I am sure a lot has been written of how the Sotomayor nomination and the blow back by the GOP has hurt the GOP's standing in the Hispanic/Latino community.
I have a different viewpoint onto the whole scenario than most. My father is Puerto Rican and my mother is very, very anglo(New England, protestant). Recently, we had a 50th anniversary celebration for them and I had the honor to host the family patriarch, an uncle, at my house.
This gentleman was born and raised in Puerto Rico, spent a few years in New York City and has been back in Puerto Rico for the last 50 years. From very modest beginnings he rose from the mail room to the the highest echelons in the banking industry in Puerto Rico. He is friends with US Congressmen, and many people attempted to convince him to pursue politics in the 70's and 80's. He felt he would be more effective out of government than in.
These are the reasons I respect him and his thoughts and opinions.
We sat and watched parts of the first 2 days of the Sotomayor hearings. I asked him if he was of the belief that the things being said by those on the right before the hearings and what was being said at the hearings would hurt the GOP standing with Hispanics. He made it clear that few Hispanics will associate themselves with the GOP in the future.
I mentioned that the GOP is shooting themselves in the foot, because lots of Hispanics should be a natural constituency for the GOP. Hispanics tend to be more culturally conservative than most Americans. Also, Sotomayor is no liberal. She is at best a centrist, but has very strong conservative views on a lot of issues. Here is when he made the point that resonated. The whole thing is about racism. The right and the GOP do not care what her viewpoints are or what her rulings have been, she is Hispanic and therefore unqualified.
Pat Buchanan is just putting into words what the right and the GOP truly feel. Hispanics and Latinos are mad and a also scared. There is concern of the blow back the nomination and all the rhetoric will bring. US Senators have made comments equating Latino service organizations with terrorists. This is fear mongering at its best. This is a dog whistle to the radicals. It is highly likely that the comments from the likes of Beck, Limbaugh and Buchanan will incite violence against minorities.
My uncle was quite disappointed in the comments form the Democratic Senators on the panel. The key problem was no one hit back on the "child of immigrants label". Sonia Sotomayor is not a child of immigrants. My father was born in Puerto Rico, but he is not an immigrant. Puerto Ricans have been US citizens since 1917. My uncle made a very strong point on this. A couple years ago he and my aunt went on a trip to Alaska. He only met a handful of people born in Alaska. The rest were from the lower 48. Are these people immigrants?
For reference Hawaiians were granted citizenship in 1900 and Alaskan natives were granted citizenship in 1924.
He did have one good comment about Democratic Senators. He was very impressed by Al Franken. I guess us progressives have a couple progressive standard bearers now. Another is my senator, Russ Feingold.
The other issue my uncle has concerns about is how this is going to affect the Puerto Rico statehood issue. At no point did he tell me his feelings on the issue, but he did state that no matter what a plebescite in Puerto Rico decides there is no way the US will allow Puerto Rico to become a state. The cost for the people of Puerto Rico to get a Supreme Court Justice may well be statehood. No matter what the people of Puerto Rico want, statehood my be off the table for a generation or more. That is what racism does.
Any hope the GOP had for outreach to the Hispanic community is destroyed. They have vilified all Hispanics, even US citizens. How many Latinos and Hispanics are US citizens. Millions. The majority of them are natural born US citizens, not immigrants. The southwest has millions of US citizens of Hispanic heritage whose families have been US citizens for generations. The families of many have been US citizens far longer than the families of the whites that are attacking them and their people.
Puerto Rico has 4 million US citizens. They are not immigrants they are US citizens.