Never let it be said that Tea Party people were not game for a challenge.
The American Thinker contributor Tara Servatius reported on a poll that shows Hispanic Americans are fans of Big Government:
What drives Hispanic voters is simple, and it was captured with shocking clarity by a Pew Hispanic Center poll in April.A mind-blowing 75 percent of Hispanics tell Pew they want bigger government with more services. Contrast that with just 41 percent of the American public that says it wants bigger government with more services. (Some 45 percent of the general American population wants smaller government with fewer services. For Hispanics, it’s 19 percent.)
And while Servatius says that the affection for big government is cultural for Hispanics and persists for generations, Tea Party efforts are being made to change hearts and minds.
On the local front, Dawn Wildman of San Diego’s SoCal Tax Revolt Coalition reports that a Spanish conservative radio show is in the works, which our area Tea Parties will promote. Other groups, like the San Antonio Tea Party, have specific Hispanic Outreach efforts and events that will continue into the 2014 election.
The national organization, Tea Party Express, is looking to do a bus tour to connect with Hispanic Americans across the country:
Officials with the Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, have been discussing their own Latino outreach, said Sal Russo, the group’s co-founder.“We’ve been trying to do a bus tour that would focus on communities that we don’t normally talk to,” Russo said
Outreach efforts are not limited to conservative citizen activists, either. The House Republican Conference recently launched a Spanish-language Twitter account, @gopespanol. And a group of Republican “heavyweights”, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, recently met in Miami to work on bringing more Hispanics into the Republican Party for next year’s elections.
Andrew Price at Commentarama offers a warning to the GOP about identity politics in a piece entitled “Hispanic Outreach Done Right.”
A real Hispanic outreach program would treat Hispanics like any other voters. Republicans wouldn’t try to appeal to them on “Hispanic issues” but would instead try to appeal to Hispanics who happened to find particular issues of interest. For example, Republicans would try to attract Hispanic parents by improving the schools their children attend. Or they would try to attract Hispanic businessmen by making conditions better for small businessmen. Etc. The idea is to appeal to different groups of Hispanics on the issues that matter to them as individuals rather than trying to appeal to “Hispanics” as a group.
In part, Price has it right. But the campaign must be based more than just on specific issues. In light of the Pew poll numbers, a cornerstone of outreach efforts must be a clear explanation of the joys limited government, free markets, personal responsibility, and individual liberty.
If we conservative activists meet this challenge, it will be a win for all Americans.
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