A Response to Democrats by Latino Republicans

Latino National Republican Coalition of Texas - Having read Rebecca Acuña’s article in the San Antonio Express-News entitled “A response from Democrats to State Rep. John V. Garza” reminded me of why Texas Democrats are out of touch with Latino Voters. Acuña’s outrageous claim that Republicans sought to remove Latinos from House district 117 is typical Democratic fact twisting that they put out in the hope that readers do not research the facts. Let us look at the facts. The “Republican” Legislative map increased the percent of Latino voting age population in district 117 from 58.7% to 62.7%. However, Democrats sued and reduced the Latino voting strength down to 58.8%.

Democrats talk about the need to protect “minority candidates of choice” but hypocritically turn away from those same candidates as soon as they are no longer controlled by their bully machine. Last week State Representative J.M. Lozano of Kingsville was a Democrat and the “minority candidate of choice” that Democrats argued vehemently to protect. Today, Representative Lozano is a Republican, and according to the same Democrats. no longer qualified to represent Latinos in his district. This example illustrates how Democrats are speaking out of both sides of their mouths when they publicly claim to be championing voting rights in the courts, but in reality are just jockeying for partisan advantage.

While engaging in racial politics has proven to be a moderately successful strategy for Democrats, it has severe internal limitations. Democrats elected more Latinos to public office in 2010 than Republicans, but it is crucial to understand that none of them were statewide officials. Only Texas Republicans are electing Latinos to statewide office, which requires broad support from Texans of all races and backgrounds. The Democrat strategy of promoting racially identified candidates in minority districts is resulting in political self-segregation. In contrast, the Texas GOP is advancing the civil rights movement by running Latinos as mainstream candidates where they are vetted on individual character, leadership ability, and policy ideas and not by race. Texas Latino voters are eager to place the era of political segregation behind them and in 2012 the only group advocating for political segregation based on race is the Democratic Party.

Unfortunately, Democratic support of outdated public policies does do not end there. Despite their rhetoric about supporting education, they continue to defend the status quo in our failing public schools. Democratic-led minority school districts continue to fail at educating young minds capable of excelling in Texas’ highly competitive economy. It angers parents when Democrats are more interested in bloated budgets, patronage and contracts, than focusing on raising the quality of public education. These Democrat controlled school districts perpetuate generational poverty and even immigrant parents must now worry that their children might not surpass them at making a living. Texas Republicans like State Rep John V Garza embrace real solutions such as promoting charter schools, parental choice and competition in education so that Latino children can receive a quality education and compete in the Texas workforce.

The Democratic attack on the Latino family does not end there and Democrats will have to answer to Latino voters why there are still no answers to the "fast and furious" debacle, why there are a record number of deportations by the Obama Administration, why there is an 11% national unemployment rate among Latinos, why they support an abortion industry that terminates the lives of tens of thousands of Latino babies every year, why the price of gas is skyrocketing and why they attack our religious institutions. Racial arguments can only distract from the consequences of failed Democratic policies for so long.