Following the last presidential election, the Latino Vote was all the rage in national media, and political junkies had all at least bought a Spanish dictionary to learn a talking point or two, but the actual power behind the phenomenon has begun to be questioned in some circles.

It was a surprising segment from the Fusion network, a new media source geared for English-speaking Latinos, that posted the hypothesis that the "Latino Vote" may be more hype than reality according to the segment posted to the network's Web site on Tuesday.

In the video, Fusion host Alicia Menendez spoke to Gabriel Arana, a senior editor at The American Prospect, who wrote an article entitled the "Mythical Monolith."

Arana posits that the power of the Latino vote is not as great a force as it is being portrayed as in the media, for a variety of reasons.

"For one thing, Latinos tend to be younger than the population at large," Arana told Menendez. "So for Latinos born on U.S. soil - second generation Latinos - the average age is 18, barely eligible (to vote) and young people are notoriously apathetic voters."

Arana also said that Latinos tend to be concentrated heavily in states that are already solidly leaning to one party or the other, and that a high number of Latinos are not U.S. citizens and are therefore unable to vote.

Menendez took slight exception to another assertion made by Arana in his assessment.

"Immigration has neither the sticking power nor the mobilizing effect that slavery, Jim Crow, and persistent discrimination have had for African Americans," Menendez quoted Arana as having written.

"I have to think that it is a litmus test," she said, suggesting that it was something that could be a game-ender for politicians who come up short of Latino voters' expectations.

Whatever the reality, the GOP acknowledged taking a hit from the Latino base, vowing to woo the demographic with a multimillion dollar investment in seven Hispanic-heavy states and plans to expand into 11 more in 2014.

If the power of the Latino vote has reached "mythic" proportions, then the Republican Party may have jumped overboard chasing a few Salsa-singing sirens.

Thomas Elias of the Californian says that the GOP's efforts are laughable at best, and patronizing at worst.

"You don't sway the nation's fastest-growing ethnic voting bloc by spending less on it than on many campaigns for a single seat in Congress," Elias said this week in an opinion piece. "You also don't win over Latinos simply by saying you're going to be hanging around their neighborhoods and pestering them from time to time."

Elias contends that the Republican party will not move toward key positions held by most Latinos, and short of running a really "cool" celebrity candidate, these efforts will not produce tangible results.

On the flip side, should Arana's assessment of the Latino voting habit be on the money, it will be a big disappointment for the Democratic Party in the State of Texas, where Dems are hedging their bets on a motivated Hispanic vote to "turn Texas blue."

This week the Latino Democratic activist group Pa'delante Tejas is on the attack against Denton County Republicans for an e-mail which uses a derogatory nickname for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and follows by pointing out the presumed Lt. Governor candidate's ethnicity.

"Speaking of Wendy Davis, I personally am concerned about the 'super women' ticket of Abortion Barbie with Hispanic Sen Leticia Van De Putte as her running mate," the e-mail read. "We have our work cut out for us to dispute the Dems' false accusations of a Republican 'war on women.' GOP ladies, it's up to us to speak out and speak up for the Republican Party and what its pro-life, pro-family, pro-jobs practices mean to women and their families!"

Clearly the blue team in Texas has viewed the remarks as an ethnic snub.

Following the publicity of the Hispanic vote in the victory of Obama's last election, Democrats in the heavily Hispanic Lone Star State are banking as much on the Latino vote as the GOP may be elsewhere.

If it turns out to be, in fact, a "mythical monolith" then perhaps there will be plenty of disappointment to be spread around.