A Rise in Latino Conservatism?

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National Institute for Latino Policy , Commentary, Angelo Falcón, Posted: Jul 06, 2012

As we talk about Latino or Hispanic politics in this election year, most automatically draw a link between this particular racial-ethnic identification and a liberal political orientation. A Latino social policy agenda is generally assumed to reside within a liberal New Deal framework. Latinos in general may be socially conservative on a number of issues, but the majority support an activist government, are willing to pay more taxes for increased services, and support government expansion of the social safety net and affirmative action programs. The fact that President Obama has, according to the polls, the support of roughly two-thirds of Latino voters, reflects a real political connection, not just superior campaigning.

The 2003 fight over the very conservative Miguel Estrada's confirmation as a federal appeals court judge was controversial because it gave rise to the question: Who is a Latino or Hispanic?

Representing what was then the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) -- now named LatinoJustice PRLDEF -- I was caught in the middle of the controversy, summed up by Byron York in his February 6, 2003 National Review Online article, "Dems to Miguel Estrada: You're Not Hispanic Enough":

Angelo Falcon, an official of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, railed about the "Latino Horatio Alger story that's been concocted" about Estrada's success and, more generally, about the "concocted, invented Latino imagery" of Estrada's life.

"As the Latino community becomes larger and larger in the country, as we gain more political influence, as we become more diverse, the issue of what is a Hispanic becomes more problematic," Falcon explained. "It's not good enough to simply say that because of someone's genetics or surname that they should be considered Hispanic."

I, along with others, was trying to point out that being Hispanic for political purposes should involve having the experience of growing up in a typical Latino environment in the United States and embracing a politics that involves a focus on the well-being of largely poor and working class Latinos. The judicial nominee, Estrada, who was born in Honduras, had a privileged background and was a member of the super conservative Federalist Society, a group promoting policies and judicial decisions that would work against the best interests of the majority of Latinos. In this sense, Estrada wasn't a "genuine Hispanic" in the context of representing our community on the federal bench. The conservative media at the time called this viewpoint "racial exploitation," and columnist Deroy Murdock quipped that, "Estrada's critics would not be mollified even if he swapped his black robes for a serape and wore a sombrero on the bench."

In the current political environment, there is a battle over defining Hispanics or Latinos politically. While the Democrats seem to take Latino support largely for granted, there are Republicans trying to recast the Hispanic experience in ways that fit their politics. In 1984, Ronald Reagan pointed out to his friend, Lionel Sosa, that conservatives needed to "remind Latinos that they are Republicans; they just don't know it yet." The basis of his observation was that Latinos are socially conservative and that in time they would realize that their conservatism was most in line with Republican politics. This hasn't happened yet -- certainly not this year -- but will it happen in the near future?

There have been some changes in the economic characteristics of Latinos over the last couple of decades that hint at the potential for a growing political conservatism among Latinos in the United States. For example, between 1991 and 2011, the number of Latinos with incomes of $100,000 and above grew from 53,405 to 693,202, a twelve-fold increase (although still representing only 2 percent of Latinos in 2011.) In this same period, the number of Latino homeowners more than doubled from 10.5 to 24.2 million (although as a percent of total Latinos it remained at about 48 percent in both years). And the number of Latinos homeowners with incomes of $100,000 and above grew from almost 45,000 to more than 558,000, an eleven-fold increase. Although representing a small percentage of the total Latino population, these trends indicate that there is a growing pool of Latinos who might be more receptive to politically (and financially) conservative appeals.

My impression is that since the George W. Bush years, the Republican Party and conservatives first began to devote serious resources to create and support a number of conservative Latino organizations to challenge the liberal orthodoxy within the Latino community. There certainly were efforts before this by Republicans to reach out to Hispanic voters, but with very mixed results. In 1972, with the leadership of individuals like Ben Fernandez, Manuel Lujan and Francisco Vega, the Republican National Hispanic Assembly was formed as an offshoot of what was the Spanish Speaking Advisory Committee of the Republican National Committee. As recently as 2007, the Assembly encountered serious financial difficulties as a result of low membership and more recently has experienced divisions over disagreements over the Republican Party's stance on immigration issues. This took the form of the establishment of groups like Somos Republicans and even spawned the Tequila Party in Arizona. Today, the Assembly's National Chair is Florida-based female party activist Alci Maldonado.

Beyond this Republican Party operation, today there is a wide range of Latino conservative organizations that have developed higher profiles. Among the standouts among these are the Hispanic Leadership Network and the Libre Initiative, who have sponsored well-attended events that have attracted much media attention. In addition, the Republican Members of Congress at one point broke away from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and have formed their own Congressional Hispanic Conference, and there are groups like the Café con Leche Republicans, Newt Gingrich's online publication, El Americano, the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, Latino Issues (A Conservative Blog), the Hispanic Leadership Fund, Conservative Latina (on Facebook), the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute and even a Hispanic Vote Super PAC.

In addition, there is the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce that advocate for Latino businesses that could be considered part of this Latino conservative block. Then there are the Latino evangelical groups like Sam Rodriguez's National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), which are very socially conservative but progressive on immigration issues.

This growing constellation of conservative Latino organizations is a relatively new phenomenon whose impact on a broader Latino politics is not yet clear. Because this is a high stakes Presidential election year with potentially billions of political dollars fueling it given the impact of the Citizens United decision, it is not clear if many of these are largely artificially fueled efforts by the Republican Party and conservatives in an election year or indicators of a growing conservative movement within the Latino community. If Mitt Romney is elected President, will he and Latino Republicans like US Senator Marco Rubio and others build on this Latino conservative infrastructure in long-lasting ways, or will it all simply fizzle out if Barack Obama is reelected?

