Ryan Streeter
Jeb Bush spoke at the Hispanic Leadership Network today and said Republicans would be "stupid" not to aggressively court Hispanics, the "burgeoning" portion of the American electorate. He offered a 4 point plan: "Be mindful of tone, embrace a broad agenda, appoint Hispanics to boards and judicial positions, and recruit qualified Hispanics to run for office."
But his agenda is even more interesting than that. Mary Anastasia O'Grady interviewed him for her Weekend WSJ column, and he said something quite noteworthy.
Hispanics aren't monolithic, he says, but all immigrants—"the newly arrived and the second generation"—share one trait: "They're aspirational." Conservative candidates, therefore, should promote "policies that reward people who are aspirational."
He views immigration as an economic issue. Aspirational people invest the hard work, energy, and creativity into whatever it is they do. This produces positive returns. O'Grady writes:
"The country needs "younger people with energy and aspirations," he says. Without them, we could end up looking like Old Europe: What should be annual GDP growth of 3.5% could instead be 1.5%.
Aspiration at the heart of an American agenda. That sounds about right to me. He's the only national leader to use the language of aspiration, to my knowledge, to frame a policy outlook. If he's not running in 2012 (and he's said firmly he's not), then one of the other hopefuls should pick up his vernacular and take some cues from his policy worldview.
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