Hispanics will not Vote in 2010 and 2012, Consequently, Obama becomes a One Term President because of Immigration Fiasco

 

SANTA FE, NM (By Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido News Network) July 8, 2010 — The Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block Arizona's anti-immigration law is a small step in the right direction but it does not even begin to live up to President Obama's promise of Immigration Reform in the first year of his presidency.

 

The process for Immigration Reform has been poorly handled by President Obama. A much better savvy process would have been to take the debate to the U.S. Senate for the entire world to see the racism of Republican senators who similar to racist vitriolic mud throwing of the 2006 and 2007 Senate immigration debate would have seen the Republicans thrust the deadly dagger further into the backs of Hispanics.

 

Hispanics basically mistrust Republicans and their increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric and demagoguery only adds to the alienation. Republicans are essentially cutting off their noses to spite their faces but a more appropriate label is "instant gratification." Their demagoguery makes for instant headlines back home but the reality is they are cutting their own throats in future years' elections.

 

In one and only one characteristic, Hispanics are like elephants, the Republican symbol.

 

It is said elephants never forget. Hispanics will always remember who stabbed us in the back. Yester year John McCain was a sponsor of Immigration Reform but today the real John McCain believes "All Hispanics need to be deported."  McCain has no scruples. He will say anything to get elected.

 

The Hispanic Community

 

A Pew study released before the 2008 presidential election indicated Hispanics placed immigration second to last on a list of seven policy priorities.

Hispanics formally ranked issues such as bilingual education, immigration reform and affirmative action down on the priority list and at the top of the list of priorities were essentially the same basic issues everyone else sees as important. We need to purchase homes, we need good health care, we need good roads, good schools.

But in recent months, since Arizona passed an immigration law that critics say could lead to racial profiling, priorities have changed. More recent surveys indicate the immigration issue has risen to the top for all Hispanics.

 

So that everyone understands the importance of Immigration Reform is essentially the issue that will allow the Undocumented to become Americans, all American Hispanics have picked up the mantle to make Immigration Reform the issue for all Hispanics — undocumented and American Hispanics.

 

To attack a family friend, neighbor, relative, or just someone else with a brown face is an attack on all Hispanics. We are now more united than we ever have been except of course, for the Puerto Ricans and Cubans who live in a different world who are oblivious to the plight of Mexican Americans and others from Central and South America.

 

Federal Immigration Reform

 

In a high profile speech last week, Obama called on Congress to take action on the issue, but common knowledge is all see virtually no probability of Congress taking up Immigration Reform before the midterm elections or in 2011 nor 2012.

In addition to being an important substantive issue for Hispanics, Immigration Reform is also considered a "symbolic issue of significant importance," said David Ayón, a political analyst and senior research associate at the Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

"That's the subtext to the whole immigration issue in Washington. Will Hispanics turn out for Obama's re-election the way they did for his election?" he asked.

Voter participation is down across the board in midterm elections, but Gonzalez said among Hispanics, turnout is especially unpredictable right now.

"Going into 2010 and 2012, there is a big question mark on Hispanic behavior," he said. "Hispanics have suffered so badly from the economic depression. Hispanics are very angry about the immigration debate, and we're getting killed in home foreclosures."

The Obama administration was supported by Hispanics, but the community can only be duped once and will never forget.

"Hispanic voters are not like independents who go back and forth. ... They don't swing Republican. They get mad and stay home," Gonzalez said.

And unless the party in power delivers on immigration reform, Gonzalez said that going into 2010, "If I was the Democrats, I would be very concerned."

 

The Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block Arizona's anti-immigration law

 

The Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block Arizona's anti-immigration law does not go far enough for Hispanics — the fastest-growing demographic group in the country — to forgive and forget the Obama administration's many failed promises on immigration matters. The only way to kill the racist cancer of Arizona SB 1070 and to stop the cancer spreading across the United States is Immigration Reform.

The lawsuit asks to declare Arizona's SB 1070 unconstitutional and block the law from going into effect on July 29.

The legal action seeks to stop the enforcement of the law on constitutional grounds, but more importantly it attempts to reassert the federal government's authority over immigration.

"Setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility," agreed Attorney General Eric Holder. "Seeking to address the issue through a patchwork of state laws will only create more problems than it solves."

But there is more to the Arizona law than its ability to create problems. According to Jon Garrido, "The law is completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality, it encourages racial profiling, is unconstitutional and is a violation of basic human rights. We need to move this issue to the top of the agenda and break the Republican block in the Senate. The time has come to act."

This, of course, is easier said than done. Even though Tuesday's lawsuit and last week's speech by the President have brought immigration to the forefront of political debate, it remains doubtful Democrats are willing to take up such a controversial issue in an election year.

Public opinion research shows two contradictory findings: A majority of Americans support the Arizona law, but an equal or greater number of them support comprehensive immigration reform.

But the contradiction is only in appearance. While public frustration over the federal government's inability to resolve the illegal immigration problem has brought support to the odious Arizona law, most Americans would prefer Washington to take the lead in enacting a rational, humane, comprehensive solution to the crisis.

 

South Africa's Afrikaners and Arizona Republicans are one and the same ("A mimetic polyalloy")

 

Arizona Republicans are the reincarnation of the Afrikaners who were the architects of racism as evident by South Africa's Apartheid, a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority non-white inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by white people was maintained.

Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times, but apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948. New legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups "black", "white", "colored", and "Indian," and residential areas were segregated, sometimes by means of forced removals. From 1958, black people were deprived of their citizenship. The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people. (This is identical to Arizona using tax credits to fund charter schools where white children attend rather than fund public schools where Hispanic children attend.)

Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance and violence as well as a long trade embargo against South Africa. A series of popular uprisings and protests were met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread and became more violent, state organizations responded with increasing repression and state-sponsored violence.

Reforms to apartheid in the 1980s failed to quell the mounting opposition, and in 1990 President Frederik Willem de Klerk began negotiations to end apartheid, culminating in multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, which were won by the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela. The vestiges of apartheid still shape South African politics and society.

 

The similarities of South Africa apartheid and Arizona are starkly profound and un-American.

 

In South Africa apartheid, Afrikaners were the only ones eligible to vote and on voter polling, nearly 100% of Afrikaners approved of Apartheid policies.

 

In Arizona, news sources use Rasmussen Reports daily tracking polls to shows 65% of the nation's voters strongly approve of Arizona SB 1070.

But the similarities of Afrikaners or Arizonans having a majority of voters strongly approving enforcing Arizona SB 1070 does not make it right.

 

For a time, the anti-Hispanic sentiments of Arizona and the United States will prevail but the words of Mahatma Gandhi have never been more timely, "There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it — always.”

Undoubtedly, the Justice Department's action was urgently needed. But until the President goes beyond words and takes action to pass fair and just comprehensive reform that recognizes the immigrants' contributions to their new country, many Hispanics — tired of empty words and broken promises — will sit out the 2010 and 2012 elections.  

 

Consequently, Obama becomes a one term president.