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Election Day Lessons for the Republican Party: Puerto Rico and
the Hispanic Vote
Letter to the Editor
To the New York Times:
The views of Arizona Republican Congressman Matt Salmon ("The Speaker's
Parting Gift", NYT Op-Ed, November 7) suggest an inability to recognize
the full meaning of the GOP's extraordinary mid-term losses. For in describing
the miscalculations of the 105th Congress, Mr. Salmon gratuitously ridicules
as a waste of time House passage of a bill that advanced the agenda of Hispanic
Americans.
The bill Mr. Salmon condescendingly dismisses was to authorize a non-binding
referendum presenting independence, statehood or status quo options to Puerto
Rico. It was strongly supported by a bipartisan coalition of over one hundred
national Hispanic grassroots organizations.
Although sponsored by leading moderate as well as conservative Republicans
and approved overwhelmingly by Republican controlled committees in the House,
when the Puerto Rico bill came to the floor Mr. Salmon and many of his Republican
colleagues voted against it based on a far-right-wing campaign of misinformation
with anti-Hispanic overtones.
As a result, the House Democrats had to rescue the bill from defeat,
and the GOP was robbed of credit for a bill to deliver on the American promise
of equality and self-determination for 3.8 million U.S. citizens in Puerto
Rico.
Apparently, the Democrats hoped, among other things, to improve their
chances to be competitive in Puerto Rico if it becomes a state. Could it
be that the DNC is more aware than the RNC that both house's of the Puerto
Rico legislature and 68% of the Mayors offices in Puerto Rico are controlled
by Republicans?
GOP polling shows Puerto Rico to be more socially conservative than Arizona.
Even so, Mr. Salmon wants to exclude Puerto Rican born Americans from the
GOP agenda. If Republicans are unable to reach out to diverse communities
where there is strong support for GOP values, Mr. Salmon's fear of a "downward
spiral of House Republicans into the next election" may become a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
In this regard, Mr. Salmon might want to compare what happened on November
3rd in California where the GOP has alienated Hispanics to how Republicans
did in Texas and Florida with strong Hispanic support. He also should take
notice that both Governor Bush of Texas and Governor-elect Bush of Florida
strongly support the GOP platform favoring resolution of the political status
of Puerto Rico based on self-determination, as did Presidents Reagan and
Bush.
No doubt Mr. Salmon is right that Republicans should be lead on fundamental
issues like budget and tax policy. Yet, he apparently sees nothing wrong
with forcing the nation's taxpayers to continue paying the $10 billion annual
federal program and services subsidy for Puerto Rico as an income tax exempt
dependent territory.
Instead, Republicans should support full equal rights and duties for
the 3.8 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, including payment of the same
taxes as the rest of America, or the current federal subsidies should end.
Puerto Rico will never grow out of dependence economically if Congress does
not resolve its political status.
Moreover, it obviously is not good Republican policy to deny millions
of U.S. citizens in an American territory the basic right to a vote making
it possible to move toward either statehood or independence. Similarly,
what could be more Republican than to empower 3.8 million U.S. citizens
to pursue the historical constitutional path to become fully self-governing
through one of those two options?
For the record, under current Congressional policy there are 3.8 million
U.S. citizen by birth in Puerto Rico. Over 200,000 have served in the armed
forces of the United States since WW I. As Puerto Rico's status is a national
policy issue requiring the immediate attention by Congress, one would hope
the GOP will learn the lessons of November 3rd better than Mr. Salmon's
op-ed article suggests.
If not, we had all best get used to addressing Dick Gephardt as Mr. Speaker.
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