海角大神

'Sleeping giants': Is it time to put a hardworking clich茅 to rest?

鈥淪leeping giant鈥�:聽The clich茅 applied to Latino voters, but increasingly assigned to anything with great potential to which people in politics think more attention should be paid.

As William Safire , it鈥檚 almost certainly derived from Jonathan Swift鈥檚 1726 novel which features the tiny denizens of Lilliput tying down a snoozing behemoth. It鈥檚 common in politics because of its predictive power 鈥� basically, it鈥檚 satisfying to be the one identifying a force whose tremendous strength has not yet been unleashed.

The tag鈥檚 application to Latinos surfaced this week when the Pew Research Center saying that a growing population of US-born Latinos who are turning 18, along with immigrants becoming citizens, will bring the number of eligible Hispanic voters to 27.3 million, a 40 percent increase since 2008 and the most ever.

But their turnout levels have lagged behind those of other demographic groups 鈥� and the unanswered question among some is whether Donald Trump鈥檚 defiantly anti-immigrant rhetoric might help get them to the polls. 鈥淲e鈥檝e talked about the sleeping giant awakening 鈥� it only awakens when it鈥檚 attacked,鈥� Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant in California, told Bloomberg Politics.

The use of the term in this context dates back at least to the 1970s; it also has been applied, in a larger geopolitical sense, to In a January 1977 Washington Post article about whether a Latino could receive a post in new President Jimmy Carter鈥檚 administration, one activist said his community was 鈥渁 sleeping giant no more.鈥� 聽Five years later, a report by the New York City-based Institute for Puerto Rican Policy (now the National Institute for Latino Policy) 鈥淚f this sleeping electoral giant can be awakened, the political consequences for New York and the nation would be considerable.鈥�

By 1997, some already were sick of it. Pointing to large turnout in California in the previous year鈥檚 election, Los Angeles Times columnist Frank del Olmo somewhat over-optimistically 聽聽鈥淗aving had to write about the 鈥榮leeping giant鈥� more times than I care to remember during a long career in journalism, it's nice to finally put that clich茅 to rest.鈥�

Do Latinos have an established group political identity to actually qualify for gianthood? It鈥檚 often said they are so diverse, hailing from so many different countries, that they resist being lumped under one umbrella. In fact, a 2012 Pew survey that just 24 percent of those surveyed used 鈥淟atino/Hispanic鈥� to describe themselves.

鈥淭here is no sleeping giant 鈥� only political subjects whose variegated actions and intentions are obscured by this limited vision of Latino empowerment,鈥� New York University professor Cristina Beltr谩n in her 2010 book 鈥淭he Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity.鈥�

But in their 2014 book, 鈥淟atino America: How America鈥檚 Most Dynamic Population Is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation,鈥� political scientists Matt Barreto and Gary M. Segura : 鈥淎s suggested by the cross-generational Latino reaction to some issues, such as anti-immigrant initiatives, Latino commonalities are gelling into such a [group] identity.鈥�

Here are just a few of the other sleeping giants that have been identified fairly recently:

• Millennials. A think tank鈥檚 comprehensive survey of younger voters in 2014 鈥渁 demographic sleeping giant with the power to revolutionize the political landscape of the United States.鈥�

• Ted Cruz. The Post鈥檚 Chris Cillizza wrote in November that the Texas GOP senator was trending favorably in polls in an article , 鈥淭ed Cruz is the sleeping giant in the Republican race.鈥�

• Evangelical 海角大神s. They were in 1976 and again last year, after CBN News鈥檚 David Brody if the uproar over Kentucky clerk Kim Davis鈥檚 refusal to issue marriage licenses would motivate that demographic.

Chuck McCutcheon writes his "Speaking Politics" blog exclusively for Politics Voices.

Interested in decoding what candidates are saying? Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark鈥檚 latest book, 鈥淒oubletalk: The Language, Code, and Jargon of a Presidential Election,鈥� has .