GOP Abandons Latinos; Latinos Abandon GOP

Cross-posted at The Right's Field.

As sure as night follows day, if you abuse a constituency long enough, it'll turn on you. As Republican candidates ignore real Latinos and play to the white GOP base's fear of imaginary ones, we can start to see the consequences on the horizon. For instance, via Soren Dayton, here's the Dallas Morning News's William McKenzie on how Republicans are losing Hispanic evangelicals:

A note here for Mitt, Fred, Rudy and the gang:

You guys gunning for the GOP nomination really should pay attention to the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez and the many other Latino evangelicals who think like the California pastor. They are natural Republicans, but if your party keeps up its anti-immigrant rhetoric, you can forget them coming your way.[...]

The defeat [of the immigration bill] has Mr. Rodriguez wondering whether "the GOP is the party of Jeff Sessions, Tom Tancredo and James Sensenbrenner or the party of George W. Bush and John McCain?" In other words, those like Mr. Tancredo who strongly opposed immigration reform or those like Mr. Bush who strongly favored it.

Right now, Mr. Rodriguez thinks, "xenophobia has triumphed over an appreciation for diversity. They completely abandoned us."

Wow. And, remember, this is a guy who likes Republicans.

Rodriguez wasn't the only Latino evangelical leader telling McKenzie about Hispanic anger at the GOP. While conservatives have been congratulating themselves for their "triumph" on the immigration bill -- deluding themselves into believing that they somehow represented the will of the majority -- the other shoe may be about to drop.

As Dayton points out:

Moderate evangelicals are swing voters, as are evangelical Hispanics. They gave Bush 1.8m votes. Those are not margins we can throw away.