Who is the Latino voter? And what does he want?

In the post-election scramble to find out why a sitting President with Barack Obama's dismal record can re-elected, many are pointing fingers at the emerging latino voter. To be sure, latinos are increasing in numbers and therefore, impact upon local and national elections. But who exactly are these latino voters? First of all, "latino" can mean people with ancestry from countries as far and diverse as Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Honduras. Certainly, they can't all have the same agenda. And what is the makeup of the latino vote? In the United States it's mostly Mexican at 65%. Puerto Ricans are 2nd at 10%. The remainder follow in single digits. Most of the Mexican voters are congregated in the Southwest United States. There weren't enough Mexican-American voters in the states Romney lost that could have turned the election.Yesterday, someone suggested to me that Mitt Romney would have won the election had he chosen American born latino Florida Senator, Marco Rubio as his running mate. On the surface, that sounds plausible. But the reality tells a different story.

First, few elections are turned on the Vice-Presidential pick. This one would have be no different. I mean, honestly if that were the case, who would elect anybody with Joe "gaffe-a-minute" Biden on the ticket? Yet, America did. Twice. Secondly, Marco Rubio is of Cuban decent. That doesn't translate well to American-Mexican voters, even though most whites think any Latino in a storm will do. He probably would have secured Florida but that wasn't nearly enough to change the election results.

Many think immigration reform or lack of, is what dooms Republicans. Wrong again. Remember, Barack Obama's crackdown on illegals had sent more illegal aliens back home than Bush ever did. But that didn't seem to hurt him. Besides, Obama promised immigration reform since before he was elected in 2008 and produced nothing. No reforms at all. In fact, after the election it wasn't even on the administration's radar. Clearly, the latino voters weren't upset enough about that.

Regardless of what Republicans do, they seem to lose the latino vote. In 2004, the GOP garnered 44% of the latino vote. In 2004, it dropped to 31%. This year, it fell to 27%. Do they hold the GOP responsible for Obama returning their brethren back home in Border Patrol vans? Perhaps. But granting some sort of amnesty to the illegals doesn't seem to serve the GOP either. In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan essentially granted amnesty to 2 million illegals. Did that action make latinos friendly to the GOP? Nope. The percentage of latinos voting Republican has dropped every year since then. So how does an immigration reform program that asserts any form of amnesty help the GOP? Answer: "It doesn't". But the bigger question remains - what do most latinos want and is the Republican/Conservative ideology the place they can get it?

I hate to lump so many diverse people into any category. Its not fair. However, I believe that latinos are the "new blacks" of the Democratic party - voting almost exclusively Democratic. The numbers show I'm right - though I wish I weren't. Generally speaking, latinos like a significant portion of blacks, are currently on the low end of the spectrum when it comes to earning power. And like a lot of people who have limited income - they tend to vote where they're going to get the most financial assistance. The Democratic party has done quite well in creating and enrolling this segment of the population, then seeing to it that they become dependent registered voters. This isn't racist. These are the numbers. Blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic. About 95% nationally. In Philadelphia, Obama got 99%. In 59 of Philadelphia's precincts, Romney got 0%. That's almost statistically impossible. Yet it happened.

I hear a lot about the GOP having to "reach out" to latino voters, though I have no idea what that means. If that means that Republicans have to offer more social programs in order to get their vote, then why have a GOP at all? Either the party stands for something or it doesn't. We can't and shouldn't try to out-Democrat the Democrats. They're the pros at the give away system anyway. Latinos have to see the GOP as a party that offers a way to individual excellence and advancement. Again, I'm not lumping all latinos together anymore than I'm lumping all black voters. But the numbers are the numbers. And until we find a way to get the generic latino voter to see that his future is best served by a Republican agenda - we'll continue to see the percentages drop even more. And lose national elections.