Mexican Americans

Ted Cruz Repudiates His Canadian Citizenship In Ambition To Be President!

Ronald 7 Comments

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the bull in the China shop in the Republican Party, who has grand ambitions to be President of the United States, has taken quick action to trash his Canadian heritage, having been born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 1970.

While technically a citizen of both Canada and the US, due to his mother’s American citizenship, Cruz has now declared that he has no interest in remaining a dual citizen, because he knows that could cause him grief as he seeks to take over the Republican Party. He has already made enemies in the GOP establishment with his vicious attacks on other Republican Senators, as well as the opposition Democrats, the news media, and higher education, including his Harvard Law School background, calling the faculty there a bunch of Marxists, reminding us of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he, ironically, greatly resembles in appearance, demeanor, and behavior!

Cruz represents the calling card of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and other malcontents,who wants to take the Republican Party to the extreme far Right, and will take no prisoners!

It is clear by his action on his Canadian citizenship that Cruz is running for President without announcing it this early, and that he will do anything and everything to destroy any GOP opponent, and at this point, his key rival seems to be Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the son of former Congressman Ron Paul, who inherits the allegiance of many young people who see the father as a god like figure with his libertarian beliefs.

Both Paul and Cruz have the allegiance of the Tea Party Movement, but Cruz cannot be called a libertarian, and the holy war that will ensue between the two will, at this point, likely favor Cruz over Paul.

So at this point, it seems a good bet to believe that Cruz will overcome Paul and also, his fellow Cuban, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and that he will be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016, at age 45.

His candidacy will draw a lot of attention and controversy, and Cruz will not care how many enemies he makes on his road to being the opponent of Hillary Clinton, his most likely opponent, or any other Democrat who might emerge, including Joe Biden.

And when one looks at the Electoral College math, it is clear that Ted Cruz is likely to be the GOP Presidential nominee, but his chances of becoming our 45th President are next to zero, and that Clinton, Biden, or whoever the Democratic nominee in 2016 is, will win a landslide victory, greater in electoral votes than Barack Obama in 2012!

And part of that great Democratic victory in 2016 will likely include Texas, as the state is moving toward “Blue” status, and it is ironic that Cruz, easily elected in Texas in 2012, will help create the Democratic majority by his personality, confrontational attitude, and refusal to understand that if one insults Mexican Americans, woman, African Americans, labor supporters, environmentalists, and gays, there is no way that his party can ever win back the White House!

So after a smashing defeat, Cruz will be history as a loser, and the GOP will finally, if it has any common sense, return to the moderate mainstream center, or else it will finally be in the dustbins of history after 2016!

The Coming Battle For The GOP Presidential Nomination: Marco Rubio Vs. Ted Cruz, With Rand Paul As Wild Card!

Ronald 86 Comments

It is becoming increasingly clear that the battle for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2016 is going to be between Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky being a “wild card”!

The possibility of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, or Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be the nominee seems very distant.

So it will be two Hispanic (Cuban) Senators battling one another, one trying to work with Democrats on an immigration reform bill, and the other on the warpath against all Democrats, as well as Rubio himself, unwilling to make any deals or promote any cooperation with the “enemy” And hoping to benefit from the battle between Rubio and Cruz is Rand Paul, who with his libertarian bent, will have a major problem attracting many conservatives, including the neoconservatives and the Establishment Republicans of Wall Street.

In the end, it will not matter, as no Republican can overcome the Electoral College advantage of the Democrats, as outlined yesterday in a blog entry.

And the concept that Cuban American Senators, who represent three and a half percent of Hispanics and Latinos, will be able to convince large numbers of Mexican Americans, who are 65 percent of all those with Spanish heritage, to vote Republican, is laughable.

So it will be an interesting sideshow, the battle among Rubio, Cruz and Paul, but at the end, we are likely to have Hillary Clinton as our next President!

Jeb Bush’s Changed Immigration Plans: Undermining Potential Presidential Candidacy In 2016!

