Disillusioned Hispanics May Skip Midterms, Poll Suggests By

[pampango]

Source: New York Times

(A)lthough many voters are disillusioned with the political process, Latino voters are particularly dejected, and many may sit these elections out, according to voters, Latino organizations, and political consultants and candidates. A pollreleased Tuesday found that though Latinos strongly back Democrats over Republicans, 65 percent to 22 percent, in the Congressional elections just four weeks away, only 51 percent of Latino registered voters say they will absolutely go to the polls, compared to 70 percent of all registered voters.

The other side in the immigration debate is suffering no such lack of enthusiasm. One measure of its high spirits is the dance card of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. He conducts raids in Latino neighborhoods that have led critics to label him a racist and the Justice Department to start a racial profiling investigation. But he is a pariah who is also in demand.

The results of the poll released Tuesday, by the Pew Hispanic Center, suggest that the raging debate over Arizona’s law and the lack of Congressional action on immigration reform may have turned off many Latinos.

That has prompted a variety of campaigns to motivate Latino voters, including radio ads in Phoenix and eight other cities sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and various advocacy groups accusing Republicans of obstructionism when it comes to big changes in immigration laws that President Obama and Congressional Democrats have called for.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/us/politics/06immig.html

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Well, if the NYT says so.........

:eyes:

[Cal33]

2. I hope there is enough time to have a sufficient number of minds changed by Nov. 2

[bherrera]

6. Mistake made: No such thing as Latino voters

The word Latino is an invented word, it means very little in reality. The spanish speaking community in the USA is diverse, includes many sectors, and some of them are not likely to vote for the Democrats. Cubans, for example like to vote for the Republicans. I have studied this phenomenom, and it is caused by the way they link Republicans to anti-Castro policies.

The others are a mixture of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, and other small groups. They are not people wiht a democratic tradition, and think both major parties like to hurt their interests. Which is true.

[EFerrari]

7. You couldn't be more wrong.

There is a very strong democratic tradition in Latin America and it persists even stronger than here in the United States as witnessed by the vigor of their trade unions and political parties. Why do you think the United States' business interests have had to work so hard to subvert democracy in Latin America if there was nothing to subvert? And that tradition derives in no small part from the communal ethic that is part of indigenous cultures much more than it was a part of Northern European cultures at the time of the "conquest"

The last time Bush helped steal the election in Mexico, the people were out on the street for six months.

And American Latino voters vote with the Democrats. They have for a long time and they will soon be among largest voting blocks we have. Those that vote with the Republicans as the gusanos do are a minority that shrinks every year.

[MikeW]

22. sorry Ef

Your a quite mistaken.

I know many Hispanics/Latinos in FL that are devout Catholics and WILL NOT vote Democrat purely on religious grounds alone (abortion).

[EFerrari]

23. And I know many devout Catholics who are anti-abortion

who do not vote abortion. Now what do we do? The numbers say, Latinos vote with Democrats. I am not mistaken. :)

ETA: And, the kids also vote with us. Latinos are also the YOUNGEST voting block in the United States.

[MikeW]

27. Kids?

lets hope you mean educated adults.

[EFerrari]

28. I mean young voters. And, no disrespect intended.

This is all actually good news. We are constantly hearing about how conservative Latino voters are but that's spin. They are mostly working people who vote with working people for Democrats and for equality and for women's rights more than their parents did.

ETA: Mike, I apologize if I was rude to you. It's been a long primary season. :evilgrin:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

34. So the 2 to 1 ass whooping the GOP got last time when it came to the he

so called Hispanic vote was what?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. What exactly does "They are not people wiht a democratic tradition" mean? nt

[slackmaster]

3. Unrec for the common mistake of trying to pigeon-hole Latino voters

:nuke:

[rocktivity]

4. What's Spanish for

:boring:
rocktivity

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RedCloud]

8. es tiempo ya de que el pueblo gane una.

