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Michelle Fields is completely wrong on amnesty and Latinos

Michelle Fields

Libertarian Fox News contributor Michelle Fields. Photo author unknown.

Fox News’ Latino website has recently published an opinion piece by libertarian FNC contributor Michelle Fields, who therein attacks conservative columnist Ann Coulter for pointing out the inconvenient truth about amnesty’s consequences and the majority of Latino immigrants. Fields believes Ann Coulter’s written remarks are xenophobic and based only on stereotypes.

Essentially, Fields’ claims, and her attacks on Coulter, can be summed up as follows:

Claim #1: Latinos are not a bunch of government dependents, but mostly a community of hardworking taxpayers, and they do not support Big Government or liberal/socialist ideologies. They share many beliefs with Republicans, such as faith and belief in hard work, and could very well vote GOP. Thus, the GOP is to blame for its failure to win over Latinos.

Claim #2: Amnesty will not kill the GOP.

Claim #3: Rejecting “immigration reform” because it could harm the GOP is unpatriotic and unjust.

All of her claims, without exception, are dead wrong. I’ll show you why.

Firstly, while I don’t want to generalize, and while not all Latinos are government dependents, the vast majority of them are. The typical Latino family in the US is led by a single mother. If she works, her income is so low she doesn’t pay any income taxes and receives the Earned Income Tax Credit – effectively a subsidy from US taxpayers. If she doesn’t work, she receives various forms of welfare, including 99 weeks of free unemployment compensation.

For food, mom gets food stamps and other aid, while her kids get 2-3 free meals at school every day.

Her kids are educated at taxpayers’ expense K-12 and can receive student loans, college aid, and in-state tuition rates.

For healthcare, there’s Medicaid and Obamacare. (Latinos have the lowest insurance rate of any demographic group in the country.)

Why would those people vote for a party (the GOP) that pledges to cut taxes they don’t pay and reduce the government programs they do live off?

Wouldn’t self-interest dictate voting for a party that will let them continue receiving all the current giveaways from Uncle Sam, and perhaps give them even more?

Most Hispanics in America today are born out of wedlock to teen mothers. Hispanics are more likely than anyone else except blacks to be born out of wedlock to a teen mother, to do poorly in school, to drop out of high school, to be unemployed and on welfare, to commit crime, and to go to prison. (Of course, the former social ills lead to the latter – children born out of wedlock, especially to teen mothers, have their lives screwed up at the start, if you pardon my language.)

Therefore, it is not surprising that the vast majority of Hispanics overwhelmingly supports Big Government. According to very recent polling by Pew Hispanic Polling, the Kaiser Foundation, and others:

While this is the first time I agree with Rachel Maddow on anything, Maddow was nonetheless absolutely right to note that:

“There’s no great mystery here. Latino have the lowest rates of health coverage in the country, and strongly believe public access to affordable care should be a basic societal guarantee.

In other words, most Latinos believe the exact opposite of most Republicans. The GOP wants to eliminate the Affordable Care Act in its entirety; Latino voters want it protected. Republicans want to gut Medicare and Medicaid; Latinos see both programs as critical.

“This is going to hurt Republicans,” Matt Barreto, cofounder of Latino Decisions, a nonpartisan national polling firm, told Levey. “When Republicans keep saying they will repeal the health law, Latinos hear the party is going to take away their healthcare.”

Since the 2012 election, we’ve heard repeatedly from Republicans that Latinos are a natural constituency for the GOP and, if the party could only use more effective language, Latino voters would gravitate to the conservative party. And yet, the evidence to the contrary is increasingly overwhelming.”

Or, as the LA Times has noted:

“As Republican leaders try to woo Latino voters with a new openness to legal status for the nation’s illegal immigrants, the party remains at odds with America’s fastest-growing ethnic community on another key issue: healthcare.”

According to other polling by Pew Hispanic Research and others, Latinos aren’t any more conservative on social issues, either. In fact, they support gay marriage and abortion by wider margins than anyone else except Jewish Americans, women, and youngsters (themselves also traditional Democratic electorates).

For example, a June 19th, 2013 poll by Pew found that 52% of all Hispanics, including 54% of Catholic Hispanics, 57% of “native-born” Hispanics, and 59% of those Hispanics for whom English is their first language, support gay marriage legalization. Among ethnic groups, only Jewish Americans support the legality of gay marriage and abortion by wider margins.

So Ann Coulter was absolutely right, and Michelle Fields was dead wrong, about Hispanics’ political views: the vast majority of them ARE strident liberals, ARE dependent on the federal government from cradle to grave, and DO support Big Government. Those are not stereotypes. Those are facts.

And Republicans can’t woo these people. You can’t convert a Big Government liberal to free-market conservatism anymore than you can convince an Islamist to forego jihad.

