Politico Watch

String of Gaffes Actually a ‘Southwestern Strategy?’

By Matt Singer, 6-21-05

When Congressman Bob Beauprez, R-Colorado, used the term "Mexican time" to discuss the response of Mexico's government to an extradition request, many political observers thought the candidate for Governor had mucked up in his choice of language. While other politicians criticized Beauprez, local pundit Colorado Luis saw something else: what might be a concerted strategy.

For Luis, the remark rang too similar to Pete Wilson's repeated "gaffes" in his 1994 election for Governor in California, in which he relied heavily upon the white vote and came across as anti-immigrant and, to some, racist. Pat Buchanan held that model up as the road to success for Republicans. And, as Luis notes, Colorado is particularly ripe for such an election. Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo is already one of the most prominent anti-immigrant representatives in the nation.

Luis's theory is gaining steam with Colorado Pols and Western Democrat chiming in.

Forty years ago, the Republican Party adopted the now infamous southern strategy, a concerted effort to take advantage of southern racism to build a majority in the South. Today, we may be seeing the emergence of a new Southwestern strategy. Governor Schwarzenegger in California voiced his support for the Minuteman Project, a vigilante organization dedicated to organizing citizen border patrols, all the while (no surprise) engaging in divisive racial rhetoric. The endorsement is surprising, in part, because Schwarzenegger is an immigrant himself.

But with moves being taken to establish dominance again among the white working class, the Republicans are embracing the populism of Pat Buchanan -- a populism that has its roots not in a distrust of corporations, but in the politics of racial and economic division.

Ruy Texeira and John Judis argued in The Emerging Democratic Majority (as did Paul Starr in an essay of the same name that appeared in The American Prospect) that the growth of America's Hispanic population, among other demographic changes, are poised to create a standing Democratic majority within the nation. Part of that hypothesis rests on the notion of being able to win the Hispanic vote by large margins.

In recent years, President Bush has pursued a Southwestern strategy of active outreach to Latinos. Governors are starting to undermine that, using their coded language to win the white, working class, the so-called forgotten majority of America. The only questions left are whether the gaffe was intentional and whether the play will work. The Republican Party is currently walking a difficult line in the checkered landscape of America's racial polity. The smart money says they misstep.

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