[EFerrari]

9. I'm out in Santa Clara County for Boxer

and my Spanglish is getting a good work out. Es un placer hablar con los vecinos de mi barrio. :)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

10. I don't want to hear the nonvoters complain if the Republicans win.

My Spanish is rusty, but I believe the term is "Callate!"

[opihimoimoi]

11. Latinos are not dumb to fall for that shit...they noes who is on their side...its not the GOPers.

They, along w the rest of us, wish a better nation for everyone...

They got no choice

We have no choice

If we Fail....

The GOP Crazies will rule us into the toilet as did BUSH

[jaysunb]

12. Of course they're voting for Whitman & Brewer

and Trancredo, Buck, Fiorini and McLame !

Such BULLSHIT !

Maybe they only polled South Florida. :shrug:

[Mike Marble]

13. One would hope the behavior of the GOP is galvanizing Hispanic voters.

Let's hope the Times is wrong.

I want to see big Hispanic turnout here in California, and I think Meg Whitman just helped.

[EFerrari]

15. I could be misremembering this but it seems to me that the Pew Hispanic Center

is the org that came up with the wrong numbers that claimed Bush gained Latino voters in 2004, which he did not. Anyone that calls themselves a "Hispanic" center instead of a "Latino" center is already tipping off their political bent, in any case. Very few of us are or want to be identified as Spanish. lol

Welcome to DU, Mike Marble.

[Mike Marble]

16. Thank you. See below.

Translate my name into Spanish and see if it doesn't ring a bell.

[EFerrari]

17. Wait a minute. 1932? That Mike Marble?!

[Mike Marble]

20. He's the one. Quite an inspiring figure.

I read his autobiography once upon a time.

[EFerrari]

21. I come to this history very late. There was a silence in the family

because my grandfather was an officer working for the other side.

"El 31 de enero, un consejo de guerra presidido por el general Manuel Antonio Castañeda juzgó y condenó a Agustín Farabundo Martí y a los líderes estudiantiles Alfonso Luna Calderón y Mario Zapata a morir fusilados en el Cementerio General de San Salvador, previo traslado desde sus celdas en la Penitenciaría Central. Allí cayeron, bajo las balas asesinas del pelotón de fusilamiento, con la dignidad de los héroes revolucionarios, Farabundo Martí y sus compañeros."


I didn't learn of this event until I'd been supporting the FMLN from this distance during the war. The world is very small in reality. The only comfort we take from this information is that we found out he wasn't out in the provinces killing people during La Matanza. Even so. My mom was born about five weeks later.

[Mike Marble]

31. I was there briefly in '82, '87, and '89...

...researching a master's thesis on revolutionary trade unionism in El Salvador and doing a little bit of leftie journalism. Scary, ugly times. I saw too many bodies. People who I had met or interviewed and with whom I sympathized were killed, one when the rightist death squads blew up his union hall. But also, there were vibrant popular organizations, and factory workers more politically sophisticated than US college students (which may not be saying too much).

I met D'Aubuisson. He had eyes like a snake.

I recall vividly the day when three reporters were killed during the 1989 election campaign; I came to the sudden realization that I no longer needed to be there and left the next day, a week earlier than planned.

Your family lived that history I was studying way back then. It is a small world.

[EFerrari]

32. My uncle had gone back to San Salvador when you were there.

He did well here and went home to open a resort. He was ARENA down to the ground. His kids went to school with D'Abuisson's kids. I haven't spoken to him since 1981 or so.

This may make you laugh, though. There was a benefit for the FMLN at the Japan Center in San Francisco and all my local family took me there to see my favorite Jackson Browne for my birthday in '85. After a few minutes, my dear lovely godmother says to my mom, "Rosie, these people are all communists." And my mom says, "And the music is good, too!"

lol

[Celeborn Skywalker]

18. I don't know about that.

I live in New Mexico and many more people identify as "Hispanic" than "Latino" here. I also don't think the word "Hispanic" is associated with solely "Spanish". I think it's more closely seen as Mestizo or something similiar.

