Hispanics refuse to vote for McCain despite fully agreeing with his platform

Here's a story which appeared on Yahoo's main page with the headline "Immigration debate turns Hispanic voters away from McCain." How can this be, I thought when I saw the headline, since John McCain is so pro-immigration?

The story is typical of the awful reporting we're so used to seeing. We're told that 56 percent of Protestant "Latinos" (when are they going to start speaking Latin?) supported Bush in 2004, but only one third plan to vote for McCain this year, while 59 percent support Obama. The article goes on to say:

The biggest reason for the shift, though, has been the heated debate over immigration reform that has alienated many Hispanic voters previously receptive to the GOP — and that nearly cost McCain, a co-sponsor of the bipartisan 2006 immigration reform bill that inflamed conservatives, his party’s nomination.

How do we know this is the biggest reason for the shift? We're not told. The article gives no poll results from which this conclusion is obvious; we're just supposed to accept that the immigration debate, a debate in which John McCain is firmly on the side of increasing Hispanic immigration, has turned Hispanics off to McCain.

The reader is then treated to the words of Luis Cortes, "one of Time Magazine’s 25 most influential evangelicals in America and twice an early Bush backer."

“I’m going to vote brown,” Cortes said.

“McCain’s problem is the problem of his party demonizing Hispanic people,” Cortes said. “His party demonized us. You can’t switch off the immigration rhetoric and think it will work. In the context of the immigration issue, Hispanics define the enemy as the Republican Party and you don’t erase that overnight.

“Bush didn’t have to overcome his party’s position on immigration and I think that’s the difference,” said Cortes, who heads the Christian social service group Nueva Esperanza (New Hope).

The Republican party stance on immigration may not be clear until the platform is completed, and Cortes said he may wait to read the platform before deciding whether or not to leave the GOP.

“Do the border fence overnight, do it first, fine,” he said. “Then get to work on immigration reform in the first year.”

There is so much wrong with this I don't even know where to start. "I'm going to vote brown"? Sounds like he has his mind made up then, doesn't it? Not much chance he'll be voting for a white candidate, unless maybe said candidate gets a deep tan between now and November. The Republicans "demonize" Hispanics? Both Bush and McCain can't say enough good things about Hispanics, can't stop extolling their virtues while denigrating ordinary white Americans, and Hispanics still think Republicans "demonize" them, and admit outright that they define the Republican party as the enemy. This shows the cluelessness of the mainstream conservative movement. We're being told that there's nothing we can do that will bring Hispanics on board. As Steve Sailer said, the Republican party would be much better off trying to capture a larger share of the much more substantial white vote, than going after a fraction of a percentage of the Hispanic vote.

Cortes's last sentence, stating his preferred candidate's immigration policy, is exactly what John McCain has said he'd do: "build the damn fence," then work on amnesty. So, why isn't Cortes a McCain supporter?

This article is so typical of the mainstream media. They write articles containing conclusions not supported by their facts, containing huge, gaping questions the article doesn't even acknowledge the existence of, like an elephant in the living room. And though they are losing their influence, there are still far too many people who turn to reporting like this for their "news."