Ronald 8 Comments

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, thought to be a likely Presidential contender for 2016, just published a book in which he declared his opposition to promotion of a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants, the vast majority being Mexican, as his wife is.

But now, 24 hours later, on MSNBC’s MORNING JOE, he backed off on this, taking a stand similar to Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. In do doing, he has totally confused people, flip flopping more often than even Mitt Romney!

It comes down to this—the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are Mexican heritage, as are the numbers of legal Mexican Americans in the nation. Nothing that Bush, Rubio, McCain or Graham say or do is going to convince the legal citizens to vote Republican in 2016. With 71 percent support among all Hispanics and Latinos, as well as 73 percent support among Asian Americans, the Democratic Party is insured of defeating any Republican nominee for President in 2016, even if Bush or Rubio is the nominee.

And if the GOP continues to follow the Tea Party and oppose any reform on immigration, the defeat for any candidate will be a landslide of majestic proportions!

The Coming Battle For The Hispanic Republican Leadership: Marco Rubio Of Florida Vs. Ted Cruz Of Texas

Ronald 2 Comments

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is gaining the spotlight next Tuesday evening, when he is commissioned by Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to deliver the Republican Party response to the State of the Union Address of President Barack Obama.

Rubio is young, good looking, charming, charismatic, and represents the Sunshine State, which sometime late in this decade will surpass New York in population and become the third largest state. In addition, it is a “swing state”, arguably the most important if the Republicans are ever to recover from their last two defeats for President, and losing the popular vote in five of the past six elections. And Rubio is clearly planning to run for President. So his response to the State of the Union Address will be crucial to his campaign to build up his image.

But as he becomes seen as the “savior” of the Republican Party, as Time Magazine terms it, he will have another Hispanic Senator, like Rubio a Cuban American, as a rival, who comes from a state much larger in population and in land area, and that is newly minted Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, second in land area to Alaska and second in population to California, and four and a half times the land area of Florida.

Cruz, just 17 months older than Rubio, clearly has his own Presidential plans in the future, and he is much more willing to be openly aggressive in his rhetoric and behavior than Rubio, who tends to be more gentlemanly by nature. Cruz is like a bull in a China shop, and does not care what anyone thinks, because he is an open Tea Party activist, while Rubio is only loosely connected to that right wing movement.

Rubio is diplomatic compared to Cruz, who is less than tactful in just a short time in the Senate, going on the offensive, not being a quiet freshman in the Senate. Cruz was born in Canada, but claims he can run for President, an issue which would have to be investigated further for its validity, particularly when Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, but has had his native citizenship questioned because his father was Kenyan. Cruz is an “in your face” type, and his arrogance is likely to cause him to have fewer friends in the Senate than Rubio.

So Cruz cannot help but wish that Rubio “falls on his face”, as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal did in delivering the response to the State of the Union Address in 2009.

The irony though is that both Rubio and Cruz represent only three percent of Hispanics, and their conservative ideology is highly unlikely to draw Mexican American support (almost two thirds of all Hispanics in America) or Puerto Rican support ( the second highest percentage among Hispanics with a little over 9 percent), something that they seem not to understand.

So it really does not matter what happens with Rubio and Cruz and their Presidential ambitions, as it is clear that the vast majority of Hispanics will continue to vote Democratic over the long haul. A sign of this is that even the Cuban American population, traditionally Republican because of Fidel Castro, is starting to move in the direction of the Democratic Party, at least among the younger generation which has no memory or experience in fleeing Communist Cuba under Castro control for the past 54 plus years!

Medicaid Expansion Under ObamaCare Only Agreed To By Two Republican Hispanic Governors: Interesting Development!

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Republican Governors are refusing to take up the offer of Medicaid expansion for their states under ObamaCare, despite the fact that the Obama Administration has arranged for total funding for the Medicaid expansion for those states for three full years, and 90 percent coverage of costs after that.

This is a means to insure that poor people will have medical care, and one would think that any Governor would wish to cover his or her poorer constituents, as a way to show concern about the welfare and health of the less fortunate in the states.

