The NYTimes article I'll be talking about can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/us/politics/in-ads-and-before-audiences-romney-bids-for-latino-vote.html?ref=politics&_r=moc.semityn.www
The idea behind the GOP trying to attract the Hispanic vote is an interesting issue, perhaps primarily why they are having so much trouble doing so.
The biggest issue with the GOP and Hispanics seems to be illegal immigration. Specifically that the GOP stance is firmly against it. However, the article points out Romney claiming to support certain programs meant to legalize illegal aliens, such as the Dream Act. The article also points out that this stance is a switch from Romney's previous one, where he denounced the Dream Act.
The way this connects to the class's concept is best evoked in the pisteis. The idea that the GOP should have a strong Latino support rests upon the concept that, according a variety of polls, many Hispanic voters are traditional conservatives and generally religious. This coincides with the GOP's commonly religious and conservative stance with regard to social issues. Yet, the GOP does not seem to be able to capitalize on this connection.
The reason it seems is that Hispanic voters do not seem to trust the GOP. Perhaps this is because the GOP tries to focus its speeches upon the ethos and pathos aspects rather than the logos. Thus, many Hispanic voters find the GOP's vague exaggerations to be untrustworthy.
This is a really interesting article. I like how you point out that Hispanic voters are generally more conservative and religious than the general American population, which would make it seem as if they would affiliate more with the Republican party. Yet Republicans have a hard time courting them.
ReplyDeleteRomney, I think, makes a lot of decisions based on political expediency, or in other terms, he's a flip-flopper.
When he was governor of Massachusetts, he supported immigration reform to help illegals gain citizenship:
http://youtu.be/3eey2nX2aMc
And then when he started getting pressure from the Republicans, he started becoming harsher on immigration law.
And it seems now that he needs the Hispanic vote, he's changed his stance yet again.
Thanks for the interesting article! - Mary Beth