PHOENIX (By
Jon
Garrido, The Jon Garrido News
Network May 15, 2009
For most of my adult life, I was a
Republican. Coming back home to
Superior, Arizona, from the U.S.
Army during the Vietnam war, I wanted
to begin voting and as I weighed if
I would register as a Democrat or a Republican, I
concluded I was a better fit with
the Republicans.
As I looked at the Democrats I saw a
party comprised of individuals that
were staunch supporters of issues I
could not support. As I read the Democratic
platform, it was evident to me, I was
not a good fit with the Democrats so
I registered as a Republican.
I am Catholic and a 5th generation
American Hispanic from Arizona. Not just Catholic
in name but since the time I was a young altar boy
at Saint Francis Catholic Church in
Superior, Arizona,
I wanted to become a priest. I did
study to become a deacon some 15
years ago but I discovered the
church had left me.
I have never supported abortion, gay
marriage or gun control. I grew up
in rural Arizona, where guns were as
plentiful as bicycles. We started with
BB guns but
through the years, hunting for deer
in the hills around Superior became
a way of life.
I may have been the only Hispanic
Republican in Superior, Arizona.
Even then as today
―
I am very independent. At the very
least, I have always thought for
myself and I have never followed the
herd as most people did and still
do.
I can remember numerous
conversations with family members
who could not accept me as a
Republican. Yet on countless family
debates, it was always amusing to me,
they had the same values as I but I
was constantly told Democrats were
for the "people" and Republicans
were for "business" and that
was the extend of their argument.
It wasn't enough as soon as I began
working at Magma Copper Company in
Superior, Arizona, I
joined the AFL-CIO as a underground
copper miner. The Republican tag
carried a stigma.
Moving from a small rural town to
the "big" city of Tucson, I quickly
discover I was not alone. Starting with my first professional job
heading up economic development for
the City of Tucson and then on to El
Paso where I was the director of
economic development, my sphere of
professional acquaintances increased
exponentially. I was invited to join an
informal alliance of American
Hispanic Republicans with membership
across the United States. It
appeared we were everywhere. When
jobs opened up across the United
States, the informal network sought
out Hispanic candidates to fill those jobs.
The American Hispanic network grew with
membership as Republicans.
This process opened up two job
possibilities for me in Washington
with the last job as a deputy
assistant secretary at HUD which
would have made me the FHA commissioner
for the United States. I was invited
to Washington to discuss the job but
I turned down
the job because I had just began
ownership of a manufacturing plant
called a Maquilidora in
Mexico. It never-the-less was great for my ego
to have been offered the
job.
My Hispanic professional
friends were
Republicans with the only Democrats
being family and community members
in the small rural town of Superior,
Arizona where my family roots began.
We all agreed if there were enough of us
in the Republican tent, we could influence the
Republican Party to be more inclusive.
But there is simply to much hate toward
Hispanics so obviously we did not
succeed. The 2000 presidential
election was a turning point for me. I
was asked by Massey Villarreal, the
national chairman of the Republican
National Hispanic Assembly, to head up
the George Bush for President
Campaign in Arizona. I still have the saved email.
My Bush involvement began with the
father.
The Bush father, when he was vice
president, invited me to a private
breakfast at the Washington Press Club
where he asked for my support. I
accepted to support his candidacy to
become President of the United States.
But when asked to support the son, I
told all my Hispanic Republican friends at the Republican National
Hispanic Assembly, I could not support
George W. Bush.
I had carefully studied his speeches and
told all I could not buy into his
campaign. I remember many agreed with me but G.W.
Bush was the Republican candidate. The
party leaders had made a decision to
make G.W. Bush their candidate. My
Republican Hispanic friends owned to
many "chits" to the Republican Party so
G.W. Bush became their candidate but
not mine.
In 2000, I endorsed Al Gore for
president. I wrote an editorial
endorsing Gore and published it one of
my websites. It was a wise decision as
it turned out. G.W. Bush will go down in
history as the worst president of the
United States and for Hispanics, the
deplorable use by Bush to build
countless ICE dentition centers to house
12 million undocumented in the Bush
process of deportation revealed the
"real" George Bush. Thank God, the Bush
presidency is gone. He certainly was not
a friend of the Hispanic community even
though he knows 4 words in Spanish.
