Former Bush Commerce secretary: Republicans ‘scaring the heck out of’ Hispanics

[TomCADem]

Source: Raw Story

President Bush’s former secretary of Commerce on Sunday pointed out that Mitt Romney and the Republican Party made a mistake by pushing anti-immigrant policies like “self deportation” in the 2012 elections because it was “scaring the heck out of” Hispanic voters.

“I would lay the blame [for Romney's defeat] squarely on the far right wing of the Republican Party,” former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said during a panel discussion on CNN. “That’s where you get into things like immigration. If we want to be the party of growth and prosperity, we have to be the party of immigration.”

“So we should be leading comprehensive immigration reform. We should be leading the DREAM Act, not the military DREAM Act, students as well,” he explained. “We should be getting rid of things like English as the official language of government. We have to be welcoming immigrants. This is like we are competing for investment capital, we are also competing for human capital. And our party is scaring the heck out of them.”

But conservative activist Gary Bauer quickly objected, insisting that the policies of inclusion that Gutierrez had suggested would not attract more voters to the party.


Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/11/former-bush-commerce-secretary-republicans-scaring-the-heck-out-of-hispanics/

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Already the would-be voices of moderation in the Republican party are being drowned out. Democrats should try to pass immigration reform in 2013 and force Ted Cruz and Ricky Rubio to sell out Hispanics by joining Republicans in efforts to filibuster immigration reform. It will will be interesting to see the two choke on their pride and sell-out their communities by reciting the talking points about immigration reform being nothing more than amnesty.

[HooptieWagon]

1. Agreed! Dems need to push immigration/Dream Act.

Not only is it the right thing to do, it will place GOP in a non-win situation.

[SoapBox]

3. Ditto.

A logical and common sense plan.

And, never, EVER let anyone forget the "Self-Deport" Puke Plan.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Romney scared the heck out of a lot of people,

not just Hispanics. The only people he didn't scare was old white guys.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

5. +1000 nt

[mimi85]

7. Except for my husband

He's not ancient, but he is over 60. He wouldn't have voted for Willard if offered mucho dinero. And we're in California! Although he is a bit of a penny pincher so maybe if it was a very sizable amount.

[yends21012]

13. Don't know about that...

rmoney scared the sh&t out of me!

[workinclasszero]

15. The only people he didn't scare was(RICH)old white guys.

I'm a non rich white guy who works for a living. Bishop Rmoney scared the living shit outta me!

[Grassy Knoll]

4. Well Mr. Gutierrez.......

You are a glass Onion, they see through you, and you make them cry, nice try.

[AgingAmerican]

6. Republicans have an ideology problem

That is the crux of their demise, their ideology. All of their other issues cascade down from their effed up ideology. Ideologues let their ideology do their thinking for them. They don't think at all. That is why Ryan and Romney cannot answer simple, basic, questions without self destructing.

[alp227]

8. Umm, Marco Rubio is the senator, and Ricky Rubio is the basketball player.

[DCKit]

9. Yet still we lost 27% of the Hispanic vote nationwide, many more in VA and NC.

Screw it, I can live with 27% of the Hispanic vote against us. It's getting better every two years.

[Speck Tater]

10. It's just going to be so much fun watching them turn on each other.

They'll be so busy ranting about how bad the "other kind of Republicans" are that they won't have time to rant about the Democrats. It'll be a feeding frenzy where all the sharks attack each other and we get to sit in the boat with a beer watching the show.

[sakabatou]

11. As the meme goes...

[Diclotican]

12. TomCADem

TomCADem

I am as white as they goes - but they scared the hell out of me also - many thousands of miles away from the shores of US all together.. And I can understand why hispanics, and every minority can be scared about the republicans - they act in a way as the world still was in the middle of the middle ages...

Diclotican

[Kolesar]

14. RW radio listeners phoned death threats to GOP congressmen when bush* pushed immigration reform

So, the scared congressmen backed the hell away from the issue.
This was documented on Bill Moyers' previous TV show: Bill Moyers' Journal

*disputed presidency

[silvershadow]

16. Republicans are scaring the heck out of white people, too. nt

[Odin2005]

17. That "conservative activist" proved Mr. Gutierrez's point.

[Atypical Liberal]

18. "conservatives" been on the wrong side of history for every non-white demographic since...forever.

Women getting the vote.
The Civil Rights Movement.
LGBT rights.
Immigrants.

Who's left to alienate?

[sarcasmo]

19. Limpballs, Hannity, Loofah and Beck, please keep playing the racist.

[adieu]

20. Gary Bauer is partly right

Just adding policies of inclusion won't attract voters to the party. It has to be a comprehensive make-over of the party. Get rid of the anti-immigrant policies, get rid of the anti-women policies, get rid of the anti-poor policies, get rid of the anti-young policies, the anti-old, the anti-sick, the anti-disabled, the anti-drug using, the anti-union, the anti-everything else policies and you might have a chance of getting some voters to your side.

Of course, if you do that, you'd be the Democratic party, or even better, the Green party. But we already have them, and they have a much longer history of being on that side of the policies, proving that they can walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

[geomon666]

21. lol these guys are nuts

We need to remove English as the official language and instead of an I Voted sticker we'll hand out I Voted Sombreros. Cinco De Mayo will be a national holiday and enchiladas will be served at Thanksgiving at all federal functions.

Get off the ledge pigs.