# Will the Sotomayor pick impact the Hispanic vote? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 29, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025 "2009-05-29T13:46:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![haymarketmartyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/35a633/32.png) [@haymarketmartyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haymarketmartyr)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/21 "2009-05-29T16:10:32Z")
Diogenes has hit the nail squarely upon the head with this statement > [@](#): > > What the right is really doing is exactly what they tried to do to Obama. The new strategy for dealing with any non-white political opponent is not to attack them on their race (which would be politically moronic), but to try to flip the script accuse THEM of being racist and “anti-white.” It’s still racist. It still feeds on fear of the other. It still insinuates that white people should fear non-whites. For a long time now there has been a certain type of white politician who has opposed all manner of programs which benefit minorites and for that have been labeled as “racist” by their opponents. I imagine they bristle and resent the accusation since - in their mind - they are not members of the Klan, have not lynched anyone (at least lately) and have even employed minority domestic help around the house, albeit for lower than minimum wage and no benefits. Now its their time to wage the charge of RACISM against those who they have been dying to get back at for several decades. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/22 "2009-05-29T16:11:49Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > Cite? Not saying that her ethnicity is horrible, but alleging that this highly experienced, Princeton honors student is merely an [affirmative action case](http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/29/barnes_sotomayor/index.html). :rolleyes: Yeah, that’s really going to ingratiate the on-the-fence hispanic voters. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/23 "2009-05-29T16:15:02Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > [Q](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzkwYzY3ZTc4NTkwZjRiMjM3OGVlMzlmNTZjYmY2ZDI=).[E](http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/conservative-whispers-to-hill-reporter-concern-about-the-impact-diet-will-have-on-her-jurisprude.php).[D](http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/05/sotomayor_princeton_uniform_tr_1.asp). > > –Cliffy That’s not a “cite”, that’s a link. I’d like to see cites saying “her ethnicity is horrible”. Because those links do not say that and I am not about to read with a fine tooth comb to see if anything could remotely be interpreted that way. Let’s have a cite. (I just cannot imagine there would be such an instance, much less widespread to all “the right”. ) ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/24 "2009-05-29T16:22:32Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Its not just picking Sotomayor that helps Obama, its the republicans fighting her and making themselves look even more anti-hispanic thats gonna help the most. I think this is the salient point to take away. Whatever benefit the appointment itself brings is dwarfed by the Republicans reacting and doing more to drive away Hispanics. They’re actually being relatively restrained and it’s great - for America, I guess - that people like Cornyn are rebuking the likes of Gingrich and Limbaugh. But you still have Gingrich and Limbaugh calling her a racist (or a reverse-racist, whatever the hell that is). So it’s just a question of how obnoxious they get. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/25 "2009-05-29T16:26:33Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > That’s not a “cite”, that’s a link. I’d like to see cites saying “her ethnicity is horrible”. Because those links do not say that and I am not about to read with a fine tooth comb to see if anything could remotely be interpreted that way. Let’s have a cite. (I just cannot imagine there would be such an instance, much less widespread to all “the right”. ) Pretty close. [http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0509/Tancredo\_La\_Raza\_is\_Latino\_KKK.html](http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0509/Tancredo_La_Raza_is_Latino_KKK.html) [QUOTE=Former Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo] If you belong to an organization called La Raza, in this case… which is from my point of of view any way… nothing more than a … Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses. If you belong to something like that in a way that’s going to convince me and a lot of other people that it’s got nothing to do with race. Even though the logo of La Raza is “All for the race. Nothing for the rest.” What does that tell you? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/26 "2009-05-29T16:36:40Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > [Q](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzkwYzY3ZTc4NTkwZjRiMjM3OGVlMzlmNTZjYmY2ZDI=).[E](http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/conservative-whispers-to-hill-reporter-concern-about-the-impact-diet-will-have-on-her-jurisprude.php).[D](http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/05/sotomayor_princeton_uniform_tr_1.asp). > > –Cliffy Wow, that first guy is a total moron. I assume his name is pronounced Krick-O-ree-un and if he disagrees he’s a commie. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaijon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Sinaijon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaijon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/27 "2009-05-29T16:38:02Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > Because those links do not say that and I am not about to read with a fine tooth comb to see if anything could remotely be interpreted that way. I did, no it cannot. One of them is simply a commentary on the pronunciation of her last name. Obama has used 2 different versions, so which should we use? Oh! The Hate mongering! ---