The GOP cannot win the Hispanic vote unless it becomes the second party of Big Government and social liberalism. But that would defeat the party’s purpose, and the Dems will always outdo Republicans in the “handing out taxpayers’ dollars” game.

But remaining (or making the GOP again) the party of limited constitutional government means foregoing the vast majority of the Hispanic vote. That is a fact. Latinos love Big Government.

Miss Fields claims that the Latino vote is winnable for the GOP. But that is impossible for the above reasons. And all election results show that.

In fact, in 1984, while the general American populace voted for Ronald Reagan in even greater numbers than in 1980, Hispanics voted for Walter Mondale in even greater numbers than they had for Jimmy Carter: 61% for Mondale versus “only” 56% for Carter.

In other words, Latinos missed the Carter Administration so badly that they voted for Walter Mondale, an advocate of the “nuclear freeze” and tax hikes, in even greater numbers than they had for Carter!

Ronald Reagan won only 35% of the Hispanic vote in 1980 and only 37% in 1984.

But Republicans passed, and he signed, amnesty in 1986. Didn’t Latinos reward Republicans for amnesty thereafter?

Actually, no, they didn’t. Just two years later, they voted for Dukakis in even greater numbers (69%) than for Mondale (61%) and Carter (56%)! George H. W. Bush won only 30% of the Hispanic vote in 1988.

But he made it easier to immigrate to the US, created the Diversity Visa Lottery, and eliminated the English language test on the naturalization exam. Didn’t that earn him the Hispanic vote?

No, it didn’t. He won only 25% of the Hispanic vote in 1992 – even less than Mitt Romney did in 2012. Bill Clinton won 61% of the Hispanic vote in 1992 and 71% in 1996.

But didn’t George W. Bush show Republicans can win the Hispanic vote?

No, he didn’t. He won only 35% of the Hispanic vote in 2000 and only 40% (not the 44% Miss Fields claims) in 2004. Even then, Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Al Gore (62%) and John Kerry (58%).

Even America’s loudest advocate of amnesty for illegal aliens, John McCain, won only 31% of the Hispanic vote in 2008; Latinos backed Obama then by 67%.

But most outrageously, four years later, Latinos thought Obama deserved a second term, and they voted for him in 2012 in numbers even greater than in 2008 (71% vs 67%). This is consistent with their entire history of overwhelmingly backing stridently liberal presidential candidates: Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and Obama. They’ve never met a strident liberal they didn’t love.

(Source: Pew Hispanic polling.)

And now, very recent polling shows that if Joe Biden was the Democratic and Marco Rubio the Republican nominee, Biden would handily beat Rubio – a leading advocate of amnesty and a Hispanic himself – 60% to 26%, i.e. Rubio would receive even less of the Hispanic vote than the strongly anti-amnesty Mitt Romney, despite being a Hispanic himself!

The Latino vote is utterly unwinnable for the GOP. Therefore, it is in the Party’s and the Country’s interest to halt further immigration (from all countries of the world, not just Latin American ones) and to ensure that the illegals already in America are deported.

Ann Coulter is also absolutely right to point out, and Michelle Fields dead wrong to deny, that amnesty will kill the GOP.

Just look at Miss Fields’ home state of California to see what would happen to the GOP.

Massive immigration – both legal and illegal – from Latin American countries (mostly Mexico) has turned California into such a liberal state that NO Republican can be elected statewide in California anymore. Not so long, it gave America such great Senators and Governors as Richard Nixon, S.I. Hayakawa, Ronald Reagan, and Pete Wilson.

But now, California is such a liberal state that the Dems have the governorship and supermajorities in both houses of the state legislatures, allowing them to raise taxes anytime without limits. In 2010, Californians chose Babsy Boxer and Governor Moonbeam over two bright conservative women – Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman – one of them pro-life, the other pro-choice, and rejected a proposal to suspend California’s cap-and-tax scheme until the state unemployment rate shrinks.

Last year, Californians gave the Dems a supermajority in the State Senate.

Similar stories are repeated throughout the country. New Mexico, like California, is lost forever. Colorado, Nevada, Florida, and Virginia haven’t voted Republican since 2004. Only Texas and Arizona remain secure – for now.

When Texas goes, America goes.

As Ann Coulter rightly points out, if amnesty is passed, the entire country will have the electorate of California. And there will be no going back. Look again at the Hispanic voting patterns of the last 33 years to see what electorate America would have. An electorate 71% of which thought Barack Obama had done a good job and deserved a second term. An electorate 61% of which missed the Carter Administration so badly that it voted for its vice president. An electorate 69% of which voted for Michael Dukakis.

But it would actually be much worse than that: as Sarah Palin points out, amnesty would be a heinous betrayal of working-class Americans, who would see their jobs stolen by illegal immigrants.

