Recently, Governor Perry stated this when asked about the Texas DREAM Act, “To punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about.” This statement leads one to believe that he may support some version of the federal DREAM Act. Yet as the political discourse on immigration has continued to become more extreme, Perry has toughened his stance on the issue.

The Huffington Post‘s Yolanda Gonzalez Gomez writes:

“As governor of a state in which nearly 38 percent of the population is Latino and where 1.6 million — mostly Latino — undocumented workers reside, Perry has been clear in his opposition to the inclusion of amnesty in the immigration reform proposals voiced by President Obama, and has favored only a limited version of the DREAM Act.

Under Perry’s mandate, Texas has reinforced security along the border with Mexico, adding more agents, and he has argued for the use of the National Guard, military-style special ops and unmanned aircraft outfitted with high-tech cameras to further monitor and control the border region.

This intensified vigilance has not come cheaply. In a report released by his own administration, the government reported having spent over $400 million since 2005 on border security programs.

Perry has also been a vocal supporter of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s program to request valid residency documents from driver’s license applicants who are not U.S. citizens.

At the beginning this year, Perry presented an emergency package of initiatives to the Texas state legislature that included the elimination of so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ in the state, a requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls, and a mandate that local police comply with federal immigration laws.”

Governor Perry’s “get tough” stance on immigration will give some in the Latino community a reason to pause, but this is where President Obama will have a tough time distinguishing himself from whoever becomes the GOP presidential nominee because of his own aggressive deportation record.

Perry will also have to answer questions about his own job creating record, which recent reports have shown to be at the lower end of the wage spectrum. Recent state budget cuts in Texas will also likely impact jobs, as people are laid off.

But Rick Perry is certainly interesting…ok, I’ll admit, he can be funny, and he is going to likely get more traction than Mitt Romney will get with the average conservative and possibly even with Latino conservatives who don’t mind a Jose Cuervo joke every now and again.

Well, now Rev. Rodriguez is back in the news, this time he’s working with right wing Christian groups to infiltrate the Democratic Party, and he’s also being called the “Hispanic Karl Rove.” I find Rev. Rodriguez’s fire and brimestone rhetoric to be offensive at best, but I also see his workings into the Democratic Party being symptomatic of the GOP’s continued shunning of the Latino community. He sounds like a television evangelist ready to fall on the floor and start speaking tongues. Listen to how he manage to offend gays, Muslims, Oprah Winfrey watching Christians in this clip:

Now I am not completely against coalition building with progressives and Christians, but this screaming and stomping about gays and Muslims is not a good way to go about achieving that end. This kind of rhetoric is yet another reason why I firmly believe in the separation of church and state. I don’t think our community needs a “Hispanic Karl Rove” in the likeness of Rev. Samuel Rodriguez. I still think that education and more civic engagement, while learning multiple sides of issues, will serve our community better in the long run. What do you think?

Obama’s minority status did not move Latinos to vote for him as overwhelming as the African-American voters did. One must ask if these GOP Latinos are sensitive to the immigration debate and do they side with general Republican sentiment on the issue. Then again, the Democrats are not breaking down doors to address the immigration conundrum either.  In sum, the Latinos will probably continue not to be monolithic in inclination to the Democratic Party, but will be a significant and increasingly powerful actor in Democratic Party activities. Meanwhile, the GOP will continue to reach out to the Latino community in a determined way— as it has in the past– by being the first of the two parties to appoint the first Latino White House Fellow Henry Cisneros, first Assistant Secretary Al Zapanta by President Ford, the first two Latinos (Cavazos and Lujan), to the Cabinet by Reagan and Bush 41. Bush 43 later attempted to name the first Latino to the federal Court of Appeals (Miguel Estrada); plus many other visible appointments. Similarly, the Democrats have also found the need to appoint Latinos to the Cabinet and sub Cabinet like Federico Pena, Henry Cisneros and Bill Richardson.

In the end, the GOP understands that the growing Latino population will certainly be an even more important element in national, state and local elections and must seriously examine how to keep the Latino base of 30% within the party and make it grow. The Democrats must demonstrate that they do not take the Latinos for granted (two thirds of the group’s voters) and involve them even more in the party process and in the governing and policy-making process. The three significant Latino voting groups currently are Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans. Soon they will be joined by millions of other recent Latino immigrant groups like the Central Americans, the Caribbean and South Americans. The race will be on for their political loyalties. The looming debate on immigration will smoke out many of the hidden sentiments among the American body politic. If one of the national parties allows the debate to become one of being anti-Latino/Hispanic versus being just anti-illegal entry into the US, then the Latino population will react accordingly and move solidly to the non-offending party. The case of California in the 1990s is instructive. When the GOP sitting governor (Pete Wilson) attempted to garner votes by assailing illegal immigrants, the political target was designated to be the medical and school costs inflicted on California. Sadly, the upshot became a fiercely anti-Latino sentiment which was readily palpable. This resulted in a more activist and pro-Democrat Latino constituency. The GOP cannot afford to have this repeated at the national level. The only continuous and reliable Democrat state in national elections and where the Latinos reside in sizable numbers is New York. California is increasingly considered a loyal Democrat state with its growing Latino population. New Mexico tends to have a more independent Latino constituency which can tack Republican or Democrat, but usually it votes Democrat. Texas Latinos are largely Democrat in orientation, tradition and behavior. All six Latino Congressmen are Democrats as they are in California, but the Republicans have become the dominant party in Texas at virtually every level. Many Texas Latinos vote for the GOP on national and state-wide elections. But the majority remains Democrat. All demographic studies reveal that the Latino population in Texas will be preponderant in the not too distant future and the GOP will be the big loser given its current insufficient or indifferent outreach to the Hispanic community.

