Can This Man Save The GOP?

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Can This Man Save The GOP?

November 30th, 2012 4:04 pm Jason Sattler

Meet Ted Cruz.

In a lot of ways he’s just your typical Social Security-gutting, Sharia law-hyping, George Soros-is-coming-for-your-golf-course Tea Partier. But Cruz also unique in that he’s a Latino and a Republican. He joins Marco Rubio as one of the few nationally known Republicans who can speak Spanish without sounding patronizing.

After crushing establishment Republican David Dewhurst in the GOP primary, Cruz, whose father came from Cuba, became the first Latino senator from Texas on November 6, just as Mitt Romney scored the worst performance for a Republican nominee with Latinos since Bob Dole in 1996.

Many of the first assessments suggested that this dismal performance with a group that’s producing about 50,000 new voters a month cost Romney the election. That wasn’t true. Romney could have done 20 points better with Latinos and President Obama would still have won over 300 electoral votes.

But Cruz has diagnosed how the Republicans’ struggles with Latinos could end up destroying the party:

In not too many years, Texas could switch from being all Republican to all Democrat. If that happens, no Republican will ever again win the White House. New York and California are for the foreseeable future unalterably Democrat. If Texas turns bright blue, the electoral college math is simple. We won’t be talking about Ohio, we won’t be talking about Florida or Virginia, because it won’t matter. If Texas is bright blue, you can’t get to 270 electoral votes. The Republican Party would cease to exist.

With that realization very much cascading through the GOP, the party is eager to find any way they can to appeal to Latino voters. Many Republicans are softening their stands on immigration. Two outgoing senators are even offering a GOP version of the DREAM Act, which gives students and soldiers who were brought to the U.S. as children a chance to become citizens. Only the GOP’s ACHIEVE Act doesn’t have a path to citizenship and is probably less popular with Latino voters than even Mitt Romney.

Cruz addressed his diagnosis and treatment for this existential threat the GOP faces this week at a dinner hosted by the conservative group The American Principles Project.

“Do you want to know why Barack Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote?” Cruz asked. “The tone on immigration contributed. But I think far more important was 47 percent.”

“I cannot think of an idea more antithetical to the American principles,” Cruz added later.

Hmmm.

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Tags: 2012 election, 47 percent, Hispanics, immigration reform, Latino, Ted Cruz, Texas

bcarreiro

the republican party would cease to exist…………now lets have a toast to that amigos.

http://profile.yahoo.com/UHE4MJP5FHMFIEAOGEQHETUGDQ Rvn_sgt6768

Having a Republican Party is OK but their ideas need to go.

http://twitter.com/LostAnarchist S-3

The Repugnikunts in charge now need to be replaced with conservatives willing to help everyone, not just themselves. Same goes for liberals – Don’t expect any of this good shit to happen until real statesmen instead of ticket-punchers are in power… Which sadly won’t come unless people like you and me get off our asses and go fight – voting isn’t enough anymore.

A successful democracy is run by frequent violent uprisings and handing power back to people who put other people in charge, just like a certain founding father once said.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7DKWSXHQIDBW5PUAPZ2HZAYYUY Baron Cormac

So what is unique about being a Latino and a Republican? South Florida is full of them. I guess Suzanna Martinez and Kelly Ayote don’t count as Latinas either?

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

I believe Ayotte’s ancestry is French Canadian…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

Kelly Ayote is not hispanic. Her father is French-Candian and besides she speaks French and you know how much the GOP hates the French. LOL

amarquez647

Dear senor Cruz, the problem of the Republican Party getting Latino support, cannot be solved by packaging Republican policies so that Hispanics or our black and Native American brothers find it palatable, the problem is in what you are offering. We are not fooled by those who work for the Haciandero (the rich plutocrats) pretending to protect the Campecino (the common people). The people who work for the haciendas and suffered by the latigo (whip) of the capataz (overlord, boss) have been trained in the principles of democracy. Some of us are here by birthright and others by choice. Listen, we are here by choice. We have learned English, jumped whatever hoops we had to become citizen. We are laborers, educators, law enforcers, judges, soldiers. We are in every snitch of the United States. In addition, what is paramount, we love, respect and protect this country because this is our country. Do not try to fool us. Treat us with respect and as citizens. Do not feel that we will trust you because you are Latino; we know that there are saints and sinners in every nationality.

