By Zbigniew Mazurak

Today, the GOP is widely believed by Hispanic and Catholic voters to be anti-Hispanic. One of the reasons for that is the GOP’s tolerance of anti-immigration extremists such as Mark Krikorian, Tom Tancredo and Michelle Malkin in its ranks (these extremists advocate a moratorium on legal immigration, thus denying all non-Americans the chance to come to the US and become members of the American society). This contributed to the GOP’s losses in 2006 and 2008, and will hurt the GOP in the future unless the party embraces Hispanics. If it doesn’t, Arizona and Texas will be swing states by 2012.

Hispanic folks already decide about election results in California, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. The name ‘Florida’ itself is of Spanish origin. They will also control the states of Arizona and Texas starting in the next decade, are already the largest minority in America, and will be the largest ethnic group in the country (outnumbering whites) by 2050. Even a moratorium on legal immigration, if the Dems decided to implement it tomorrow, would not stop that trend: Hispanics have more children than whites and blacks.

So without them, the Republican Party cannot win. And Hispanics – unlike blacks – are not blindly loyal to the Dems, they can vote for anyone. Here’s what policies the GOP should implement to successfully woo them:

1)      Throw extremists such as Tancredo and Krikorian out of the party.

2)      Significantly reduce the number of illegal immigrants (by attrition through enforcement and building the border fence) but significantly increase the number of legal immigrants. (BTW, America is suffering from a low worker-to-retiree ratio (3:1 in the best case)).

3)      Promise, and enact, constitutional amendments banning abortion, same sex marriage, euthanasia and cloning. Hispanics (most of whom are ardent Catholics) care about these issues, and they are the ones who made Prop #8 the law of California. Most whites voted against Prop #8.

4)      Promise, and enact, friendly policies towards those Hispanic countries which are not hostile towards the US (e.g. Colombia, Mexico, Peru). This includes restoring the Mexico truck program, approving the FTA with Colombia, and negotiating FTAs with other Latin American countries.

5)      State in no uncertain terms that the GOP does not tolerate the anti-Hispanic sentiment.

The Republican Party should also courth Catholics. The party needs to win the majority of Catholic votes during every federal election. This means that the party must adopt socially conservative policies and nominate, whenever possible, candidates who promise to enact such policies. Catholics comprise the largest single religious group in America (67 million voters, i.e. 27% of the electorate). Winning a presidential election without them is usually impossible (the only post-1928 candidate who achieved that, George W Bush, won the 2000 election by a razor-thin margin).

One of the reasons why John McCain lost the 2008 election by a landslide is that 56% of American Catholics voted for Obama. True, Obama is the most radical leftist Dem ever, but what alternative did the GOP offer? McCain opposes the HLA, the Federal Marriage Amendment, banning federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and overturning Roe v. Wade. He is one of the people who caused the HLA and the Federal Marriage Amendment to fail in the Congress when the federal legislature was controlled by Republicans. He offered Catholics no alternative to Obama’s radical anti-family policies.

American bishops are adamantly opposed to abortion, same sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research, cloning and euthanasia, and have said that American Catholics must not vote for candidates who want those anti-family practices to be legal. Archbishop Raymond Burke, a Vatican Curia official, has stated that all pro-abortion politicians _must_ be denied the Holy Communion (this includes Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy). This means that the Dems’ leaders are conflicted with the Catholic Church. The GOP should thererefore woo Catholics and promise to introduce staunchly pro-family policies. And when it becomes the majority party again, it should fulfill those promises. With Hispanics and Catholics on the GOP’s side, the Democrats will be trounced.

Zbigniew Mazurak is a conservative defense analyst who frequently contributes to TheRealityCheck.org, CWA and other conservative websites. He blogs at http://zbigniewmazurak.wordpress.com.