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John McCain Thinks Republicans Should Own the Hispanic Vote
While discussing immigration reform on ABC’s This Week, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said, “We are losing dramatically the Hispanic vote, which we think should be ours, for a variety of reasons.”
Immigration reform is allegedly on the docket this week. Sen. Richard Durbin (D- Ill), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) are working on it. Republicans Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ) and Marco Rubio (R-FLA) joined them in the effort. So far so good. Durbin said that the bill will include the DREAM Act.
McCain, who in 2010 said he wanted “certainly no amnesty” in immigration reform, said on ABC’s This Week that he thinks immigration reform has a chance this time because Republicans will be willing to pass it.
Transcript from ABC’s This Week:
RADDATZ: You’re announcing this week?
MCCAIN: Yeah, we’ll be — Senator Menendez and I and Senator Schumer, Senator Graham, Senator Durbin, and some — we are — we’ve been working together for some weeks now. We’ll be coming forward. It’s not that much different from what we tried to do in 2007. Martha, what’s changed is — honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle — including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle — that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
McCain then bizarrely revealed that Republicans should own the Hispanic vote:
MCCAIN: Well, look, I’ll give you a little straight talk. Look at the last election. Look at the last election. We are losing dramatically the Hispanic vote, which we think should be ours, for a variety of reasons, and we’ve got to understand that.
See, it’s moments like this when immigration reform seems further away rather than nearer. Republicans must stop talking about Hispanics, African Americans and women as if they are something that can be owned. The proper way to say what the Senator meant is to say that Republicans think there are many issues on which their party is in agreement with the top concerns of Hispanics.
But John McCain can’t say that, because it’s not true. See, Hispanics care about more things than just immigration reform. Really.
The Obama campaign figured this out and addressed Hispanics’ concerns about the economy, access to healthcare and education, just as if they were normal Americans. Go figure.
Meanwhile, it’s obvious that state Republicans didn’t get the message. An Arizona Republican introduced a bill that would require hospitals to confirm legal immigration status before helping people. Those who can’t prove their status would be reported.
Rep. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, would require hospitals to “reasonably confirm” that those who show up at their doors are in the country legally if they do not produce proof of valid health insurance. HB2293 lists methods that hospital officials and employees can use to make that determination.
But the measure also says if legal status cannot be verified, someone from the hospital “must immediately contact the local federal immigration office or a local law enforcement agency to report the incident.”
Hospital associates point out that they are not equipped to do this, and they wonder where this ends. Well, it appears to have no end. The same Republican also introduced a bill to force the state Department of Education to “collect data” on how many children they suspect of being here illegally. This is not taking Republicans down the path of getting that Hispanic vote that McCain thinks they should have.
It wasn’t so long ago that Republicans were planning on stealing “their” Hispanics back by running a Latino in 2016 and coming up with an immigration reform policy that wasn’t quite as insulting as Papers Please and self-deportation. Now they’re at least working on immigration reform (albeit in the Senate, which is not where their worst problems reside).
But Republicans don’t appear able to rein in the crazy. It’s hard to see how they are going to get “the Hispanic vote, which we think should be ours” when they’re pushing bills that would force people to choose between seeking medical care and being deported.
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23 Responses to John McCain Thinks Republicans Should Own the Hispanic Vote
Reynardine
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 8:15 am
I wonder how many people will die because of that hospital bill.
Mike
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 8:47 am
They couldnt care less. To republicans, theyre not even people. In fact, as a non rich, semi white italian descendant, im probably not a human being to them either.
Lynn
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 9:44 am
It’s time for sen mccain to go back to AZ with his home-wrecking second wife and retire. He stopped being relevant when Dubya left office.
Deborah Stuart
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 11:34 am
You are right about that. He wasn’t relevant then either! There definitely needs to be term limits of no more than 20 years in Government. It should also be based on how many bills you supported and got through with your colleagues on a bipartisan level. Should not get paid after you leave office! He and the tea-partiers should be forced out even before the 2014 elections. He has pulled this country down due to his racist attitudes, not because he was a Vet, there are a lot of vets that he destroyed because he denied them their rights after the war(s)that were unjust and totally unnecessary to fight! Hopefully, we will get the gun bans we need so we can stop the massacres, the immigration reforms so we can get talented individuals to America to earn a decent living for their families in a legal manner!
AKinPA
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 8:51 am
While corporations are people, real people like Hispanics are just votes that should be owned by the GOP. Yep. The majority of Hispanics voted democratic in 08 and 12, so I guess they feel 2016 is their “turn.” That just reeks of compassion, doesn’t it? They so lack any sense of humanity, they don’t even know how to fake a little compassion or empathy.
The GOP talked about sticking to their “principles,” but changing their message. I guess that will include providing all GOP members of Congress with a tanning bed. After all, that added color helped Romney so well in his interview on Univision during the campaign.
When are they going to realize that we in the 47% are not as stupid or ignorant as their base?
Peter Barnett
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 9:20 am
MARCO RUBIO! 2016!
