UPDATE: I almost ended this post with the line, "How dumb do you think Latinos are?" but I'm glad I didn't, because it turns out that question has a sad, sad answer. According to the author of Heritage's controversial report, the report they are still pushing, the answer is "0.72 standard deviations, suggesting a Hispanic-American IQ of 89.2." Jason Richwine later resigned from The Heritage Foundation after his enormously racist dissertation went viral.
Rather than withdrawing the report authored by a now-notorious racist, Heritage simply swept it under the rug for a couple of months and then put it back on their blog this week. Yep. This story is literally that ridiculous. The group trying to teach the GOP how to reach Latino voters employed, and still supports the work of, someone who thinks those Latino voters are a danger to the country because they're just so darn genetically stupid.
Oh, isn't that nice? A free event teaching conservatives "how to message to Hispanic voters more effectively." Sounds like something the GOP desperately needs. Let's take a peep at what's on the menu…
Topics will include:
– Public Policy: Hispanics, economics, education, and family.
– Working with Hispanic media.
– Effectively communicating our values.
Well, that can't be all bad, can it? Republicans must have noticed that they didn't do too well last year with Latino voters, and now they're trying to bring Latinos into the fold. Perhaps the sponsors are among the many Republicans who support comprehensive immigration reform. Could it be they'll discuss the economic benefits of immigration? Highlight Latino-owned businesses? Praise the strong family values and faith-based traditions common in Latino families?
….nope.
Yeah, that's a Latino outreach event sponsored by The Heritage Foundation.
You know, the group so extreme (and so willing to push obviously falsified statistics) on immigration reform that that the freaking Cato Institute devoted an entire blog post to ripping them a new one?
[The Heritage Foundation’s] 2007 report’s flawed methodology produced a grossly exaggerated cost to federal taxpayers of legalizing unauthorized immigrants while undercounting or discounting their positive tax and economic contributions – greatly affecting the 2007 immigration reform debate.
Americans for Tax Reform, Senator John McCain, and expected GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio were also among conservative groups rejecting The Heritage Foundation. And it's not like this is old news, either. This all happened in April. And three months later, Heritage has suddenly become the first named sponsor of an event teaching conservatives how to message Latino voters?
Hey, Heritage: If you can't even message your talking points successfully to the most prominent Latino in the Republican Party, you may not be ready to teach a course on reaching "Hispanic" voters.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: Gilpin Guy
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Genghis
IN: At Least She’s Not Your Puppy Murdering Governor
BY: Genghis
IN: Educating All Kids Is Still The Right Thing To Do
BY: kwtree
IN: A Few More Words On Rep. Richard Holtorf’s Tragic Inability To Stop Talking
BY: ParkHill
IN: A Few More Words On Rep. Richard Holtorf’s Tragic Inability To Stop Talking
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: At Least She’s Not Your Puppy Murdering Governor
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: A Few More Words On Rep. Richard Holtorf’s Tragic Inability To Stop Talking
BY: Duke Cox
IN: A Few More Words On Rep. Richard Holtorf’s Tragic Inability To Stop Talking
BY: Colorado Pols
IN: A Few More Words On Rep. Richard Holtorf’s Tragic Inability To Stop Talking
BY: Lauren Boebert is a Worthless POS
IN: At Least She’s Not Your Puppy Murdering Governor
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
C'mon, now. That entire family is smiling. They are happy, nay, giddy upon hearing these exciting new messages. What more proof do you need?
Heritage wasn't always anti-immigrant. Here is what they wrote in 2006:
This all changed in 2007 when Robert Rector (not Tim Kane who wrote the above) drafted a report know as the Rector Report that sank CIR. The question is – why the change? Latino Rebels did some digging and here is their theory.
Interesting. I'm always a believer in "follow the money". Since the Scaife foundations are worried about population & overcrowding, I wonder if their positions on contraception and birth control also follow conservative orthodoxy, or are more moderate and sensible.
Your problems with the Heritage Foundation aside, why do you assume that Hispanics here legally want to welcome illegals? I've never understood that, and it's a big hole in liberal assumptions about Hispanic voters.
Do you have a family, Moderatus? Do they live in another state? Let's imagine that is the case.
Then let's imagine that state becomes part of "Dumphuckistan", when it secedes. And Governor Brophy, newly elected governor of Dumpuckistan, decides that since Colorado won't give them any water, they won't let any Dumphuckistanians come to Colorado, and vice versa. Would you cross the border to be with your family, or would you accept the edict of your government and say goodbye to them?
Don't forget, Spanish-speaking people trod this ground long before Zebulon Pike did. Why should they consider themselves "illegals"? Just because the U.S. won a war almost 200 years ago? To say nothing of the Cheyenne and the Arapaho, and the Utes.
Not all Hispanics favor a path to citizenship for the millions of hardworking Latinos that have helped this country become stronger and more productive, but most do.
And your strategy is to learn to "communicate more effectively with Hispanic voters" and to "work with Hispanic media". That is Republican speak for, "we need to improve our misinformation distribution machine and convince Latinos that we care about them and that success will trickle down to you if you will just believe us long enough for us to win this one more election…oh, pretty please..?
Then we can completely dismantle the American social network and see to it you and your family never get a glimpse of the American Dream. Just this one election…OK?
Duke, great post.
Yikes, after that explanation, you'd better give up any hope "moderatus" is going to reply.
Unless…………….."moderatus" is actually as mean spirited, clueless, and drudged up as someone'd have to be to miss your point.
We'll see.
It's always a mistake to assume that all people in a demographic group have the same position. That said, Latinos generally do favor a moderate immigration position, including a path to citizenship. Like all of us, Latinos are not a monolithic group. A Pew poll from 2005 showed a range of opinions among Hispanics on immigration policy. Since then, more recent polls show 89% of Latinos favor a moderate immigration plan. When one digs into the details of this survey, the myth of monolithic support breaks down – Native English speakers are less likely than Spanish speakers to favor it, for example.
Cesar Chavez, union organizer and Latino hero,did not favor open borders, because it would hurt union jobs.
As a teacher in predominantly urban and Latino-population schools, I've always seen a range of attitudes amongst my students regarding immigration policy.
Sorry – here's the link to the 2012 immigration attitude survey.