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Moreover, the problems the GOP is having in attracting Latinos and Hispanics are not going to be solved by embracing a few white Cuban-Americans. They see Hispanics-Latinos as an homogeneous group, it is not. The party that tackles immigration reform in a way to solve the problem, not just for those who are already in the USA but for those who wish to migrate to the USA in years to come, will earn the support of this growing ethnic group. Tokens, and empty rhetoric, are not going to do the trick.

docb

Just having the right surname and semi-skin color is nothing but disguise…The GOP policies have to change ..a token is still a token..Look at clarence on the roberts activist court! As a jurist clarence is no Thurgood Marshall.

Attempts like this will not help with the youth vote or the women’s vote or the burgeoning Asian vote! And isn’t he Cuban? That will not help with the majority Hispanic population!
nobsartist

Sorry to break the news but morally bankrupt people exist in all races.

Just look at herman caine.

The stupid fade away fast and nobody will know who rubio or this idiot are in 10 years.
charleo1

The notion that having an Hispanic sir name will garner Hispanic votes is ridiculous.
If their approach to win this fastest growing minority, is to continue the same policies,
only this time , verbalize them in Spanish. It will be about as effective as Ann Romney
speaking at the RNC. “We love women!” “No you don’t,” women said loudly. About
as much as Rush Limbaugh, “loves,” Sandra Fluke, or femi- nazis.

jiggymama

Latinos are not stupid nor are they blind, the republican party will never have the Hispanic, Latino, black, and gay support or our votes Why? Because: if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck! Then without a doubt, it’s a duck!!
Latinos united.

charleo1

I think you are exactly right! They are ,what they are. A bunch of ducks!

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Let’s keep things in perspective. The GOP is not making inroads among Latinos (Mexican-Americans and Central Americans) or among Puerto Ricans, the only Hispanics that are split between Democratic and Republican orthodoxies are Cuban-Americans. People like Rubio and Cruz are still fighting commies, and embrace socialist threat and Islamic paranoia to exploit the fears of those who are consumed by fear and convinced that their hegemony and way of life is rapidly coming to an end because of the rise of minority groups to positions of responsibility in all facets of life in America.
Yes, no Republican will ever win the White House if Texas goes blue, but since that is not about to happen anytime soon, we might as well accept things the way they are and count on Texas being red – very red – for decades to come.

amarquez647

My son just moved to Tejas (Texas), and if you cut him he bleeds blue. You are right about the Cubans. They still blame Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs. My son in law’s parents were traumatized by Castro’s forces in 1959 and he still carries the residual effects. The third generation of Cuban Americans are more liberal than their parents.
lunibin

If Democrats are so sympathetic to immigration reform, why didn’t it happen during the first 2 years of this administration? Or, for that matter, the Clinton admin.? The people you think are on your side for immigration reform are playing you. If they were to fix the issue, they would have to remove it as a plank in their platform.

Alej11

Because GOP filibustered it in the Senate and Pelosi wanted to wait to deal with it in the House until it passed the Senate.
Same during Bush ‘s years. With Clinton, it did not even come up for discussion with a Republican controled Congress.

lunibin

Thanks for replying Alej, but if you remember the first 2 years of this administration there was a super majority in the senate. The GOP couldn’t stop an effort to pass immigration reform.

I think the greater questions are why is there a illegal immigration “problem?” Why are sanctuary cities allowed when immigration is a federal issue? What would happen in the future if we did grant amnesty to all illegal immigrants currently here? Since all countries have immigration laws, why are we looking the other way with hispanics? If we granted amnesty, would it diminish the efforts of those who went through the system to gain citizenship?

Alej11

The “super” majority was not “super”enough to close debate and proceed with the vote. 60 votes are needed for that, even though only 51 are needed to pass the bill. So yes, GOP could and did stop it. This filibuster rule is ridiculous but that is another issue.

We have an illegal immigration problem because we have immigration laws and a system that does not work and that has been the case for half a century. It is not an Obama administration problem. Or anybody else’s administration for that matter.

Sanctuary cities are more an iconic reaction to what many perceive as unfair, rather than effective opposition to the federal government ‘s action. If ICE picks up an illegal, he/she will be deported, whatever the city.

