If you thought buying votes was illegal and hasn’t been seen in the United States since the days of Tammany Hall and the old Chicago political machine, then you may be surprised by the latest attempt by the Koch brothers to paint the Republican Party in a more favorable light among Latino voters.
As part of something called the Libre Initiative, the Koch’s plan to spend some $9 million to encourage Hispanics to vote for their party. And as part of the opening gambit in that plan, they’re handing out free Thanksgiving turkeys, and all they want in exchange is some personal information. As the New York Times reports:
“The approach — a free Thanksgiving turkey in exchange for some personal information — captures the mission of Libre, a multimillion-dollar effort financed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers and devoted to winning over Hispanics, with the message that economic freedom and smaller-government principles will yield opportunity and prosperity.”
Hey, here’s a free turkey! How do ya like me now?
The Times also notes that the Koch brothers think this is the way to show American Latinos that the GOP cares about them:
“With an increased emphasis on Hispanic outreach, the Kochs are hoping to step in where the Republican Party has, by many accounts, failed. After the 2012 presidential election — Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, won just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote — a report by the party concluded that it would have to make significant inroads with Hispanic voters to retake the White House.”
It should be noted that in addition to this Holiday munificence, Libre has also been busy spreading lies: They have accused the Democrats of killing long-anticipated immigration reform. And now Libre operatives are fanning out in 2016 swing states such as Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, and Texas.
Yet despite the obvious play at bribery, Latinos are not exactly about to change their minds. As Haydee Colina, who immigrated from Panama, told a reporter:
“It’s very good. But, of course (I) will still vote Democratic.”
Which makes the Libre Initiative just another birdbrained idea from the GOP that’s bound to fail.
Featured image by Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
