It's The Economy, Estupido

This week we got further proof that the myth of Barack Obama doing poorly among Latinos was completely unfounded, as he's outpacing John Kerry's 2004 effort significantly. When seeking an explanation for why a culturally conservative bloc supports the culturally liberal candidate, Matt Yglesias stumbles upon an answer. Latinos with ties to Mexico, Central and South America, who have acutely felt the effects of authoritarian governments and their policies towards the poor, actually vote their pocketbooks:

If you look at it in detail, though, the Hispanic electorate mostly seems to vote the way Thomas Frank suggests everyone should in What's the Matter With Kansas -- poorer Hispanics vote Democratic, richer ones vote Republican, and social and cultural issues just don't seem to play very much. Because Hispanics are poorer-than-average this leads to a big pro-Democratic tilt. I think it's clear that Republicans can hurt themselves with the immigration issue by acting like racist demagogues but the GOP's primary problem with this voting group really is things like S-CHIP rather than a lack of sufficient immigration-related pandering.

For those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, talk of lowering corporate tax rates falls as flat as tsk-tsking about cultural outrages. Hispanics are far more in tune with the real-world impacts of their vote.