In the last thirty years, the Hispanic community in Florida has been dominated by the effective Cuban-American political efforts in favor of the Republican Party. However, the election of 2008 revealed that the majority of Latino voters in the state are no longer Cubans. Moreover, the GOP hold on the Cuban-Americans is no longer the case. Recent arrivals of Cubans along with third generation Cuban-Americans tend not to automatically affiliate with the GOP. Additionally, the arrival into Florida of significant numbers of Central Americans, South Americans, Mexicans and the movement of Puerto Ricans from the Northeast indicates that they are not following the traditional Cuban lead on voting Republican. Again, the GOP has an enormous challenge in how to attract Latinos into its big tent. Just electing the National Chair of the Party like Senator Mel Martinez is insufficient. The party must have a serious outreach with a welcoming fervor. Latinos have to feel comfortable with a party’s philosophy on race and ethnicity, treatment of their social and economic issues and concerns and be made to feel an integral part of the membership. In sum, some Latinos have found some solace with the GOP for economic, social, fiscal, national security, and other philosophical reasons. But their allegiance is tentative if the Party’s discourse becomes pervasively unwelcoming.

Palin has asked one of the churches that she attends to pray for building an Alaskan pipeline and for the military members who are on “a task that is from God.” I’m not so sure about this war being a task from God. Whose God is she talking about anyway? Listen to this clip, and tell me what you think.

And venturing off-topic, isn’t the part about her son’s tattoos a little odd? Her oldest child, Track, is an infantryman, heading off to Iraq, now identified by his “big ole’ Jesus fish” and map of Alaska. I don’t know if I would advertise that to the world if I had a kid preparing to ship off. I know that the Marines recently enacted tighter restrictions on tattoos to create a more “professional demeanor,” and I know that the Army has a similar policy. It just doesn’t seem the wisest of choices for someone going into a zone where you are identified by physical markers and traits, no?

When you think about the Latino vote, most probably don’t even consider Alaska, but about 5.6% of the state’s 670,000 people are of Hispanic origin. I thought it would be interesting to see where she stands on many of the issues facing Latino voters. So when I visited OntheIssues.com, the non-partisan site for positions on political leaders, I couldn’t find much for Governor Palin. For instance, she doesn’t have a recorded opinion on foreign policy, free trade, or immigration.

We do know that Sarah Palin is socially conservative. She is pro-life, and it is reported that she doesn’t even believe that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest. That’s a pretty extreme view, considering the trauma that some women would feel having to carry a fetus to term that was conceived resulting from an act of violence. That kind of extreme pro-life view would be hard to reconcile with victim’s rights, but if you are against any and all abortions, then this might very well be ok with you. Maybe the more socially conservative Latinos will find this appealing, along with the fact that she has five children, but I tend to think that the raza are going to vote in their economic interests this time around.

Sarah Palin also worships at the Juneau Christian Center, which is affiliated with the Pentacostal Assemblies of God. A year ago, I wrote a blog post about how more Latinos were joining Pentacostal churches, so maybe Palin’s religion would appeal to yet again the more socially conservative and religious members of our community. Being Catholic seemed to increase JFK’s favor with the Hispanic community in 1960, but I would like to think that our electorate has evolved to see beyond religion so much. We are electing public servants, not pastors, preachers, or popes.

Sarah Palin is a big supporter of gun owner’s rights. She is a lifetime member of the NRA and supports D.C.’s ban on handguns. The Latino community experiences high incidences of gun violence. According to the Centers for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, via the Brady Center, we lost an average of 8 lives of Latino origin every day in 2004. During that same year, homicide was the leading cause of fire-arm related deaths for Latinos. The gun control question would be a good one to ask Sarah Palin on behalf of our community, as many of us live in urban areas instead of the vast wilderness that she comes from.

On the issue of the Iraq war, which has emerged as one of the top issues for Latinos, Palin can’t seem to articulate what she thinks other than to “respect McCain’s position on that.” However, her oldest son is about to be deployed to Iraq so I’m sure that she’ll be developing a more coherent position real soon.

I’m not too impressed with Governor Palin, as others have pointed out that if McCain wanted to pick a Republican woman who had more visibility that he would have picked Olympia Snowe, Christine Todd Whitman, or Kay Bailey Hutchison. However, I will say that Hillary Clinton supporters who were in the race for the issues will likely not be too pleased with Palin as she is on the opposite end of the political spectrum on many issues that Hillary advocated for. I certainly can’t wait to see Palin and Biden face off in the VP debates.

This quote also raises another issue for me in the broader sense of how we are perceived by the mainstream establishment. If we have our own people describing us as chiles, fireballs, J. Los, and Ricky Martins, how are we ever going to be taken seriously when it comes to public policy issues and the political agenda of this country? I never hear black religious leaders speaking this way about themselves. Could you have imagined Dr. King or even Rev. Jesse Jackson saying such a thing about the black community?

For the record, I believe that J. Lo is still a Catholic, and I have read that Ricky Martin admires Buddhist philosphy.