Thus we come to Miss Fields’ last claim: that rejecting “immigration reform” is unpatriotic and unjust. A patriot is one who does what is good for his country.

Amnesty – as Miss Fields herself has noted – would be very bad for the country. It would reward lawbreaking and put a huge new strain on American taxpayers. It would also turn the entire country into California. That would be disastrous for America.

Thus, by blocking amnesty, House Republicans are doing the PATRIOTIC thing. They’re doing the right thing for the Country and the Party.

To conclude, Miss Fields is dead wrong on all counts. The vast majority of Latinos ARE government dependents and DO support Big Government. Amnesty would kill the GOP, and conservatism in general, forever. And stopping it is the patriotic thing to do.

If Miss Fields is the classy young woman I believe she is, she should and will apologize to Ann Coulter. She’s certainly a knowledgeable and intelligent person and has been right on many issues. But on these, she’s flat wrong.

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6 Comments

  1. Bravo, Zbigniew! Bravo!

    I voted for McCain (puke) and Romney over the last two elections. Actually I voted against Obie in the last two elections and those two candidates happened to be the most promising (strictly in terms of defeating him) options. I have in the past resented the Tea Party and I’ve never considered the Libertarian Party. But both look much more like ME than the republicans do these days. The GOP has one last chance to get back to the grassroots or it is done – so far as I am concerned. The GOP leadership needs to stop being STUPID!!! Get rid of your Gonzo Logic or just SHUT-UP forever! Your are neither warm nor cold – I shall spit you out!

    A mad, almost X, Republican

    1. Thanks, Derrell! Yes, the RINOs are really despicable. They have sold the American working class to their corporate sugar daddies. Over the last 27 years, on immigration and on “free trade”, EACH TIME when the GOP had to choose between loyalty to working class Americans and loyalty to its corporate sponsors, it chose its corporate backers. Each time in the last 27 years the GOP chose Corporate America and K Street over working class Americans.

  2. I agree with what I see as the basic premises of your article. However….I do not see a clear distinction between …LEGAL and ILLEGAL. There is a vast difference….The ‘legal’ immigrants have already ‘earned’ a right/privilege of being here….the ILlegal broke/disrespected our laws & are guilty of ILLEGAL TRESPASSING, at the least.

    The OTMs (other than Mexican)are the real danger to our Nation….they mean to kill or control…in the name of their allah.

    Illegal crossings down? Not hardly!! Rio Grande Region in SE Tx has 9 Border Stations..ONE, just one, in Falfurias has aappehended est. 9000 since January of 2013…UP considerably from 2012. Of those almost 30% were OTM’s. Almost all were carrying drugs as payment of passage to the cartels. So far this year in that region, alone 8 bodies of those that ‘couldn’t make’ it have been found.

    We lock the doors to our houses & cars to block out Unwanted…Is not our Country due the same respect?

    AMNESTY forgives Crime & invites invasion of our home
    ENFORCEMENT of LAW prevents crime.

    1. Sorry, Jan, but you’re wrong. Legal immigration is no better than illegal immigration.

      There is NO “right” to live in the US. It’s a PRIVILEGE that the US may dispense as it sees fit.

      Massive immigration, both legal and illegal, but mostly legal, has turned California into such a liberal state that no Republican can be elected statewide in CA anymore, not even a bright successful entrepreneur previously never involved in politics like Meg Whitman. Californians by overwhelming margins prefer Governor Moonbeam and Babsy Boxer.

      The same now applies to New Mexico. Like California, it’s permanently lost.

      Nevada, Colorado, Florida, and Virginia have not voted Republican since 2004. Only Texas and Arizona remain secure – for now.

      When Texas goes, America goes.

      And who are the vast majority of “legal” immigrants coming into the US? Uneducated, low-skilled people who can only do simple jobs or go on welfare. America’s current “legal immigration” system favors uneducated relatives of US citizens over skilled, well-educated, fluent-in-English foreigners like those foreign students who have to leave the US after graduating from American universities.

      Essentially, this country is saying, through its immigration laws, “Sorry, German scientists and Swedish doctors, but we don’t need you; we prefer to import entire villages of illiterate Mexicans, Afghans, and Syrians.”

      America doesn’t need any more legal immigrants, except those who are well educated, highly-skilled, fluent in English, and would make significant contributions to the economy, the treasury, and the society.

      1. My computer keeps flipping out so can’t seem to get a full response in. But if you will look at the Immigration LAWs you will find a ‘rule book’ that IF followed & IF ENFORCED will provide the balance required. I live in Texas & have devoted over a decade addressing this problem. I appreciate that you bring up the subject as it needs to be addressed. I share the frustrations & even anger that ‘our’ government allows this invasion with little or no regard for law & force American Citizens living on the Border to live in fear & not freedom. But we must not fall into the trap of a cookie cutter approach. There is a vast difference between Legal & Illegal….

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