True enough. Many Latino Democrat politicians have endorsed Hillary--even though they disagree with her on Iraq, Iran, military spending, US-Mexico wall, licenses for undocumented workers--and who knows what else. They prefer her to Richardson or Obama--politicians with policy positions more in sync with their stated priorities on key issues.
It seems to me that there are three possibilities for this odd alignment: 1) Latino pols have been reassured that Hillary's with them on the issues and will tack back once elected; 2) Latino pols care more about the spoils of victory; or 3) Latino pols are being taken for fools.
My gut tells me it's probably all three.
However, Latino pols and their endorsements is an important issue--one which is on the minds of many. Patricia Campos at LatinosNJ writes:
For me, what the performance of the presidential candidates in Las Vegas showed is that our community has a long way to go before our issues and real solutions to them become an integral part of a presidential candidate’s platform. As Latino leaders, we must demand that both political parties give us more than empty rhetoric and TV sound-bites in Spanish. To get our support, either party must do more than just show up to a debate in Spanish TV and/or show us a list of political endorsements. They must convince us that the policies they will put into place as the next president of the US will enable Latino families to achieve the American Dream.Agreed. But with 40 million Latinos, how is it that we continue to get the equivalent of shiny beads and trinkets when our "leaders" sit down to negotiate the terms of endorsements?
I think that we have a real leadership crisis within our community. Who is grooming our leaders? I rail about this a lot on my blog. Why should we be be content to be thrown a bone by the front runner? If we are sitting around waiting for the spoils of victory or assuming that HC will fall back in line after winning this thing, we taking a big gamble.
ReplyDeleteI hope that I get to eat my words should HC take it all and come out swinging like a real progressive.
Members of the U.S. Congressional Hispanic Caucus seem to only reflect their own self-interests. The example of Henry B. Gonzalez has long been forgotten. They represent all that is ugly and corrupt about American politics.
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