Only time will tell, but it is clear that this is a political phenomenon that Latino political leaders and activists of all ideologies need to pay more attention to if we are to gain a better understanding of the future of Latino politics in the United States and its role in the broader American political context. What is at stake, after all, is the very meaning of the political content of being Hispanic and Latino, and who will be defining it.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP), for which he edits The NiLP Network on Latino Issues. He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org

Comments

Anonymous

Posted Jul 6 2012

Maybe for 2016.

Conservative Vato

Posted Jul 6 2012

Hispanics have always tended to be conservative. They have tended to be catholic and tend to be frugal with money. The true question is, "Why did Hispanics align themselves with liberals for so long?"

This is a complex issue but education is a major reason for the perceived Hispanic shift to a more conservative leanings. The Hispanic population mostly illiterate in English just seventy years ago can now read, afford radios, and television. As Hispanics become more educated, they are beginning to rely less on the handouts from the "generous" politicians and are realizing that handouts come with political strings and government debt attached.

Democrats especially but Republicans also have campaigned on fear for many years. There was a time when the illiterate Hispanic voting block was afraid, afraid of government, afraid of the prejudice and afraid of the general unfairness of the system. In fact there are probably still "colored" drinking fountains in certain towns around the U.S. The politicians capitalized on this fear. However, for the most part, those days are gone. Hispanics no longer have to rely on only the very few “smart ones” that completed college and could “play the game” to represent them. Citizen Hispanics are coming to realize that the only thing they have to fear is their own politicians that tend to forget the promises they campaigned on.

In this light, it makes sense that some politicians welcome mostly illiterate illegal aliens with amnesty. These politicians desperately need another influx of victims to “help.”
-Conservative Vato

Conservative Vato

Posted Jul 6 2012

Conservative Vato

Posted Jul 6 2012

In this light, it makes sense that some politicians welcome mostly illiterate illegal aliens with amnesty. These politicians desperately need another influx of victims to “help.”

Conservative Vato

Posted Jul 6 2012

Democrats especially but Republicans also have campaigned on fear for many years. There was a time when the illiterate Hispanic voting block was afraid, afraid of government, afraid of the prejudice and afraid of the general unfairness of the system. In fact there are probably still "colored" drinking fountains in certain towns around the U.S. The politicians capitalized on this fear. However, for the most part, those days are gone. Hispanics no longer have to rely on only the very few “smart ones” that completed college and could “play the game” to represent them. Citizen Hispanics are coming to realize that the only thing they have to fear is that their own politicians that tend to forget the promises they campaigned on.

In this light, it makes sense that some politicians welcome mostly illiterate illegal aliens with amnesty. These politicians desperately need another influx of "victims" to “help.”

sbaumann342

Posted Jul 7 2012

While I like your article in framing the future of Latinos in politics as a challenge for both sides of political leadership in this country, I don't agree that rising in the social and economic ladder would define Latinos as Republicans or financially conservatives per se. Maybe it would work for some, but the very definition of assimilation has to play a big role in that trend. Latino culture is community-oriented and prone to solidarity among its members, taking care of the young, the old and the poor. As long as the Latino community continues being fed by new immigrants that would refresh those values, the very process of assimilation that other waves of immigrants went through -Italians, Irish, Germans- will be a very slow process.

sbaumann342

Posted Jul 7 2012

Anonymous

Posted Jul 20 2012

Mr Falcon, You said:

"As the Latino community becomes larger and larger in the country, as we gain more political influence, as we become more diverse, the issue of what is a Hispanic becomes more problematic," Falcon explained. "It's not good enough to simply say that because of someone's genetics or surname that they should be considered Hispanic."

Your attitude and position plays right into the hands of Conservatives (which does not surprise me). The agenda you are pushing indicates that you know little about politics or how much you are being manipulated.

Have you noticed that "racial identity" on a myriad of application and documents does not have a proper category for most Latinos? In other words there is usually an "ethnic identity" that fits–hispanic (i just vomited in mouth a little) or sometimes, Latino but no corresponding racial category. Hmm...why is that? That is because, our true racial identity is Mestizo (merely the middle term in over 200 race-defining terms the Spanish came up with). Other terms on the "Casta" chart the Spanish (and Portuguese) created were criollo and mulatto. I don't see those terms on documents. I only see White, African American, Asian (East Asian and South Asian), and Pacific Islander. Conservatives "want" us (Latinos) to be white, in fact, they desperately "need" us to be white. My birth certificate says I'm white and that my parents are white. But I am not white and (predictably) neither are my parents. Conservatives always play up the fact that Latinos are "natural conservatives," and a big time Dominionist you probably know, Sam Rodriguez, has picked up that mantra. But, neither you nor he understand what you are doing when you say that. You are carrying the racist banner for the modern, American, conservative movement. Conservatives see the demographic writing on the wall and have begun infecting good people with the sickness of racism and most–like you– are unaware they carry the virus.

You are a Puertoriqueno and have been privileged to watch the Texas train wreck happen from afar. I have lived it, up close and personal. Texas is a place where a high degree of open and flagrant racism is tolerated, supported even. It has been a dismal and frightening 18 odd years for all people of color in this state. And it's only getting worse.

Now the conservative, racist agenda has other brown people cheerleading for them...yes, I mean you!

I would suggest you read "Bootstraps;" it's a book by Victor Villanueva. He is also a Puerto Rican and has a very different take on the situation in the US than you. (Don't worry; it's short.)

In closing, I will ask: How long do you think it will be before some virulent, republican, racist like Joe Arpaio targets you? I can guarantee you that the experience will change your tune.

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