- For a nation born of a revolt against monarchy, America
has an odd weakness for crown princes.
-
- From the republic's earliest days, Americans have been
fixated by young men seemingly born to rule - smart, dashing men with weighty
names, such as Adams, Kennedy or Roosevelt.
-
- America's latest heir-apparent carries a greater weight
than most. He is George P Bush, 28-year-old son of Florida's governor,
Jeb Bush, and nephew of President George W Bush.
-
- It would be burden enough that George P has been praised
by the first President Bush as the most politically aware of his grandchildren.
-
- Though he graduated from law school only in May, his
occasional appearances on the campaign trail draw more crowds than many
members of the cabinet or Congress.
-
- His dark, matinee-idol looks once made him one of People
magazine's 100 most eligible bachelors.
-
- But his bloodlines offer more than fame. Through his
mother, Columba, he is half-Mexican. That has plunged him into the heart
of the Republican Party's most ambitious project in decades: the wooing
of the exploding Latino population.
-
- Last year, the US Census Bureau said Latinos had overtaken
blacks to become the largest ethnic minority, with 14 per cent of the population.
By mid-century, demographers estimate, one in four Americans will be Latino.
-
- At one event George P attended during last month's Republican
convention in New York, activists began chanting "Bush 2020",
predicting the year of his run for the White House.
-
- He flew to New Mexico, the most heavily Latino state,
this week to help launch a drive for Hispanic votes, entitled "Nos
conocemos", or "We know each other".
-
- Al Gore won New Mexico by 366 votes four years ago, closer
even than Florida. The state looks tied again this year. Nationally, Republicans
aim to win 40 per cent of the Hispanic vote, up from 35 per cent in 2000.
-
- New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson, himself
Hispanic, warned his party that conceding Republicans 40 per cent of Latino
voters would cost them the presidential election. To some of Mr Bush's
closest aides, the stakes are even higher than a single election.
-
- Making a campaign stop with George P in Las Cruces, a
scrubby desert town near the Texan border, Alberto Gonzalez, the White
House legal chief said the Republicans' future was in the balance.
-
- "I don't think the Republican party can continue
to grow unless it does a better job of attracting Hispanic support,"
said Mr Gonzalez, arguably the most powerful Hispanic in America.
-
- For years, Hispanics were loyal Democrats, as the party
of the civil rights movement and better conditions for migrant workers.
-
- Now Republicans think new generations of Hispanics are
ripe for the picking, as they start businesses, buy houses, and leave memories
of welfare cheques behind.
-
- Speaking in near-fluent Spanish to Republicans at a local
factory, George P urged them: "Let people know my uncle knows our
values: faith in God, faith in the family, faith in the community."
-
- An open-necked shirt, blue blazer and playboy's stubble
made George P look like European royalty, somehow transported into the
gathering of New Mexico politicians, with their brown suits, name badges
and sweating brows.
-
- In an interview afterwards, he said that in the past,
Republicans had done little to win Hispanic votes.
-
- Today, he argued, "the entitlement programmes of
the past are out the window, and our message is more in tune with the community.
-
- "The civil rights era is, I believe, over. The new
civil rights for Hispanics are education and economic empowerment. Not
to mention the fact that Hispanics are very Catholic, so family values,
whether you're talking about abortion or the social questions of our day,
tend to be more conservative."
-
- Until recently, politicians campaigning among Hispanics
did little more than insert mangled Spanish greetings into their standard
speeches.
-
- George P dismissed such pandering as "mariachi politics",
referring to Mexican bands hired for celebrations.
-
- "Sprinkling a few phrases in Spanish, those kind
of tactics were for the last century."
-
- Asked about his own political ambitions, George P murmured
that he had "no definite plans at all. I'm just starting my legal
practice, and my priority is getting my uncle elected".
-
- He admitted that his Hispanic lineage was a prized political
asset in the new America. "But so," he said with a level gaze,
"is being a Bush."
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/14/
wus14.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/14/ixworld.html
|