Hispanics are generally more conservative than liberal

Among the talking points among the talking heads over Obama's immigration policy, I hear alot of talk about how Obama is trying to gain more hispanic support, and how Romney needs to win hispanic votes through liberal policies. This doesn't sound in tune with reality at all because on a personal level, alot of the hispanics I've come across tend to be very conservative both socially and economically. There are also a number of polls that indicate where hispanics stand generally, which is to the rightwing on issues:

65% of first generation hispanics believe abortion should be illegal:
www.reuters.com...

A 2009 poll found that the majority of hispanics opposed gay marriage:
www.politico.com...

Hispanics are split on the immigration issue, Obama will not be gaining much brownie points on his position:

Hispanics are split when asked to assess the effect of illegal immigration on Hispanics living in the United States: 29% say it has had a positive impact, 31% negative and 30% believe it made no difference, according to the study by the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center. That is a sharp decline from a 2007 survey, when 50% of Hispanics said illegal immigrants were having a positive impact

www.usatoday.com...

I guess the core part of my entire point hinges on personal experience, it was never a question as to what ideology hispanics generally stood by, most of them are definately conservative, I hardly encounter any liberal hispanics these days. The question is, why the GOP fails to capitalize on a voting group that clearly fits their targeted demographic.

You bring up a good point. Ideologically, Hispanics appear to be conservative, and for that I have to think that it is due to their Catholic background. But perhaps this is only for the two wedge issues (abortion and gay rights).

However, when it comes to the law not cracking down on relatives who are here illegally, and the freebies a left-leaning society has made possible (welfare, food stamps, WIC, amnesty for illegals, not checking to see if a person is legal to work here in the US, and seemingly free medical care), they are decidedly democratic, or left-wing, in nature.

This is why the republicans cannot tap that vote. They may agree with a republican on a few issues, but when it comes to the free bread and butter, they gotta stick with the democrats.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


Hispanics are generally more SOCIALLY conservative. Thats an important distinction to make. Because I'd wager most hispanics are ECONOMICALLY liberal if not downright socialist.

And these days, in the times we face, who is still voting solely on social issues??

Mexican conservatism is a common expression that is not unwarranted. I tend to think Mexicans and by extension hispanics/latinos to be more libertarian in most ways. They are generally very enterprising people and their governments do not tend to offer a lot of hand-outs. Although they tend to be largely personally conservative in manners and customs they are generally very tolerant toward individualism. Their society tends to be permissive though their home life and family ties tend to be traditionally conservative.

Medical care in Latin American is very reasonably-priced and available to the extent that people do not typically need to avoid medical services because of cost as is customary in the US. When government programs make medical and domestic aids available then those who qualify for those benefits would often be considered foolish or lazy to not take advantage of them in their home countries. That attitude likely is carried over when in the US where medical services are very cost-prohibitive and expensive but cost-assistance is widely available and expected to be used by any who qualify. Taking advantage of these services would be considered conservative; however, offering those services would not.

Regarding immigrations, I wish it were reasonably easy to obtain a visitor visa for my wife so I could vacation with her in the US, but it is not. US immigrations policy is an open back door where undocumented immigrants are welcomed for temporary labor, but less wages and benefits need be paid if the worker has questionable immigrations status. A fake social security number usually means money being paid into the system but none drawn out later. The system is corrupt and crooked in permitting these practices to flourish for economic advantages by employers.

Generally Hispanics are socially conservative. Cubans tend to lean Republican the rest lean more Democratic. It doesn't take much to understand when your the party that goes out of it's way to disenfranchise voters by making it harder for them to vote and blame their families for everything wrong in the border states and push "papers please" legislation, they aren't going to line up with the rank and file Republicans. A party which says "we want your vote but once we have it are going to call you a parasite and blight on our nation" isn't going to gain much traction with them.

This is common sense and not a mystery. Unlike the white people in their social and economic class, they understand the concept of voting in their economic interests so that they have a real opportunity to get ahead. And not against it in the hopes one day God will give them an idea or let them win the lotto so they can be rich white guys too.

Isn't it racist to use the term ``Hispanics``?

That's what my teacher told me.

Originally posted by Rockdisjoint
Isn't it racist to use the term ``Hispanics``?

That's what my teacher told me.

No matter what reference you make to something/someone or what label you apply there is always someone that will take offense or accuse you of offending. To me it's all a matter of how you say it.

Originally posted by Rockdisjoint
Isn't it racist to use the term ``Hispanics``?

That's what my teacher told me.

Dang, you have an idiot for a teacher because everyone should know by now Hispanic is not a race

I once saw an Hispanic panhandling in a street corner, that was about a year ago and that was the first time I had ever seen that.
All, and I do mean ALL, the panhandlers I had seen up until then had been either black or white.
So I would agree with the title here, Hispanics are more conservative because they are not so quick to boldly ask for a handout.