LA mayor-elect says Democrats must talk family values to reach

[Kadie]

LA mayor-elect says Democrats must talk family values to reach Hispanic voters
By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, June 15, 2005


(06-15) 20:54 PDT Fort Worth, Texas (AP) --


Democrats must talk more about family values if they want to keep the support of Latino voters, Los Angeles' newly elected mayor said Wednesday.


Republicans were able to gain Hispanic votes in last year's presidential election because they focused on religion and seemed comfortable with Latino voters, Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Convention.


"They recognize something Latinos have in common with everybody else. I think Republicans do a better job of speaking to matters of the heart," the Democrat said.


Villaraigosa said Democrats need to take the discussion beyond the issues of gay marriage and abortion. He mentioned the homeless, health insurance for children and improving education as issues that should be addressed as part of family values.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/15/state/n205439D14.DTL

[okieinpain]

1. gee, did he have in ear plugs

[Mythsaje]

2. I didn't mean

to post three different versions of the same thing.

Glitch.

Sorry

[Mythsaje]

3. Hope

is a family value.

Empathy

is a family value.

Truth

is a family value.

The Republicans PRETEND to speak more to the heart, but do they mean it?

Doubtful.

[DBoon]

6. Wanting your children to get an education

and do better than you is a family value

Wanting your elders to live in comfort and dignity is a family value

To have no-one live on the streets in poverty is a family value

To make sure no mother's son comes home dead from a war founded on lies is a family value

[Mythsaje]

7. Yup

unfortunately too many "conservatives" see "family values" as something they can use to bludgeon those who don't agree.

Weird how that works.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Don't forget

health care, public education funding properly, telling the truth....

[Selatius]

4. Define family values

Does family values only include issues such as abortion, gay marriage, God in school, etc.?

Or does it also include standing up for the poor, protecting our environment for our kids' benefit, taking care of the sick and elderly, and making sure workers are making it so that they can adequately take care of their families?

[Mythsaje]

5. Hope

is a family value.

Empathy

is a family value.

Peace

is a family value.

Truth

is a family value.

Where are the neocons on these family values?

[Devlzown]

8. Let's be more Catholic than the Pope?

I'm sick of hearing that we aren't moral enough for this group or that. Let's talk about equality.

[katsy]

9. whoa! wait one minute!

homeless...

improving education...

health insurance for children...

If some upstart Dem keeps stating that other Dems DON'T continually speak to those issues, maybe they should tune in to cspan or pick up a fucking newspaper once in a while.

If some upstart Dem keeps stating that other Dems DON'T continually speak to those issues, maybe voters who don't pay close enough attention will begin to believe this bullshit.

Congrats on your win Mayor Villaraigosa. Talk about how the gop DOESN'T have a heart (which CAN be proven) OR sit down and shut the fuck up.

[jaysunb]

10. Already running for higher office....

Tony, Tony, Tony . sigh......

[Cleita]

12. He's right about Latinos being family oriented. It's very

important to them, true. Better to call it focus on the family rather than the "family values" mantra of the Republicans. Their "family values" have nothing to do with Latino's feeling of the importance of the family.

All Democrats have to do is convince Latinos that they will focus on programs that help families to grow and flourish, like health care, better education, safety and security and accessible child care for working mothers. These are the things they will understand.

[katsy]

13. Focus on the Family is a RW undie group.

Let them pay for their own advertising.

Secondly... Dems always speak to family values. IF people bothered to listen, they would know that and elected officials in our own party would stop trying to grandstand wby slamming their own.

That's why they call us bleeding heart liberals.

[Cleita]

14. I don't know what we will call it.

I thought I said we should focus on the family, not that we should call it that. The problem with family values is that we don't know whose values are being promoted until we look at the RW agenda. Then we realize it's to return to the fifties, where the family revolved around the "heart of the home" (a phrase I learned in Home Ec class), the Mother.

Now, in the fifties, the Mother, was a virgin when she married, only went to college so she could talk to her husband's business associates, only when spoken to of course. The Mother threw away any ambitions she had to sublimate her efforts to her husband, his career, his family. I could go on and on but this post would go forever.

My point is that we have to appeal to Latino families with concrete points about what we Democrats will do to help their families that the Repubs only promise to do but don't. We need to call it something different.

[katsy]

15. You know what?

I must be living in an alternative universe.

Seriously... I get the Democratic message and understand it very well.

Think back. Which party speaks to affordable health care, education, outsourcing, fiscal responsibility and curbing corporate welfare? The Democrats. If you look at the polls, most Americans trust the Dems on domestic issues.

So what more do you expect? Name one concrete point the gop offers any American that's family friendly.

[Cleita]

16. A promise, a buzzword, and the dirty Clinton, (adulterer, bad,

bad boy.) People whose English is a second language don't get the subtleties.

[katsy]

18. I am a naturalized immigrant from immigrant parents...

who speak little English after 30 odd years.

The subtleties are experienced whatever the language you speak. You get bombarded by it whether it's job hunting, your kid's education, gas prices, the price of milk.

People can either choose to peek into the picadilos of a President OR look into the eyes of their children and decide who will do better by them.

There's a lot of ignorant machismo in this country and they voted for bush. That's their problem. It's their failing.

I'm sick of hearing democrats publicly criticizing their own party about Democratic core issues... policies that support every working family, every child, and no matter what ETHICAL and MORAL guage applies, THE DEMS beat the gop hands down.

The party doesn't deserve to get bitch slapped about values or moral issues by some punk thinking he's going to gain points by demeaning his own party. Why can't he just lay out his agenda and become a role model for Democrats.

[Cleita]

19. We went through this, not as bad, but pretty bad

with Reagan/Bush and for the life of me I don't understand why the Bush cabal is back in power. As Latino comedian Paul Rodriquez said, "Does everyone have amnesia?" These were my sentiments exactly too.

But apparently there were newly minted immigrant American citizens and Generation Y who didn't remember those years and who were willing to accept everything they said at face value. We can't just discount them by saying they deserve it. Hell, I don't deserve it and neither do you.

So we really have to talk to them about what is important to them. However, I still don't think turning into Republicans, even if only our language, is the answer. I have a real broom up my ass about "family values".

[Johonny]

17. We do

I think Dems do do that. But lets face it Americans love a good juicy sex scandle. We seem to be far more interested in who's gay than feeding the hungry, education and homeless. Until the American people ignore the scandle and the idiots with "former embryo" (the word former amuses me since if implies there is indeed some difference) stickers on, the Dems are really talking to an empty audience.