Sally
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 9:35 am
Rubio for what in 2016? The token ‘hispanic?’ He isn’t even that, he’s Cuban. My son lives in Texas, and I picked my granddaughter up from school one day. Walking in front of us was a lovely young woman. Her tee shirt explained the difference between Latinos (Latin America), Hispanics and Cubans. The GOP hasn’t a clue. They think becuase Rubio can lie with the best of them and LOOKS Hispanic, that those ignorant brownbacks will just go rushing to the voting booth. Especially when the GOP SAYS they support the Dream Act. Funny, but in IL they are now allowing ‘illegals’ to get a drivers’ license, and you should read the comments on HP…not in support as these drivers will now have insurance and be tested, but ..’a new dem scam to screw up voting. Why do these ‘people’ get something for nothing? Will they have to pay their traffic tickets?’ Bunch of selfish fools in the GOP. It is really sad.
Mary Foster
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 1:22 pm
In the same way, they thought Sarah Palin would counter Hillary Clinton and Michael Steele cause people to desert President Obama. They cannot see the differences because they pay them no attention as individuals.
Reynardine
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Cubans are indeed Hispanics, as they trace ancestry, language culture, history, or some combination thereof to the Spanish Crown. Brazilians are Latin Americans/Latinos, but not Hispanics. A Galician whose first tongue is Gallego is a Hispanic, but not a Latin American; his linguistic and blood cousin from across the Portuguese border is neither. Those who have a number of generations residency in the Iberian Peninsula are Iberians, though their ancestors are Moors, Basques, Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, Vandals, Catalan, or (most often) a mixture thereof, whether or not they fit in any other category. In all events, Cubans are both Hispanic and Latin American, regardless of anything else. Marco Rubio is simply a jerk.
Shiva(Moderator)
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Brazilians have a great deal of African blood in them today. While America imported around 500,000 slaves, Brazil took over 3 million as slaves
Bill
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 10:25 am
For what and why?
8^/
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 11:33 am
YES, marco rubio 2016, so most of the GOP, wont vote!
Sally
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 9:37 am
I saw that interview. After the made that “the Hispanic vote should be ours for a number of reasons,” he smirked. And since when does the GOP think the Dream Act is viable? All they did last year was fight it. I guess this is the RNC PR BS plan to ‘smile while you denigrate people.’ I’m not buying it, Senator. Time for you to retire.
Jim Hubbard
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 9:57 am
The Republican Party is still in the denial stage following last November’s election, where their ideas and candidates were soundly defeated. Some of them understand that there aren’t enough angry, privileged white people in their party to sustain it, so their “new” embrace of Hispanics looks like a cynical stopgap to remain relevant. There is not a genuine desire, particularly with Captain Lipton driving the ship, to change their platform to one of inclusion.
Dinorah Salazar
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 11:08 am
Regardless where we come from, WE hispancs are all considered LATINOS. The GOP will never own us because they are too bigoted and hateful. Their kind of people are white and racists.
The GOP might be “interested” in the hispanic vote because of the change in demographics. We decided the vote. We made the difference. We will keep doing so as long as the democrats appreciate the fact the WE have rights. WE are NOT second class citizens.
Zen Bonobo
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 11:50 am
“John McCain thinks . . . ”
The moon is made of green cheese.
gsb
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 11:50 am
When I first saw that picture of Mccain, all I thought of was the evil Grinch. Remember the Grinch that stole Christmas? Paint him green and walla Grinch stands before us.
JJM
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Conservatives think in stereotypes. They feel sure that if they put a check mark against a few selected characteristics they ascribe to entire groups of people they should be ‘in’.
But, really! They are as dumb as posts because they are blinded by their stereotyped thinking. I recall one of them telling me that no Hispanic would ever elect a woman to office–before Loretta Sanchez won in So. Cal.
Their stereotypes are stale.
j
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Was Rubio the original ‘anchor baby’ that the republicans whine about, and did he not write a book about his parents and lie about why and when they came here?
Deanne
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 6:50 pm
When you have Bachmann file the first bill of the new session to destroy Obamacare; When you have the Red run states like Ohio push their first bill through on making abortion illegal with no exceptions; When you have Rethugs, including ex ones like DeMint who appeared on yesterday’s Meet the Press stating that they should continue to push through the ‘Personhood’ bills because that’s when the people want.
Earth to Rethugs! You’re messages do not compute!!
Brian Loudermilch
Jan. 30th, 2013 at 8:43 pm
While Nasty, Old, White Guy John McLame
is busy Flapping his wrinkled Lips,
Hispanics are looking at all of his Racist,
“Self-Deportation” political ads on
You-Tube.
Teh Stupid of the Repugnicant Party
NEVER Ends.
Anne
Jan. 30th, 2013 at 10:24 pm
The Republicans often appear to be assuming that only Latinos are concerned about immigration. The hard-line stance of the GOP in recent times about immigration reform is just one reason that they have been soundly rejected by Latino voters. While they have certain concerns of their own, they are by no means one-issue voters any more than African-American voters are. The anti-immigrant stance in recent times is only one of the GOP’s problems. A significant number of African-Americans and Latinos are women, unionized workers, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, children, and military personnel–just like any other racial groups. It’s not just one policy that has sunk the GOP, but their entire ideology.
Sixto Gallardo
Feb. 1st, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Pubs are just plain estupidos y prendejos de la madre y padre…hijos de la puta republicanos…¡C/S repubs!