I don ‘t think amnesty is the solution either, necessarily. We need another system. A new one..from scratch!!
We are not looking the other way with Hispanics or with anybody else. That is why they are illegal and among them there are of any and all nationalities. We cannot tell Canadians apart from Americans, much less guess what their immigration status is.
But their being illegal is not the illness. It is the symptom. The illness is the system itself.

No, it would not diminish their efforts because these few HAVE a legal avenue to
immigrate to the USA. The undocumented do not have it and so they cannot play by the rules because the rules exclude them from playing in the first place, regardless of wait time.
Alej
lunibin

Al Franken from Minnesota was the 60th Democrat sworn in July 7, 2009 giving the Democrats a super majority. He was the vote needed to push through the ACA.

There are sanctuary cities where ICE will not take illegals i.e. Los Angeles and San Francisco. Local law enforcement will arrest an illegal for a law infraction (other than being a illegal ) and ICE will not get involved.

When you say illegals don’t have access to the legal means of gaining access to becoming a citizen is not the truth. They have the same access to the system that everyone else has, they just don’t want to wait their turn.
Alej11

You are assuming that every Democrat in the senate would have voted for Amnesty/reform. Not so. Besides Obama knew it would not passed the House, as Pelosi warned. Ever heard of “blue dogs” Democrats?

In los Angeles and San Diego, workplace raids and early morning pick ups at illegal’s homes are commonplace. No local police involvement is necessary. Local police officers are not trained to determine immigration status anyway. I do not know about San Francisco but I do not see why it would be different, other than local police will not help the feds. You are most certainly incorrect. Unless they have 1 million dollars to invest, are Nobel prize winners or similar, hold a fancy advanced degree, are a supermodel, superathlete or movie star or( most commonly) a close relative of a US citizen (over 21 if it is a son/daughter), it is virtually impossible to legally immigrate to the US, regardless of wait time. *They have no turn to wait on.*
That is what we need to reform. To give them a reason to wait until they have reached some accomplishment which will make them eligible for legal immigration independently of relatives and all else. Such as a point system, as Canadians and Australians do.

Alej
lunibin

“Workplace raids and early morning pick ups at the homes of illegals are commonplace?” Where? You’ll have to provide some evidence of this happening anywhere especially in California! I live in Los Angeles, ICE doesn’t have to raid the workplaces or the homes of illegals because they are lining up on the street corners looking for work. California even mandated home improvement stores have to provide shelter and toilets for the ones that line up in front of their stores.

My personal experience tells quite a different story. My niece is engaged to a Mexican man who wanted to become a legal citizen prior to getting married. When he inquired what he had to do he was told to go back to Mexico, apply for legal entrance and wait a year. He went back to Mexico and did what he was supposed to. He came back in July and became a citizen in October and is now marrying my niece in February.

Every country in the world have immigration laws to protect its labor force. If the wait is too long then that means there are too many immigrants currently.
Alej11

I lived 17 years in San Diego and 6 in Los Angeles. I worked in, managed and owned restaurants plus my long time girlfriend is an immigration lawyer.I have seen and heard it happening dozens of times. It is common place and nothing new, dating from the 90′s.

ICE does need to raid workplaces to find the illegals actually working there, which strenghten their case versus simply standing at a corner. They also need to visit the illegal’s home when they have a warrant for the arrest and deportation of a certain individual.

Your story does not hold water whatsoever. It is complete nonsense. If he returned to US in July and became a citizen in October is because he had already been a* Legal Permanent Resident*(Green card holder) for 5 years of more before that. If that had been the case, he did not need to return to Mexico because he was legal already. Further, if he had returned to Mexico for more than 6 months he would have been deemed to have given up his Legal Permanent Resident status in the U.S and would have lost his green card.

lunibin

The only party that has granted immigrants amnesty was a Republican. Not only a Republican but a pillar in the party. The problem is not a broken immigration policy but enforcement. Washington is turning it’s head to illegal immigrants because of the birth rate. We are not reproducing fast enough to support their rampant spending.
SueTX

I still don’t know how Cruz “won”, unless it was simply because he had a Latino surname against his Anglo Democratic opponent. No one I knew who is Hispanic voted for him….just kinda questionable ya know? I still don’t like that my vote was “counted” by a Romney owned voting machine.
BDD1951

