LatinaLista — Much has been written about the problem Republicans/conservatives are having with Latino voters. Yet, there seems to be another story that is being overlooked entirely — the problem conservatives are having with Latinos who are supposed to share their same agenda.
The nation got a glimpse of this in May when the Republican Natonal Committee’s director of Hispanic outreach, Bettina Inclán, was put on the spot when trying to explain to reporters the Republicans’ message to Hispanics on immigration. She ended up awkwardly saying that Romney was still deciding his position. Wrong answer.
It wasn’t long before she took to Twitter to say she “misspoke.” This time around she, nor the RNC, are taking any chances. When asked to comment on the President’s recent decision to defer deportation on undocumented youth, she declined.
But it’s not only politics where these two sides are conflicting; it’s happening in the media too.
The most famous example is between Latino Fox News and Fox Nation websites. In analyzing how each covered the Supreme Court’s decision on SB1070, Media Matters, a progressive research site that monitors conservative misinformation in US media, found that that the two sister sites had headlines akin to feuding cousins.
As expected, Fox Nation headlined their story “U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Part of Tough Arizona Immigration Law, in Defeat for Obama.” Fox News Latino headlined their story as “Supreme Court Strikes Down 3 of 4 Provisions of Arizona Immigration Law.”
Fox News Latino’s headline is not as sensational and not as misleading to deliver the kind of euphoria to Tea Partiers, border vigilantes and conservatives that Fox Nation seemed to be striving for by combining “defeat” and “Obama” in the same sentence.
Yet, this isn’t the only difference between these two sister sites. The way the two discuss immigrants is also a bone of contention. One uses the term “illegal immigrants” and the other “undocumented immigrants.” I don’t have to tell you who uses which term.
These differences clearly show that the Latinos who find themselves working for conservatives don’t necessarily tow the party line of their employers, and as time goes on that may become a problem for these Latinos who may believe in the job but not the message.
The real challenge for conservatives isn’t just with Latino voters but being respectful to the Latinos who are already on their side.
