Latinos More Conservative Than DC-Based Advocacy Groups Portray

Several years ago as I was hustling through Reagan National Airport in Washington I ran into Congressman Sylvestre Reyes D-El Paso.  He was talking to a Hispanic official from the Bush administration and upon spotting me Reyes waved me over and shook my hand.  Then he turned to the gentleman he was with and said mischievously This is the national columnist Ruben Navarrette.  Hes a Republican."  I cringed.   Im not a Republican or a Democrat or an independent. Im just me. Twice a week for the last 10 years in a nationally syndicated column that now goes out to more than 100 newspapers Ive called balls and strikes. I serve no constituency and I walk no ideological line. I might praise President Obama one minute and excoriate him the next. At a time when regrettably most columnists seem to have enlisted into the blue camp or the red camp Im a distinctive shade of purple. Still I have a hunch where Reyes got the idea that I was a Republican. A couple of months before that meeting at the airport I had pummeled the Congressional Hispanic Caucus a group to which he belongs for joining white liberal Democrats in a savage yet sophomoric attack on federal appellate court nominee Miguel Estrada essentially for not being Hispanic enough. That sort of litmus test wasnt just offensive and wrong when applied to the Honduran-born Estrada who speaks fluent Spanish and would probably qualify as being more Hispanic" than many of his critics. It also clashed with the CHCs past complaints about the number of Hispanics on the federal courts. I also come from conservative roots. I was born and raised in Californias Central Valley a swath of red in the middle of a blue state. Im a member of Generation X the cohort born between 1961 and 1980 which doesnt look to government to solve its problems and in 1984 cast their first votes to help re-elect President Reagan. Lastly Im a Latino specifically a Mexican-American and thus Im part of a community that is much more conservative than you would know from listening to Washington DC-based Latino advocacy groups which often act as satellite offices for the Democratic party. Finally there are plenty of issues on which I lean to the right:

1. In support of school vouchers
2. Against late-term abortions
3. In support of deporting illegal immigrants
4. Against an unconditional amnesty
5. In support of smaller government and
6. Against excessive bureaucracy etc.

And as a Mexican-American with conservative leanings Ive have had to put up with at various times in the last 10 years a strong dose of liberal racism. Thats where someone on the left disagrees with something Ive written and so they fire off mean-spirited condescending and racist missives in my direction. Its interesting. A generation ago some of these same people might have supported the Civil Rights Movement or the Chicano Rights Movement to fight for social justice. They wanted to ensure that people like me would enjoy every imaginable right except the right to think for ourselves. I can think of five subjects in particular over the last decade that have driven my liberal critics berserk:

1. My defense of Estrada
2. My even more vocal defense of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
3. My praise for Sarah Palin
4. My criticism of racial preferences and
5. Any criticism of either President Clinton or President Barack Obama.

In each of these cases those on the left react with a mixture of disdain and disappointment as if I were some sort of social experiment gone awry. My critics are eager to remind me that without the magnanimous support of liberals for programs such as affirmative action I wouldnt be what I am today. And what is that exactly? Apparently its a thorn in their side. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist a weekly contributor to CNN.COM a regular contributor to NPR and the author of A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano (Bantam).