amnesty), unionize and monopolize (vote as your
union bosses tell you). This treats a whole class of people like pawns to be manipulated
instead of like valuable human beings. My bet is that Latinos will prove increasingly
too smart, too ambitious and too independent to fall for it. When they do, a whole
new political class will be born, one capable of forging its own destiny without either
Democrats or Republicans. When that happens, politicians who try to profile them, as
Reid is doing in Nevada, will be shown the door. Hasta la vista, baby!