How completely out of touch are Republicans when it comes to the issue of Hispanics in America? Well, consider what former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer told the Boston Globe when asked about whether or not the Latino vote could be one of the deciding factors both in Arizona and nationally. Could that turn 2016 election in favor of Hillary Clinton?
“Nah. They don’t get out and vote. They don’t vote.”
Now while it is indeed true that only 48 percent of Hispanics voted in the 2012 election, one cannot help but wonder if that number will be much higher in light of the things Donald Trump has said about Mexican immigrants being “rapists” and that he intends to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Also, Brewer proves her own ignorance of the state she once led by not realizing that Arizona and its electoral votes are in play. This is evidenced by the fact that the Clinton campaign is spending millions in additional ad buys there and also by powerful surrogates such as the First Lady and Bernie Sanders making stops in the Grand Canyon State.
But Brewer’s comments also point to a much larger problem facing the Republican Party: Outreach to non-white voters. While Trump has pretended to be interested in reaching out to the African-American community (going to one black church does not do the job, Donnie), and while the GOP has repeatedly said they understand the need to expand their base and include groups other than whites, they consistently manage to antagonize or insult the very groups they need to avoid becoming politically irrelevant.
Consider the groups that will be voting almost universally for Hillary Clinton:
- African-Americans
- Hispanics
- The LGBT community
- Millennials
- College educated men and women
- Women
- Asian Americans
What does that leave for the GOP? Well, there’s older white men (a group that is shrinking) and those without college degrees. The white working class, in other words. That is a recipe for irrelevancy, as Brewer proved with her ignorant remarks.
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Wikimedia available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
