Moreover, Hispanics do not vote so overwhelmingly for one party that neither party takes their interests into account. While there has been some talk of a black-Hispanic political coalition, the chances of that are slim indeed. One of the many tragedies of the welfare state is that freebies given out by government turn different groups into rivals for a position at the public trough. Black and Hispanic politicians have already been jockeying for position when it comes to dividing the political spoils, and that is only likely to get worse as Hispanics get more political experience and have the votes up for bid to make white politicians sit up and take notice. There is also a growing awareness within the Hispanic community that many of the things their supposed liberal friends did for them have been counterproductive.
Bilingualism is a classic example.
Under so-called bilingual education, many Hispanic youngsters were shunted off into their own little ghetto programs, where they spoke mostly Spanish for years and fell behind academically. As with vouchers, some Republicans may have been ideologically opposed to bilingualism, but they really had no personal stake in the issue, one way or the other, since the children of affluent Republicans were usually not affected by these programs. When California businessman Ron Unz launched a crusade against these destructive bilingual programs, Republicans wanted no part of his efforts to get Hispanic youngsters taught in English. Despite the opposition of both political parties and virtually all of the California media, Mr. Unz' ballot initiative to end bilingual programs won at the polls. Then a remarkable thing happened.