Jennifer is absolutely on target on John McCain and immigration. But what impressed me most about McCain’s speech was his appeal to patriotism. Barack Obama treated his LULAC audience pretty much as he does every special interest group he speaks to, as if they are all sitting there with their hands outstretched for whatever new federal program he can promise them. He should have titled his speech “Ask Not What You Can Do for Your Country but What Your Country Can Do for You“. McCain, on the other hand, emphasized Hispanics’ service to America:
When I was in prison in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered early release by my captors. Most of us refused because we were bound to our code of conduct, which said those who had been captured the earliest had to be released the soonest. My friend, Everett Alvarez, a brave American of Mexican descent, had been shot down years before I was, and had suffered for his country much more and much longer than I had. To leave him behind would have shamed us. When you take the solemn stroll along that wall of black granite on the national Mall, it is hard not to notice the many names such as Rodriguez, Hernandez, and Lopez that so sadly adorn it. When you visit Iraq and Afghanistan you will meet some of the thousands of Hispanic-Americans who serve there, and many of those who risk their lives to protect the rest of us do not yet possess the rights and privileges of full citizenship in the country they love so well.
It was a smart move. Hispanics have traditionally had a strong affinity for the military. Eligible Hispanics (you must be a citizen or legal permanent resident and have high school degree or equivalent) are actually somewhat more likely to enlist than whites (though less than blacks). And it’s not simply because they are using the military to increase their economic mobility. Hispanics who join the military are more likely to pick combat as opposed to technical or other specialties which put them at higher risk, which is why they have endured a higher combat casualty rate in Iraq.
One final note–LULAC has an interesting history, as I’ve written about at greater length in my book Out of the Barrio: Towards a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation. Founded in 1929 in Texas, the organization restricted membership to U.S. citizens and Spanish was forbidden in its official meetings. LULAC listed among the duties of its members the following:
To foster the acquisition and facile use of the official language of the country that we may hereby equip ourselves and our families for the fullest enjoyment of our rights and privileges and the efficient discharge of our duties and obligations to this, our country.
LULAC long ago strayed from these principles, but most Hispanics have not. These are the Hispanics voters McCain is reaching out to and the ones he’s most likely to win over.