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July 25, 2007
New Survey Finds that Latino Voters are Angry . . . About Lack of Quality Education
While the self-anointed leaders of Hispanics in the United States were meeting in Miami at the National Council of La Raza convention this week, railing against "a wave of hate" that sunk the Senate illegal alien amnesty bill and threatening bad things against politicians who blocked the amnesty bill, they were apparently paying very little attention to what the people they purport to represent really want.
It was hard to miss - because the results of a new national survey of likely Latino voters were released at the La Raza convention - but survey conducted by the Strong America Schools Project found that the biggest concern Latinos in the U.S. have is the quality of education that their children are getting. In other words, the issue that most concerns Latinos who vote in this country is exactly the same thing that concerns pretty much every American with children.
Despite all of the carrying-on about how Latino voters will wreak vengeance of biblical proportions on any politician who opposes granting amnesty to illegal aliens, this new survey confirms what other recent surveys have found: bread-and-butter issues like education, health care, jobs, affordable housing, not amnesty for illegal aliens, are what are on the minds of American Hispanics. A study done by the Pew Hispanic Center two years ago revealed that immigration was eleventh on the list of concerns of Hispanic voters that they surveyed (and it is not clear whether Hispanics are concerned because the believe there is too much immigration or too little).
So why all the fuss about the amnesty bill? For the self-anointed Hispanic leaders, amnesty and mass immigration are a means to greater political power for themselves. The more people of Hispanic origin there are living in the U.S., the more leverage elite groups like La Raza believe they can exercise over the political system.
Just as importantly, amnesty for illegal aliens was something that politicians could actually deliver (even if it isn't something Hispanic voters necessarily care about). Delivering quality schools that prepare Hispanic and other kids for the challenges they will face in adulthood is a tall order. Ensuring access to quality health care, affordable housing, or creating good-paying jobs - that's hard work.
Amnesty for illegal aliens, by contrast, is a piece of cake. You pass a bill, you have a nice signing ceremony in the Rose Garden and, Presto!, you can say you did something that benefits Hispanics. Okay, so you skipped over items one through ten on the wish list of Hispanic voters, but item number 11 is better than nothing at all. Of course, in delivering item number 11, items one through ten would have gone from being a tall order to being an impossibility. But who cares? La Raza would have been happy and President Bush would have burnished his already impressive legacy. Education, jobs, health care…some future administration can worry about those things.
Posted on at July 25, 2007 04:04 PM