The big question since the GOP lost the Latino vote in the 2008 presidential election has been: How serious are Republicans about including Latinos in the GOP?

The answer, fresh from the heart of GOP country — Waco, Texas — is not at all!

It seems some Latino Republicans in McLennan County recognized that their local GOP is not doing enough to go after Latinos, blacks and young adult voters. Fed up, they created their own club this past fall and call themselves the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan County (HRCMC).

Needless to say, this declaration surprised the founders of the Hispanic Republican group.

“I expected to be hit by the Democratic Party, not by Republicans,” said Duke Machado, the creator of the group.

Janet Jackson, a conservative activist from Bosque County who is working with Machado on the club, said the party has a bad track record when it comes to bringing minorities and young people into the fold.

Jackson said the club’s mission includes recruiting Republicans to fill empty precinct chairs in minority neighborhoods.

The Republican Party lacks precinct chairs in about 40 precincts countywide.

The idea that the main GOP party would disassociate itself from a group that only wants to grow their party is laughable and underscores the fact that the GOP is its own worst enemy when it comes to preventing their party from stagnating into irrelevance.

Yet, this isn’t the whole story.

When the longtime GOP county leader M.A. Taylor was pressed about what was so wrong about the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan County recruiting members to be precinct chairs in minority neighborhoods, what emerged from Taylor’s mouth was a clear sign of how little he knows — or wants to know — Latinos.

Taylor’s response was:

“They think because there are 92 precincts in McLennan County, we need to have 92 precinct chairs,” Taylor said. “What they fail to understand is about half of those precincts are minority precincts, and you’re not going to find any Republicans in them.”

Maybe it’s because nobody asked them.

A casual review of the Latino voting record shows that, historically, Latinos have identified with Republican platforms. It’s only recently since the GOP leadership surrendered to the wingnuts of their party and have let them dictate the party’s message, that is offensive to most Latinos, has the relationship been strained between Latinos and the GOP.

If the