GOP ignorant about Latinos

As the votes in the 2012 election were being counted, the Republicans were already setting themselves up for a disaster in the 2014 midterms and 2016 elections. This issue is the beating the GOP in general and Mitt Romney in particular took from the Latino electorate. As has become the norm, they foolishly default to a solution of identity politics.

Do House Speaker John Boehner and radio host Sean Hannity honestly believe that a flip-flop to a transparent faux pro-immigration reform stance, with a possible window dressing of a third-generation Cuban immigrant on the ticket, will cause American Latinos to abandon all of their other values, all of the issues that affect them and their families and kneel at the alter of political cynicism? If they do, they are sadly mistaken.

Tokenism and false pandering is a failed political tactic. It didn’t work with women (ask Linda McMahon) and it didn’t work with African-Americans (ask Allen West). Latinos voted Democratic for the same reasons the majority of other Americans did, because the Democrats represent fairness, freedom and opportunity. If Republicans think Latinos are a single-issue demographic, they will fail again.

Cosmo Andoloro

Hoffman Estates