08/27/2012
Fox Latino ran an article entitled Ron Paul Camp Assails Romney and GOP for Alienating Latinos (Bryan Llenas, August 27th, 2012) which talks about the Ron Paul campaign’s Hispanic Outreach, focusing on Fernando Cortes, Ron Paul’s chief Hispanic. Here’s part of the article:
Less than 12 miles away from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Texas Rep. Ron Paul gave an impassioned farewell speech to about 8,000 raucous supporters at a farewell rally Sunday night where he declared the so-called Ron Paul Revolution was not over. "It made the paper in Washington that the revolution wasn’t happening," Paul said as fans chanted "President Paul!" at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome on Sunday with a rock star fervor. "Don’t they only wish."
For rally organizers the real message was simple: the Republican Party needs new ideas — and the droves of young voters and libertarian supporters can help guide the party to its "true conservative" principles and to attracting Latinos.
The problem is, I don’t really see the evidence that most Latinos are attracted to "true conservative" principles.
They depicted the assertion by the Romney campaign that it is reaching out to Hispanics as a cynical one that turns a blind eye to how the party is treating the increasingly important voting bloc.
"What Hispanic outreach?" quipped Fernando Cortes about the Romney campaign.
Cortes, the deputy controller and director of the Ron Paul campaign’s Hispanic Outreach Initiative, said that the campaign of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and the Republican Party’s rhetoric — particularly on immigration — was alienating Latinos.
"In terms of Hispanic outreach, it’s really hard to do when your tone is anti-Hispanic."
So how is the Republican party’s tone "anti-Hispanic"? It does make pro-enforcement noises occasionally, but not too convincingly. And that’s "anti-Hispanic"?
Political experts say that Latino voters can make the difference in crucial battleground states like Florida, Nevada, and Colorado.
"We want to set the tone for the rest of the convention that we are here to stay and build the party," said Cortes, 28, who expressed confidence that the movement will continue in the absence of their retiring leader.
Cortes particularly thinks the Republican Party could win more Latino support with Paul’s message of small business entrepreneurship and liberty that transcend the current party rhetoric.
"For the first time in several decades the Republican Party is now talking about gold, the Republican Party is now talking about freedom of information," Cortes told Fox News Latino. "The presumptive nominee is speaking about auditing the fed — we have changed the discourse."
And these are big Latino issues?
In January, the Paul campaign kicked its Latino outreach into high gear in Nevada, where he had hoped to stir up Latino support in one of the recession’s hardest hit states.
Then, as now, Paul’s supporters had spoken about a woefully lacking outreach by the GOP to Latinos.
Cortes told Fox News Latino in January that Paul had been running the strongest Hispanic outreach of all the GOP primary campaigns. He noted the Paul campaign’s Hispanos Por Ron Paul Facebook page as well as Paul’s Hispanic Outreach YouTube channel that included campaign advertisements subtitled in Spanish, and poll data as prime indicators that Paul was enjoying more Latino support than his GOP rivals.
Cortes is playing a "this campaign panders more than yours" card.
The Ron Paul farewell gathering in Florida Sunday night was a celebratory counter convention rally for Paul supporters who are still lukewarm about Romney as well as President Barack Obama.
The six hour "We are the Future" rally was a tribute to Paul, who has run for President unsuccessfully three times. It began at noon, and didn’t reach fever pitch until around 5pm when Paul addressed the crowd after hours of speeches from economists, Sen. Tom Davis of South Carolina, Paul’s son Sen. of Kentucky Rand Paul, and more.
"We'll get into the tent, believe me, because we'll become the tent eventually," Paul said of the established Republican Party that is "failing" the country but that will one day join his followers. "Once they know we are the future they will know about us."
"The answer is not more efficient government," Paul said in his speech, which ran for slightly more than an hour. "It’s getting government out of things they're not supposed to be doing."
I agree with Ron Paul about that, but I just don’t think the evidence indicates that small government is going to be a big draw for most Latino voters.
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