We are working on going Blue. We figure in 8 years, maybe 12.

howa4x

He will be swalloed up like Rubio by the religious right and in pandering to them he may say something stupid like he too believes the world was flat. The right flattens any canidate and pulls them down into stupidity. If Cruz wants to be a leader he has to cross the aisle in the Senate where democrats hold a lead. That might be a tall order for a tealiban like him who believes in no compromise at all. How will he lead the republicans out of the woods wiht that attitude? He will have to work with everyone if he wants to help craft a bill that will smooth out relations with the hispanics. He will also have to side with democrats in raising the minium wage, which is heresy in republican land, as well as expanding healthcare coverage. He will have to transform from a tea party advocate to a republicrat, and I don’t think that will happen. It is easy to talk the talk outdide of DC and much harder to walk the walk inside.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KOPKDFAUQPIIRAFI3HEXNMSHLQ Ed

“The Republican Party Will Cease To Exist”> I like the sound of that!
JSquercia

Short Answer NO . It was the Republican i.e. Tea Party ideas that offended much of the country . Especially that War on Women (yeah Mitt those Slutty coeds wanted FREE birth Control Pills) and their denigrating 47% of their Fellow citizens as Mr Cruz DOES . BTW why is it all RIGHT for Mitt to declare that he shouldn’t have to pay ONE PENNY more than he owes in Federal Income Tax but WRONG for THESE people to do the same thing .Of course they don’t hide their Money Off shore or get a break because their money comes from salary and not “carried interest” and don’t have high powered Accountants and Tax attorneys .

I had to laugh when Mitt released his 2011 return in September (don’t we ALL take THAT long to file) and his accountant told us that Mitt did NOT take 2.5 Million in Charitable Deductions in order to pay the rate he claimed he would (roughly 15% ) . I am SURE that Mitt had ALREADY filed an Amended return (that WE will never see or hear of) claiming the full amount of those Charitable Contributions . When have you EVER heard of Mitt leaving a dime on the table when it comes to paying taxes
http://profile.yahoo.com/UHE4MJP5FHMFIEAOGEQHETUGDQ Rvn_sgt6768

I have the solution, get them all to self deport. If we have no Latinos we have no Latino problem for the Republican ticket. This makes much more sense than actually trying to understand them as an ethnic group. The part of rich old white men will never understand the common laborer anymore than Mittey could relate to most of America. They need to join the Latinos not the other way around.

amarquez647

Let us not forget that the ancestors of these White Southern gentlemen using the filibuster convinced Spain to sell Florida to the US. And by the same process got Spain to give up California. Though a similar process convinced the Tejanos to join the Texicans and rebel against Santa Ana’s federales. In 1846-48 the US invaded Mexico and took all the Mexican lands between and north of Texas and California. The only reason we did not annexed all of Mexico is that the Southern State objected in congress to accepting mestisos into the US. Maybe this white men fear that the Mexican would reclaim the southwest.
There is nothing to fear. People of Mexican heritage feel and are US natural just as Irish, Germans, and the English that have settled there. Tell Latinos to self deport, where to they are already home.

tabster

It doesn’t matter that Ted Cruz is Latino. It matters that he’s promoting the same failed policies that Mitt Romney did. Latinos didn’t reject Romney because he was white, they rejected his policies because they favor a strong government that helps people, a fairer tax structure, and humanistic immigration and civil rights policies.
johninPCFL

There is one very important thing to keep in mind here with regard both to Rubio and Cruz. There are NO illegal immigrant Cubans. They are completely exempt from the immigration process once they touch dry land.

Neither Rubio nor Cruz has any understanding at all of the process most Latinos must go through. I don’t understand how they’re vested with any credibility on the issue at all.

jvaljon1

Try explaining “wet-foot, dry-foot” to some of these people. Then talk to Latinos of Mexican descent and ask US how WE feel about that! Yeah, I can sure see this Cruz as a voice of today’s Mexican-American. NOT!

commserver

Cruz says that there is nothing wrong with the message but the tone of the message. That doesn’t make sense. There might be some truth to the message but not to the overwhelming number of Hispanic/Latino voters.

By the way there is a difference between Hispanic and Latino. Cruz is from Cuba and epitomizes that difference

The people from Cuba are different culturally from those from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, yet they can be both Hispanic or Latino. Yet those from Mexico and South America don’t identify with Cubans.