Maybe it's a regional thing, I don't know.

[EFerrari]

19. Hispanic is more often deployed against mestizaje than Latino is,

to emphasize the Spanish element, in my experience. But, you're right. Usage varies with region.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

24. Now that I think about it, you may be right.

Here in NM, we have a section of our Spanish-speaking population, especially in the northern part of the state, that insists at every chance they get that they are "Spanish" and definitely not to be confused with "Mexican". I think it's somewhat racist and factually false as genetic studies have shown that northern NM hispanics are mixed with Indian also.

[EFerrari]

26. Race in this country is a kind of original insanity.

My own family emmigrated from El Salvador in the mid 50s and they didn't even realize they weren't white until they got *here*, lol.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

29. It is.

I have a friend from Italy who said the same as your grandparents. He was called a "non-white" when he lived in rural Mississippi, but was considered "white" both in his home country of Italy and New York where he later lived, lol. It does seem to be an obsession in this country

[MadMaddie]

25. Yawn...

So first it was the Dissatisfied Democratic supporters...

Then it was the Progressives....

Then it was the Gays....

Now it's the Hispanics....

Have they done the Black community yet?

Why does this sound so familiar?

[bemildred]

30. Suppressing progressive turnout is hard work.

Yawn indeed.

[David Zephyr]

33. Just the opposite is going to happen.

.

[pampango]

35. "Debate on Immigration: Helping Democrats or GOP?"

http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/2010/10/05/debate-on-immigration-helping-democrats-or-gop/



The swirling political debate around undocumented immigrants compounded with the lack of tangible progress on immigration reform is surely going to have an effect on the midterm elections–the question is what that effect will be.

Some say there will be a “protest vote” by Hispanics against the Republican party, which championed Arizona’s law, SB 1070, that was meant to target undocumented immigrants. Yet others say Hispanics are so disillusioned by broken promises over immigration reform from the Democratic party that they will stay home on election day. That’s the hunch of the Pew Hispanic Center, which released a poll saying as much this week. Then there’s the question of how the issue of immigration will affect non-immigrants at the polls.

(Randy) Altschuler (Republican and Conservative Party nominee for Congress from New York’s 1st District on Long Island) took pains to establish himself as pro-immigrant, but against illegal immigration, saying the country needed to enforce existing laws and stem the flow of illegal migrants over borders he described as “porous.” The congressional candidate says he opposes amnesty for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States and opposes most suggestions for comprehensive immigration reform. “There needs to be a process and there needs to be a penalty for people here illegally,” he said.

Altschuler rejected the premise of the Brian Lehrer Show Question of the Day – True/False: The United States Has Too Many Immigrants.

“People aren’t upset about immigrants coming to this country. And irregardless we have a proud, Dominican, Mexican, lots of different communities here. That’s not the issue. The issue is folks coming here illegally. There is not a right number of illegal immigrants. In all cases we don’t support illegal immigration. We want legal immigrants…There is no such thing as too many immigrants. This is a country of immigrants. The question is illegal immigration. That’s what we oppose. Not immigration. Of course not.”
-------------------
"We want legal immigrants…There is no such thing as too many immigrants." - I imagine that Altschuler will want to retract that statement in the not-too-distant future. Increasing legal immigration enough would eliminate illegal immigration, but that's probably not something that he (or his base) want to see happen.

The audio of the The Brian Lehrer Show (10/4/10) on the issue of immigration is at: http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2010/oct/04/30-issues-immigration/

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

36. 70% of registered voters, my ass!

It is rare for 60% turnout and then usually in only a handful of states. 40% is more likely.

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/ttw/trends_map_data_table.aspx?trendID=19&assessmentID=5&year=2006

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

37. K to expose 70% BULLSHIT

:kick: