Identity Politics: Nextgen America

Two organizations, Nextgen America and the Latino Victory Fund, are attempting to get more Latinos to run for office in Las Vegas. This is part of a national campaign, seeking to increase Latino political engagement. You can read about their recent workshop in the Las Vegas Review Journal. 

Nextgen America started out life attempting to politically combat climate change. They're doing a lot of hiring. The Latino Victory Fund is pretty much as advertised. They have a beef with how many Latinos hold elected office, claiming in their Problem Statement that:

This disparity in Latino political participation is one reason for the dearth of Latino elected officials. While the Latino population grows, the number of Latinos elected to public office remains dangerously low. In the current Congress, only 28 members of the House are Latino when more than twice that number would be reflective of their share of the national population. The statistics are worse in many legislative bodies across the nation. The lack of Latinos running for office further discourages political participation in the Latino community: when you don’t see people on the ballot that reflect your community, you are less likely to vote.

This is a classic example of how Democrats think. Many Conservatives make the mistake of assuming Democrats think in ideological terms. For the most part they don't.

The Republican Party is a coalition of sympathetic ideologies. The Democrats are a a coalition of social groups. The ties that bind Republicans are much stronger than the ties that bind Democrats. This isn't anything new.

What's interesting, is the idea implicit in the excerpt above: the only legitimate representatives of Latino interests are Latinos. But how strong is Latino identity? According to Pew, 27% of Latino newlyweds intermarry. Out of all newlyweds that intermarry, 47% involve one Hispanic spouse and one white spouse.

Will the children of such couples feel that the only legitimate representative of their interests in a Latino. What about the grand children of such couples? I somehow doubt it. As people becoming of increasingly mixed ancestry, they will take an ideological turn. And the Republican Party has that market cornered, unless you're in the market for regurgitated Marxism.