Since 2000, I floundered as a
Republican and casual observer of
Arizona and Washington politics.
I had grown exhausted with the hope
American Republican Hispanics could turn
the Republican Party away from
anti-Hispanic rhetoric.
It was the 2006 Hispanic marches that
was a watershed year for me at Hispanic
News. I became part of the undocumented movement for
immigration reform. I created the Ax
Kimberly Clark boycott targeting James
Sensenbrenner. I then created
the Ax AOL, Ax Lou Dobbs, and Ax CNN
boycotts.
In addition,
Hispanic News under my mandate served as an extensive
information distribution nucleus
coordinating disseminating march
information across the United
States using a Hispanic News website: No
HR 4437.
Yet, I still was not a good fit with the
liberal Democratic party.
The Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party
In 2006,
I discovered the "Blue Dogs"
caucus of the U.S. House of
Representatives and as I
looked at their positions on key issues,
I concluded there were millions of
Americans like me who could not support
liberal democratic positions so I started the Blue
Dogs of the Democratic Party as a
conservative national organization of
Democrats opposed to
abortion, gay marriage and gun control.
Up went "The
Blue Dogs of the Democratic
Party" website
and to this
day, the website ranks number 2 at Yahoo
of some 113 million websites. Blue Dogs
did achieve rank 1 but now with no on
going election campaigns, Blue Dogs has
dropped to number 2.
The "Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party"
is now growing across the United States
as we gear up for the 2010 congressional
elections.
In the 2008 election,
I wrote
the endorsement for Barack Obama
publishing the endorsement at Blue Dogs
and Hispanic News. I believe
Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party
and Hispanic News played significant roles in the 2008 election
electing Barack Obama for president. The
endorsements were significant but in
addition, I published countless articles
favoring Obama and attacking McCain at
Hispanic News and Blue Dogs.
The
"Blue Dogs" website brought countless emails to
me supporting the need for a different
Democratic Party.
Two years ago I moved from Scottsdale to
Phoenix to begin preparing a plan to
become involved in Phoenix politics. As
soon as I located to Phoenix, I
changed parties. I became a registered Democrat.
But
I am not a liberal Democrat supporting
abortions, gay marriage and gun control
but a conservative Democrat determined to
be an advocate for all Hispanics but with
priority in advocacy for the
undocumented.
Now that I am aligned as a Democrat
with
the party of the "people,"
because of my economic development and
business background, I remain strongly pro-business and see jobs and business
ownership as key for Hispanics to become Americans.
Recently, I have been approached to
return to the Republican Party and
assured the anti-Hispanic rhetoric will
come to an end but I do not believe it
for a second.
Yet, I deplore the Democratic party
promoting gay marriage across the United
States especially in unlikely places
such as Iowa.
A
third national party of Hispanic
Americans
I have given considerable thought to
starting a third national party of
Hispanic Americans opposing abortions,
gay marriage and gun control but the
probable success of this reminds me of
Ross Perot's effort to start a 3rd
party. With all his resources, he did
not succeed in establishing a 3rd party.
Yet, we have something Perot did not have
― 46 million Hispanics and counting.
With more than 46
million people, Nuevo Hispania is the
27th-largest nation on Earth and the
fourth largest in the Western
Hemisphere. Its residents wield $1
trillion of buying power in the
marketplace. Even as the rest of the
economy contracts in the global
recession, Nuevo Hispania remains a
thriving, even booming, market thats
expected to grow by 48 percent in the
next four years.
And its not even a real country.
The imaginary Nuevo Hispania is
actually a substantial segment of the
U.S. population. Hispanics now account
for more than 17 percent of the U.S.
populace as the nations largest
minority group. And while other
demographic sectors are growing only
incrementally, the Hispanic population
is exploding: The Census Bureau projects
30 percent of Americans will be Hispanic
by 2050 and by 2097, 50% of all
Americans will be Hispanic. Other
minorities will account for 46% leaving
4% of the U.S. population as "white."
