Via Yahoo News:
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidates were meeting Sunday night for the first debate broadcast entirely in Spanish, the clearest sign yet of the growing influence of Hispanic voters.
Well, not entirely. The Spanish component of the debate, as far as the candidates are concerned, is a bit of a sham:
Anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas will pose questions in Spanish and the candidates will wear earpieces to hear simultaneous translations into English. Similarly, their English answers will be translated into Spanish for the live, 90-minute broadcast.
Most Hispanic citizens of the United States speak English, so there's really no point to this debate as far as reaching citizens who vote goes. What it really boils down to is rank pandering to ethnic separatism, a Democratic Party staple. That isn't healthy for America, but it may gain the Democrats a few votes, which is infinitely more important to Democrats.
We strongly believe that Republicans should make real efforts to reach out to Hispanic American voters, but not by pandering to them as the Democrats certainly will tonight. Most Hispanic Americans want what other Americans want, to have a good job, to be successful, to make a better life for their kids, etc. The way to success in America, and for America, is learning English, assimilation, free enterprise, low taxes and regulation, traditional American values - not the grievance-mongering, pushing victim group status and ethnic separatism, and welfare state-ism the Democrats offer.
Not only is this not "pandering" even immigrants who are fully bilingual watch news in Spanish as well to get different news than you would get in an American TV station. This is called "reaching out" which is something that the Republican party has continuously not done. I actually do hope the Republican party continues to alienate people who use technology, gays, Hispanic immigrants, so they can blame their 2008 loss on the Democrats and everyone can laugh. If assimilation means forgetting one's culture, and language and voting Republican out of fear of being called unpatriotic, I think most immigrants and most citizens will reject that methodology. Continue fear mongering and name calling, it worked well for the 2006 election!
Comment by amy — September 9, 2007 @ 6:09 pm September 9, 2007
I agree with Amy. I'm a Richardson man, and I also like Dodd, so I was a bit peeved about the translation rule, though.
Still, this is basic politics today. You make general appeals to a mass audience, but you also make narrow appeals to narrow audiences. The Republicans have been narrow-casting for years - Karl Rove made his money slicing and dicing the electorate and sending targeted mail-outs. Accusing the Democrats of "grievance-mongering" is just ridiculous; this was a positive event and most of the candidates had a proactive progressive agenda, it wasn't a whine festival.
And even if it were, its no worse than when Karl and his proteges send out targeted mailers to fundamentalist voters warning of the "homosexual agenda" or "oppressing the Christians" or whatever conservatives-as-victims nonsense Red Team will be babbling about this cycle.
Comment by Jim D — September 9, 2007 @ 7:11 pm September 9, 2007