But NO, no way, is the reaction of all the Republican Governors who were elected in 2010, as part of the Tea Party Movement wave, with the major exception of the Governors of New Mexico (Susana Martinez) and Nevada (Brian Sandoval), both Hispanic governors of Mexican American ethnicity.

So Rick Scott of Florida, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Paul LePage of Maine and other GOP Governors are refusing to participate, but the fact that the two Hispanic Republican Governors are doing so makes them stand out as cooperating, while the two Hispanic (Cuban American) Senators who are Republicans, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, are totally against involvement in ObamaCare!

Is this due to politics, that Martinez and Sandoval are trying to distinguish themselves from Cruz and Rubio for future Republican Hispanic battles for national office–that is, for the Presidency?

Who can say, but it is certainly very curious, to say the least, that this situation has arisen. But kudos to Martinez and Sandoval for doing the right thing for their poorer citizens! And the fact that they are Governors, not Senators, could be a plus for them in the future in Republican politics!

The Coming Battle For The Hispanic Vote Of Two Ambitious Republican Senators—Marco Rubio And Ted Cruz

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One of the most interesting political battles over the next few years will be that between two Cuban American Republican Senators from major populated states, both of whom have Presidential ambitions, both of whom are young, both of whom are aggressive in trying to swing Hispanic voters toward the Republican Party and their own plans for national office.

These two Senators are Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, and neither will allow the other to gain any advantage unchallenged.

Rubio and Cruz are right wing conservatives, both of whom appeal to Tea Party activists, although Rubio tries to separate himself, to some extent, from some of that right wing group’s rhetoric at times.

Cruz has no such problem, and is, if anything, more “in your face” in his tactics than Rubio, even though he has been a Senator for exactly six days so far! His cockiness and arrogance were evident even before he was elected, and he will give no slack to anyone who does not share his extremist views on almost any issue!

We will witness constant one upsmanship by both Senators, who will be rivals for a long time, both being in their very early 40s, and both perceiving themselves in the White House in the future.

The question will be can they gain the support of fellow Hispanics and Latinos, when they, as Cubans, represent THREE percent of all Hispanics and Latinos, with a full 65 percent being Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans being the second largest percentage of Spanish speaking Americans. The likelihood of massive numbers of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans becoming loyal to the Republican Party because of Rubio or Cruz seems highly unlikely.

Joe Biden And Marco Rubio Starting Early On Presidential Quest For 2016

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While Hillary Clinton is avoiding the subject of the Presidency due to her active involvement in policy making continuing for now, with no date set to leave as Secretary of State, her good friend and ultimate rival for the nomination of the Democratic Party, if she seeks the Presidency, Vice President Joe Biden, is leaving no stone unturned in his quest for the Presidency.

Joe Biden has always been a sincere, committed man in public life, so the fact that he visited New Jersey this weekend as a followup to the Hurricane Sandy disaster, as did Barack Obama before leaving on his Asian trip, is not all that unusual. But he did make reference to the fact that he had visited the New Jersey shores when growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and that he was committed to follow through on all necessary aid for restoration and rehabilitation of the coastline of the Northeast that was damaged by the super storm.

Also, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, already on the short list of many for the GOP nomination in 2016, having come off criticism of Mitt Romney for his “gifts” statement as the reason Barack Obama defeated him, had made plans to visit Iowa, the site of the first vote in 2016, the caucuses at the beginning of January, 2016, His visit on this past Saturday night, supposedly to celebrate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s birthday, was obviously a first step toward a candidacy for the White House. He emphasized the importance of immigration reform, and his Hispanic ancestry as a Cuban American is hoped to be a winning point for other Hispanics and Latinos, mostly Mexican Americans, to take a good look at the Republican Party for the next Presidential election.

So there is no respite from politics, as the unofficial campaign for 2016 has begun!

Correction On Previous Cruz-Castro Article Makes The Political Future Even More Fascinating!

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Early this morning, I wrote a post about Ted Cruz and Julian Castro, both Texas politicians, being front page in the news.