**Author:** ![haymarketmartyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/35a633/32.png) [@haymarketmartyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haymarketmartyr)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/28 "2009-05-29T17:10:42Z")
If I do not have a film of the sun coming up this morning does that then mean that it never did? Anyone alive and following this story for the past few days is well aware of what is going on here. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/29 "2009-05-29T17:13:35Z")
Probably not all that much, unless the GOP goes above and beyond the call of dickery in opposition, in which case they’ll lose what ground they’ve gained in that demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Zephyurs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/dfb087/32.png) [@Zephyurs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zephyurs)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/30 "2009-05-29T17:32:51Z")
Pretty amusing. Regardless of whether the attacks on Sotomayor are racially motivated or not\*\*, the point is that most Latinos and decent whites are reading it that way. The appointment itself probably wouldn’t swing too many voters, but the rabid, anti-Hispanic froth that the Republican Party has been thrown into surely will. That’s why people like Cornyn, Noonan, and Martinez are desperately trying to position the mainstream of the Republican Party away from its more thuggish factions. \*\*They are. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/31 "2009-05-29T18:03:39Z")
There has been a significant thrust of argument, evident even in fairly main-stream sources, which attempts to portray Sotomayor as “anti-white” or “reverse racist.” This is a standard, racist, fear-mongering tactic that conservatives often try to use to disparage or discredit non-white candidates. Basically, if the candidate doesn’t kowtow to white superiority, they’re a threat. And it’s quite clear that a lot of the criticism Sotomayor is facing is exactly that kind of racist: she’s a non-white who threatens whites. “Oh my GOD, did she REALLY say a Latina woman might make a better decision than a white MAN!!! Run for the hills!!!111” In my opinion, it’s not the nomination that is going to gain Latino votes for the Democrats, but the racism that is going to lose votes for the Republicans. We’ll see how the confirmation hearings go. Incidentally, someone above stated that Bush’s Hispanic nominees didn’t help him gain votes. Actually, as I recall, they did. Not a majority, by any means, but Bush fared better than previous, recent Republican nominees. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/32 "2009-05-29T21:02:59Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Wow, that first guy is a total moron. I assume his name is pronounced Krick-O-ree-un and if he disagrees he’s a commie. Well, the obvious English-speaker-intuitive way to pronounce his name is to use the two common English words that resemble the first syllables (“crack” and “whore”) followed by the common English suffix that resembles the final syllable (“-ian”). ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/33 "2009-05-29T21:23:22Z")
I think a lot of Hispanics felt alienated by the GOP in recent years anyway, and their gripings about Sotomayer being racist and unqualified is only going to drive more people away. Which is kind of sad really, since a lot of middle class Hispanics I know would fight right in with the GOP’s worldview - socially conservative, hate taxes, want small government, etc. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/34 "2009-05-29T21:29:33Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Which is kind of sad really, since a lot of middle class Hispanics I know would fight right in with the GOP’s worldview - socially conservative, hate taxes, want small government, etc. That, and for a lot of second and third generation Hispanics, immigration is a secondary concern, if they even worry about it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/35 "2009-05-29T22:54:45Z")
