Speaking Jesus in Spanish

Republican candidates are down in Texas this week to woo another important potential voting bloc. No, there isn’t a billionaires convention in town — it’s a meeting of the evangelical National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference . Jeb Bush was there, of course, speaking his fluent Spanish and touting adorable latin nicknames, as the Bush brothers are wont to do. (Recall that for reasons which remain obscure, W used to call NY Times reporter Frank Bruni “Panchito,” and Jeb shared that he calls his son George P. Bush “Chicharito,” which means “little pea.”) Jeb also made the pitch that immigrants should be able to come out of the shadows and talked up ISIS as a major threat to Christians everywhere. By all accounts, he was much more relaxed and comfortable than usual and the crowd received him well. 

But it was Mike Huckabee who surprised observers with a rousing speech, which he opened with his characteristic humor saying, “I do not come to you tonight with the ability to speak Spanish. But I do speak a common language: I speak Jesus.” And that he did. 

Huckabee didn’t bring up ISIS, but he did make the case that Christianity is in grave danger here in the U.S. He said “We are living in perilous times where people who are Christian are on the brink of being criminalized for their conviction.” He even went so far as to say that, while he respected the Supreme Court, “it is not the supreme being. It cannot overrule God.” These are the kind of fighting words that social conservatives of all stripes love to hear. 

It’s not surprising that GOP candidates would appear before this group. It’s long been an article of faith that this was the most likely path by which the Republicans could entice Hispanic voters to come over to their side. The community has traditionally been Catholic, but this is a growing religious bloc within it and they share many of the same views on social issues. Indeed, it was aussumed that it was George W. Bush’s identity as a “born again” Christian which led so many Latinos to vote for him in 2000. Hispanics are assumed to be very traditional and conservative, which makes them natural GOP voters, if only they knew it. (Or so the thinking goes.)