California GOP

* Gregory Rodriguez (Opinion, Nov. 10) in a reasonable but academic statement says, “Latino [voters] should not exclusively embrace the Democratic Party.” It’s too late for the Republicans, in my opinion. For Latinos, for some time to come, there is not likely to be any other choice than the Democrats. Support for Props. 187 and 209 has intoxicated Republican politicians. Like borrachos in the night, their vision of the future just two to four election cycles away is highly impaired.

Whatever else, Democratic candidates do not signal a swooning nostalgia for an Anglo, nativistic California. But California’s Republican campaigners, with rare exceptions and with the apparent endorsement of Gov. Pete Wilson, are hooked on a relentless song of cultural “we good/they bad” in election-year advertising. Such appeals may win the 187s and 209s, but they also firmly establish in Latino voters’ minds that Republicans are a Southern-centered party that does not accept California’s demographic reality. Such associations form an emotional basis for partisan voting that will last for generations.

RICHARD MAULLIN

Santa Monica