The fact that Cruz has precedents from Cuba plays a role in his election but in the long run there is a major difference.
onedonewong

Senator Republicans have Latino support they just don’t have the illegals support 6 million of which voted for barak via absentee ballot

charleo1

Really? Six million illegals voted for Obama by absentee? So out of six million,
how many have been caught so far?

ralphkr

I saw an article on one of the conservative news sites that 9 million votes were fraudulently cast by people in China. Of course, they all voted for Obama according to the article but I wonder why didn’t vote for Romney since Romney & friends have brought so many good jobs to China by transferring work from factories in the US.
onedonewong

absentee ballots their is no way to catch them

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

Oh my God another one. There is nothing in the way of evidence to support such an outrageous claim. About 100 million legal voters did not bother to vote and onedonewong believes that six million illegals did. That’s way beyond strange. Where do folks get such beliefs?

onedonewong

It emanates from a DC progressive group mailing our absentee ballot registration forms to hundred of thousands of illegals in VA as well as the dead and pets. Your also forgetting the millions registered by ACORN that now operate under a 100 different names

daniel bostdorf

Malarky.

I though “onedonewrong” was proven that he is is just “plain wrong” about everything given the election results.

Go post at Fox News ok? We know who you are.

onedonewong

Gee who still controls the House by a huge majority??

http://www.facebook.com/people/Carol-Cordell/1834279262 Carol Cordell

Typical idiot republican politician from Texas.
Jack Wormer

Remember when Fidel came to power in Cuba and many Cubanos FLED to Florida?
Well, those fleeing Cubanos weren’t exactly the CAMPESINOS……..
The sons and grandsons of those fleeing Cuba now joining the GOP, THAT’s a perfect example of the old adage, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER, etc., etc……..”
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

Can a Tea Bagger save the GOP? Is that suppose to be a joke? The man is representative of all that is wrong with that brand. Having a hispanic name is not enough to counter the hateful rhetoric of the GOP for the last few decades. Perhaps in the late 2020′s when all of the troglodytes have died off the party will mature.
http://profile.yahoo.com/JMT6C3LHLJDD4RX4NB4KY5ICAE gargray

They don’t get the message, facts could elucidate their confusion.
daniel bostdorf

Answering your questions:

1) Can he keep his deeply unpopular conspiratorial views quiet as he takes his place in the national discourse?

No he can’t because social media, Facebook, twitter and other forms of mass communication controlled by the American people have proven that there is not place to hid. Romney’s flip flops and lies defeated him.

2) Is a change in tone enough to win with ideas that Republicans are having a very hard time selling at the statewide and national levels?

They can “change their tone” all they want…but if it walks like a fascist duck, quacks like a fascist duck…it is a fascist duck.

The American people just went through the worst fascistic propaganda machine of Rove that failed. And the American people will not allow it to happen.

Fascism:
“a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

It is the opposite of a government that worships the concept of “free exchange of ideas” and economic and social justice for all particularly those of us at the 47%.

This is what the Obama administration stands for.

Freedom to think, act and be different. Believing that we all have to play by the same set of rules. That we are the “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” not the divided states of America that some states states believe in. Succession? Not possible.

We fought that civil war along time ago. And we fought that war with this past presidential election.

The people have chosen a UNITED America.
daffodilly

This guy is acting like Latinos will vote strictly on ancestry not policies. Republicans think that women and (what used to be considered) minorities are too dumb or ill informed to vote on what a party or candidate actually represents. We also recognize that there is a difference in coming to this country as a Cuban refugee and a Mexican or South American looking to just make enough money to feed themselves or a family. Cubans raised on hate for Castro will look for another recipient of that hate when Castro is gone. Who said Cruz even respects Latinos of a different heritage?
Sand_Cat

Let’s hope NO ONE can save the GOP so long as it reflects the views of the lunatic fringe of fascism in its policy proposals and platforms.
Sand_Cat

A reply to lunibin:
Because lots of noisy people fought tooth and nail, using all the ingrained stupidities (“holds” filibusters, the Electoral College) of our system of government to prevent immigration reform. Perhaps you’ve forgotten.
Sand_Cat

a lost reply
jvaljon1

The Republican Party would cease to exist? From your mouth to God’s ear!

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