I suspect that these appointments don’t matter that much in the long run. The number of people who can identify even a few of the Supreme Court justices is minimal. I think most people react to these nominations the way most people react to any political event; they fit it into their existing political views and come away unchanged. > [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Not saying that her ethnicity is horrible, but alleging that this highly experienced, Princeton honors student is merely an [affirmative action case](http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/29/barnes_sotomayor/index.html). :rolleyes: Yeah, that’s really going to ingratiate the on-the-fence hispanic voters. Clarence Thomas was a Yale grad and federal judge, and he was denounced as an affirmative action pick. Moreover, he was portrayed as sexually uncontrollable, which under ordinary circumstances might be considered to be a classically racist depiction of a black man. Did all this change anyone’s political or racial opinions, left or right? I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/36 "2009-05-29T23:41:29Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Which is kind of sad really, since a lot of middle class Hispanics I know would fight right in with the GOP’s worldview - socially conservative, hate taxes, want small government, etc. I meant to say “…FIT right in with the GOP’s worldview,” and not FIGHT. I saw this long after the alloted editing period. Maybe I just associated the word Republican with fight. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/37 "2009-05-30T01:06:16Z")
> [@haymarketmartyr](#): > > This appointment was a master political stroke in so many ways. Rahm Emanuel is a political genius. What made it so brilliant wasn’t the move itself, so much as the utter predictability of the Righty Base. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/38 "2009-05-30T02:33:25Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Clarence Thomas was a Yale grad and federal judge, and he was denounced as an affirmative action pick. Moreover, he was portrayed as sexually uncontrollable, which under ordinary circumstances might be considered to be a classically racist depiction of a black man. Did all this change anyone’s political or racial opinions, left or right? I doubt it. [Sotomayer is not Thomas](http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/05/29/clarence_thomas/) > [@](#): > > Eighteen years ago, the Senate confirmation of Thomas earned historic notoriety for its bizarre descent into conflicting recollections of sexual harassment and pornographic banter. But the lingering question about the man selected to replace the legendary Justice Thurgood Marshall was whether he fulfilled the White House description of him as “the most qualified [candidate] at this time.” As Thomas confessed in his memoir a few years ago, “Even I had my doubts about so extravagant a claim.” > > So extravagant was Bush’s assertion as to verge on comical. Far from being the “most qualified,” Thomas was a nominee with no experience on the bench beyond the 18 months he had served on the U.S. District Court of Appeals. He had never written a significant legal brief or article. He had achieved no distinction in private practice or law enforcement. He had never even argued a case in federal court, let alone at the U.S. Supreme Court… > > In other words, Thomas was chosen from a Bush White House shortlist that excluded white males – supposedly a profound sin when committed by the Obama White House in selecting Sotomayor. > > Yet the right can never bring its corrosive racial skepticism to bear on Thomas, a man who had proven his willingness to parrot reactionary bromides. He is the single most prominent beneficiary of the quest for diversity in American history, but he is their diversity candidate – and thus deserved elevation, if not as a distinguished jurist, then because he had suffered discrimination as a conservative. > > It is a curious worldview that would validate Thomas and denigrate Sotomayor, when the contrast in their records reflects so well on her and so poorly on him. It is strange, too, that the same conservatives who found the saga of Clarence Thomas and his rise from obscurity so inspiring seem to find no such inspiration in the very similar story of Sonia Sotomayor. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/39 "2009-05-30T02:45:15Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Wow, that first guy is a total moron. I assume his name is pronounced Krick-O-ree-un and if he disagrees he’s a commie. No. CRY - quo - RY - in. Surely hat’s how to pronounce it in Hick. Yeah, cry more, CRYkorian. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025/40 "2009-05-30T04:33:54Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Clarence Thomas was a Yale grad and federal judge, and he was denounced as an affirmative action pick. Clarence Thomas was not denounced as an affirmative action pick, he was denounced for saying that he opposed affirmative action after having been a beneficiary of it. In point of fact, he called his own Yale Law degree “worthless,” and stuck a 15 cent cigar sticker on it to signify that that was all it was worth. > [@](#): > > Moreover, he was portrayed as sexually uncontrollable, which under ordinary circumstances might be considered to be a classically racist depiction of a black man. Did all this change anyone’s political or racial opinions, left or right? I doubt it. That’s not a racist meme that I’m familiar with. I can name probably 10 white politicians who have been characterized as harrassers or pussy hounds for every black political figure you can name. It was really Anita Hill who was smeared as a slut and a nutbag during that period in a campaign which David Brock has admitted was an intentionally dishonest character assassination. Anita Hill’s testimony was supported by 5 other witnesses, one of whom was another judge. He did what she said he did, then he played the race card and called it a “high tech lynching,” even though Hill herself was black. It worked too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-sotomayor-pick-impact-the-hispanic-vote/498025.md?page=3)