Mexican American Community Attitudes

1
Mexican American Community Attitudes

• Mexican Americans and Politics
• Lecture 9
• February 7, 2006

2
Will the Real Americans Please Stand Up ?

• Thesis Test of hypothesis of whether level of
  acculturation shapes the probability of political
  incorporation. Higher levels of ethnic
  consciousness will reduce Mexican American
  political incorporation.
• Method Multiple regression analysis of a survey
  of Mexican Americans (and other Latinos) the
  Latino National Political Survey.

3
Where are We?

• Competing notions of politics
• Collective expression of bridging social capital
• Social networks that connect different groups
• Institutions to increase popular participation in
  politics
• Electoral participation
• Pan-ethnicity
• Two, or more, Latino ancestry groups come into
  contact
• Discovery of a shared experience
• Instrumental alliance to achieve shared objectives

4
To Understand the Political World of any
Population

• You need to understand
• Values
• Attitudes
• Behaviors
• Today we focus on Mexican American values and
  attitudes

5
Mexican American Political Values

• How do they relate to American political
  values?
• Economic individualism
• Income
• Housing
• Jobs
• Patriotism
• What role does ethnicity play in Mexican American
  support for economic individualism and patriotism?

6
Mexican Americans and Anglos Share Core Values

• Controlling for demographic characteristics (age
  and class)
• Few differences on economic individualism
• Spanish dominant somewhat more likely to see
  governmental role
• Spanish dominant Mexican Americans more patriotic
  than Anglos
• Overall similarity means that class is more
  important than ethnicity

7
The Mexican American Issue Agenda

• Non-Mexican Americans often ascribe issue
  preferences to Mexican Americans
• Historical
• Sojourners with little interest in the United
  States
• Radicals
• Contemporary
• Republican efforts to define Mexican Americans in
  terms of moral conservative agenda
• Democrat failure to distinguish between Blacks
  and Mexican Americans

8
Odd Because Mexican American Policy Agenda
Consistent

• Agenda incorporation of new immigrants and those
  previously excluded
• Education (at all levels)
• Social Services
• Job training
• Public safety
• Important when considering policy agenda to
  measure
• Salience
• Connection to underlying values

9
Most Important Issue Facing Nation Latinos,
2000 Mexican Americans
Most important issue facing nation Most important issue facing Latinos
Education 15 25
Race relations 4 10
Unemployment/Jobs 6 11
The economy 14 9
Illegal immigration 2 6
Crime 11 7
Drugs 9 3
10
Story Changes Somewhat in 2004

• International issues take on a new prominence
• I suspect this is a short-term phenomenon and
  that social issues will continue to dominate
  Mexican American agenda in the future

11
Most Important Issue Latinos and Mexican
Americans, 2004
Issue Mexican Amer. Other Latinos
Education 16 16
Economy 29 26
War on terror 18 25
Iraq 17 13
Crime 1 2
Health 12 11
Immigration 4 3
Other 3 4
12
Issues That are Not Central to the Mexican
American Agenda

• Moral conservative agenda--positions held by
  Mexican Americans, but top the agenda for few
• Pro-life
• Support for death penalty
• Prayer in schools
• Traditional role of women
• Immigration
• Distinction between immigration of relatives and
  immigration policy
• Remember GutiérrezLong-term ambivalence about
  new immigration in Mexican American community

13
Many Assume Mexican Americans to be Liberal

• They are in policy and electoral terms
• Willing to raise their taxes to increase
  government services
• Generally support Democratic candidates
• But, more likely to self-identify as
  conservative than liberal
• Liberalism and conservatism may mean different
  things
• Particularly to Mexican immigrants

14
Mexican American Ideology
15
Mexican Americans Traditionally Strong Democrats

• Why?
• Congruence on party positions and community
  attitudes
• More local Mexican American Democratic leaders
  and elected officials to recruit and mobilize
• Anti-immigrant rhetoric of some Republicans
• But, Bush and other Republicans have claimed that
  a shift is imminent
• Bush share of the Latino vote increased in 2004,
  though by how much is disputed

16
Mexican American Partisanship (U.S. Citizens),
1989-2004
Independent leaners counted as partisans
17
Evidence of Mexican American Shift to Republicans
is Weak

• Separate question Are Mexican Americans more
  likely to vote for Republican candidates than in
  the past
• Well return to this question when we discuss
  Mexican Americans and electoral politics

18
For Next Time

• What did the Voting Rights Act provide?
• How did these guarantees address the needs of
  the Mexican American community in 1975?
• How about today?