Certainly not all Hispanics are
conservative as I; never-the-less, a
national Hispanic Party would explode
with membership because having the same
roots, all Hispanics deeply resent the
anti-Hispanic rhetoric used against us.
If you are not a believer, look at the
67% of the Hispanic vote
for Obama to McCain's 31%.
Republican nominee John McCain did not
even come close to the 44% Bush received in 2004.
There are more issues that unite
Hispanics than issues that separate us.
In reality, it comes down to marketing.
How we market the good of Hispanics at
the expense of the other parties will
determine if we remain Democrats or go
off and start our own party.
One thing I do know, the Republicans can
debate rebuilding their party by
embracing its conservative roots or
broaden its appeal to an inclusive tent
until the cows come home,
but the debate is futile.
Without Hispanics,
the Republican Party will come to an end
and nothing
the Republican Party does will bring
back Hispanics.
In 2010 and 2012, Hispanic News will lead the
herd to remind all Hispanics of the hate
rhetoric used against Hispanics in the
2007 immigration reform debate.
It all comes down to marketing and now
with You Tube, Facebook and so forth,
all of the past anti-Hispanic rhetoric
used by Tom Tancredo, Lou Dobbs, John
Cornyn, Jeff Sessions, John McCain, Jon
Kyl, and countess others will be
re-broadcast across the United States to
remind Hispanics about the anti-Hispanic
venom that will drive the last nails in the
coffin ending the Republican Party.
Along with this, the conservative
Republican talk radio broadcasts will
continue spitting venom because they are
too dumb to accept their anti-Hispanic
broadcasts were instrumental in turning
out the 2008 vote for Obama.
This also can be seen with the success
of the 2006 marches that were a result
of James Sensenbrenner moving the U.S.
House of Representatives to declare
felons of all that helped Hispanics.
I for one hope the Republicans use the
same anti-Hispanic rhetoric in 2010 and
2012 to accelerate the death of the
Republican Party.
John McCain and Jon Kyl speak out of
both sides of their mouths
When John McCain decided to run for
president, McCain passed sponsorship of
immigration reform to Jon Kyl and Kyl
became co-sponsor along with Senator
Kennedy.
There was always a hidden agenda for
McCain and Kyl. Being designated
"sponsor" implies one who supports a
legislative bill but Jon Kyl changed the
definition of sponsor to author the
legislation to accomplish Kyl's
legislative intent which was to write a
punitive bill that would be the vehicle
for deporting 12 million undocumented
Hispanics back to Mexico.
Kyl was able to change the intent of
what Senator Kennedy was trying to
accomplish to provide changes to
immigration to provide a pathway to
reasonable requirements providing an
opportunity for undocumented Hispanics
to live and work in the United States
without fear of reprisals and protected
by the U.S. Constitution.
Kyl on the other hand wanted to deport
all undocumented Hispanics for spitting
on the sidewalk or jaywalking.
On
June 5, 2007
,
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said,
"This is one of the most contentious, complex, emotional issues of our time and
no one is going to get 100% of what they want." Kyl
spoke about Arizona Republican constituents who told him they trust him but don't like his bill.
"The situation in the United States, and particularly in my state, is getting
worse every day. You simply cannot afford to ignore the problem. You realize
you're going to have to get in there, fight like heck to get the situation
resolved."
Another euphuism for deport the
undocumented. In Kyl's 2006 Arizona
re-election campaign, Kyl is surrounded
by Arizona's sheriffs stating,
"Arizona sheriffs oppose amnesty."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKo-16-fKI
As for John McCain, on the floor of the
U.S. Senate after voting for
ratification of a judicial appointment,
McCain sneaked out a side door of the
senate chambers to avoid voting on the
next item on the Senate agenda which was
the vote on the Dream Act.
McCain did not support the Dream Act for
fear of alienating Republican voters.
Sneaking out the side door is
characteristic of McCain for McCain only
thinks about McCain and for this reason
and countless other reasons for not
representing the electorate of Arizona
especially Arizona Hispanics,
McCain is not worthy of re-election in
2010 and Kyl is not worthy of
re-election in 2012.
Material from the LA Times, NY Times, AP,
Business Week
and Hispanic News 2007 archive was used in this report.