One America? by Nathan Angelo;

Author:Nathan Angelo; [Angelo;, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781438471518
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2019-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Expanding the Right Coalition in New Ways

I noted in chapter 1 that Bush spoke about race in 2004 less than any other president during a reelection year since 1964, but there is ample evidence that he tried to expand his electoral coalition to a new ethnic group, Latinos. Indeed, Bush was somewhat more likely to speak about ethnicity than race, even though he was still one of the presidents least likely to talk about race and ethnicity. We can find some ways that he attempted to expand his coalition through a count of how often he used the words Latino and Hispanic (32.57/1m), which was more than any other Republican except Reagan in 1984 (81.85/1m), and at a rate similar to Clinton in 1996 (36.25/1m). While there was a distinct strategy surrounding Bush’s use of these words, it is important to remember that Bush seemed somewhat successful in this endeavor. During the 2004 election, George W. Bush won a higher percentage of support from Latinos than Bob Dole, George H. W. Bush, or Ronald Reagan. He won more Latino support than Republican nominees John McCain or Mitt Romney. Most exit polls listed his level of support among Latino voters in 2004 as between 30 and 35 percent.1 While we cannot be sure that his rhetoric was even a factor in his higher level of support among Latinos, his use of rhetoric to appeal to Latinos shows that he believed that these appeals were important.

Bush often tried to be inclusive without directly referencing racial groups. To do this, he frequently spoke Spanish in his speeches. While not fluent in the language, his approach was novel. The last fully multilingual president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was fluent in both French and German. Jimmy Carter delivered some speeches in Spanish but no other Republican in the post-FDR era attempted to speak to domestic audiences in a language other than English. Bush rarely delivered entire addresses in Spanish, but he often peppered his speeches with phrases and words when he addressed Spanish-speaking audiences. For example, in his remarks at a Hispanic Heritage Month Reception, he used Spanish phrases like Bienveidos a la Casa Blanca, or used the word país instead of country. He called the governor of Florida Mi hermano and the ambassador to the Dominican Republic mi amigo. He welcomed leaders from other countries with the greeting Bienvenidos and referred to he and his wife, Laura Bush, as Tejanos. In his Remarks on Immigration Reform he referred to Tony Garza as el embajador de Mexico. At a rally in New York City, he said Vamos a ganar. Mis amigos Latinos estan aqui. Once, when an audience member interrupted Bush, he told the individual to wait un momento. These appeals are a small sample of Bush’s use of Spanish, but they demonstrate one way that George W. Bush tried to expand his coalition. He used this strategy to appeal to a more diverse group than just Whites and White ethnics. He took a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.