My mistake was in characterizing Ted Cruz as Mexican American, when he is, indeed, a Cuban American.

The fact that Cruz is Cuban makes a future rivalry between him and Marco Rubio very likely in the Republican Party’s future.

It also makes a potential rivalry for leadership in Texas between Cruz and Julian Castro, a Mexican American Democrat, even more fascinating, with the reality that Mexican Americans massively outnumber Cuban Americans in the Lone Star State.

So the political future is even more fascinating regarding these three Latino-Hispanic politicians, than even realized early this morning!

A Future Presidential Race? Texans Ted Cruz (R) Vs. Julian Castro (D)?

Ronald 9 Comments

With news on Tuesday evening that former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz has won the Republican nomination for the US Senate with the backing of the Tea Party Movement; and also the news that Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio has been selected to give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in the first week of September, suddenly we must pay attention to the Lone Star State, as we may be witnessing a potential future race of these two Texans, both Latinos, who could not be more different, competing for the Presidency of the United States in 2020 or after!

Cruz is almost guaranteed to win the Senate seat to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison, even though Texas Governor Rick Perry supported his opponent, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst. He would become one of the Tea Party activists in the US Senate, joining Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Marco Rubio of Florida, and would become a rival of Rubio to be the first Hispanic Republican to seek the Presidency, but with the difference being that Rubio is Cuban, and Cruz is Mexican. Do not forget that Mexican Americans are nearly two thirds of all Hispanics in America, while Cubans are only about three percent of the Hispanic population! Of course, the majority of Mexican Americans tend to vote Democratic, but in theory, Cruz might be able, long term, to change that reality. Being only 41, the same age as Rubio, who is about five months younger, a definite rivalry for Hispanic Republican support can be seen as in the making!

But at the same time, with the announcement that San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, also Mexican American, and only 37 and very photogenic, will be delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, is an event to pay attention to, as many see him as the Mexican American version of Barack Obama in the Democratic Party, with a possible future in the party beyond the mayoralty of the seventh largest city in America, including a possible run in the future for the Presidency!

To imagine a theoretical race between Cruz and Castro in the future may be an illusion, but who can say that it will not happen?

With Cruz being 41 and Castro 37, we may be hearing about both in American politics for the next few decades!

The Cinco De Mayo Holiday, And Recognition Of Role Of Mexican Americans In American Politics

Ronald 1 Comment

Today is the 150th anniversary of a Mexican uprising against a French army taking over Mexico during the rule of Emperor Napoleon III in France. Although the Mexican people did not overthrow French influence and control until five years later, this is seen as a celebratory Mexican national holiday.

This celebration of Mexico’s history should remind us that Mexican Americans are part of the largest minority group in America, with over ten percent of the nation being from Mexican heritage, and almost two thirds of all Hispanics-Latinos being of Mexican heritage, and all Hispanics and Latinos being 16 percent of the nation, more than the 12.5 percent of the country which is African American.

Mexican Americans who vote have always voted overwhelmingly Democratic, although about 40 percent did vote for George W. Bush when he was Governor of Texas in the 1990s, and in his two terms as President.

The growth in the Mexican population, and the fact that they are very young as a group, makes them prime factors in the future of American politics, as with the growth of Mexican American population, states that have been Republicans and anti immigrant in their politics are starting to move toward a situation where the Republicans will lose those states over time.

With over 60 percent of Mexican Americans already residing in California and Texas, California is already lost to Republicans in the Presidential race, and it is believed that Texas will turn Democratic in the next decade.

The same is likely in Arizona, the ground zero of nativism toward Latinos, and it is already so in Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico,

Additionally, the Hispanic and Latino population is affecting the politics of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, as well as Florida, with much of the transition being because of Mexican Americans.

So while there is a lot of anger about an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants from Mexico, the actual Mexican American population which is legal is growing and coming of age, and will have a dramatic effect on the future of Congress and the Presidency over the coming decade, including having a great influence on the upcoming election in November.