valenz@AUSTIN.UTEXAS.EDU
Interesting read from a colleague here at UT.
Angela Valenzuela
Time for a Latino
Political Party?
Frustrated Hispanic-American voters might strike out on
their own. Then what?
By TERRI E. GIVENS
October 02, 2014
In the late 1800s, disgruntled farmers in the Midwest and
South decided they could no longer support the Democratic or Republican
Parties. Neither of the major parties was responsive to their concerns amid
crop failures and falling prices during a recession, so the farmers decided to
throw their weight behind an upstart, the Populist or People’s Party<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_org_populist.html>.
White and black farmers joined together, even in the South, to support
candidates who called for the federal government to provide credit and
financial support during a time of low crop yields and economic downturn. They
succeeded in electing <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_org_populist.html>
governors, congressmen and hundreds of minor officials and legislators,
primarily throughout the Midwest. The party was geographically concentrated,
which allowed them to focus their efforts to elect congressional candidates.
The Populists lasted only a few years as an independent
entity, but their success clearly got the attention of the mainstream parties.
Most important, it had a lasting impact on policy, even beyond the issues
pushed by the farmers. Many of the Populists’ demands<http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his1302/populism.html>
became law by the 1920s—including the direct election of U. S. senators, the
development of a progressive federal income tax and the availability of
short-term credit in rural areas.
Latinos in the United States are now confronting a
dilemma similar to the one faced by the farmers. A recent Gallup poll<http://www.gallup.com/poll/176180/hispanics-name-immigration-top-problem.aspx?utm_source=WWW&utm_medium=csm&utm_campaign=syndication>
indicates that the number of Latinos ranking immigration as a top issue doubled
since the first half of this year. Yet Latinos have been forced to endure
bitter disappointment from a Democratic president who has broken many
immigration promises, in no small measure because the Republican-led House of
Representatives refuses to act on immigration reform in Congress. The
president’s decision to defer deportation of newly arrived children—a decision
announced just five months before the 2012 presidential election—increased
enthusiasm for Obama among Latinos; 71 percent of the record 11.2 million Latinos
who turned out to vote cast their ballot for Obama.
Many of them are now deeply disappointed. The
president—who had campaigned in 2008 on a pledge to reform the immigration
system—again promised to make the issue an early and top priority during his
second term. Congress stymied those efforts, so Obama pledged to take executive
action—only to delay it until after the midterms. No wonder a new Pew Research
Center poll<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/09/23/hispanic-democrats-are-really-down-on-their-partys-immigration-efforts/>
shows that a majority of Latino voters think the Democratic Party is doing a
poor job on immigration, and a different recent survey indicates substantially
dampened enthusiasm<http://www.latinodecisions.com/blog/2014/09/08/did-dems-miss-an-opportunity-for-latino-mobilization/>
for Obama and the Democrats among Latino voters because of inaction on
immigration reform. Even as the president tried to smooth over differences this
week at an appearance before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus annual gala,
some frustrated Latino activists<http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/after-obamas-punt-maybe-latinos-should-sit-election-out-110728.html?ml=m_b3_1#.VBT83hYhD_y>
are contemplating deliberately sitting out the midterm election to make
Democrats pay a price at the polls.
Many of them are now deeply disappointed. The
president—who had campaigned in 2008 on a pledge to reform the immigration
system—again promised to make the issue an early and top priority during his
second term. Congress stymied those efforts, so Obama pledged to take executive
action—only to delay it until after the midterms. Now wonder a new Pew Research
Center poll
shows that a majority of Latino voters think the Democratic Party is doing a
poor job on immigration, and a different recent survey indicates substantially
dampened enthusiasm
http://www.latinodecisions.com/blog/2014/09/08/did-dems-miss-an-opportunity-for-latino-mobilization/
for Obama and the Democrats among Latino voters because of inaction on
immigration reform. Because of their profound disappointment with the
Democrats’ inaction, some frustrated Latino activists
are even contemplating deliberately sitting out the midterm election to make
Democrats pay a price at the polls.
But are these the only alternatives—stay home and sulk,
or accept the better of two bad options? Could it be time for Latinos to follow
the path forged by the disgruntled farmers? Or follow the model in Europe,
where third parties are fairly common?
In Europe, minorities and special interests often form
their own parties when they feel their issues are not being championed by
larger parties. This is most easily done in countries with proportional
representation
which allows more than one representative for each district and—unlike
winner-take-all systems like most of the United States—allocate seats based on
the percentage of votes garnered by each contender. In such a system, minor
parties are often able to gain enough support to win seats in legislatures.
Examples include Basque nationalists in Spain, as well as Green and far-right
parties across Europe. In places like Britain that have majoritarian systems
with single-member districts, geographically concentrated parties like the
Scottish National Party are able to win seats in Parliament. Even here in the
United States, the occasional small party or independent can win a seat,
including in the U.S. Senate. (One example: Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont
Independent who caucuses with Democrats.)
As relative newcomers, immigrants often don’t have the
money or other resources needed to start a new party. Far-right party leaders,
on the other hand, tend to come from existing parties and have a built-in
support network.
Indeed, in Europe’s multi-party system, it has been
anti-immigrant far right parties that have taken hold. We have an analogue in
the Tea Party
in the United States. Yet the Tea Party is not truly a separate party—at least
for now, it is a faction within the Republican Party that has managed to set
the agenda on issues like immigration.
By and large, majoritarian electoral rules like ours
produce two-party systems. There is no hope in the foreseeable future that
those rules will change and that means that small parties, like the Populist
Party, inevitably disappear or, like the Libertarian
and Green
Parties,
remain on the fringes of a system dominated by the two major parties.
Still, there are some reasons—42 million of them, to
start with—to think that a Latino party could be different. Various ethnic
groups have historically wielded a great deal of influence within political
parties, particularly at the local and state levels. The German-American
Alliance, the Ancient Order of Hibernians
(“the oldest and largest Irish Catholic organization in the United States”) and
the Immigrant’s Protection League all mobilized against the restriction of
immigration
in the early 20th century. Latinos also have an important advantage which
supports the idea of starting a separate party: They still tend to be
geographically concentrated in such states as California, Florida and Texas
which allows them to focus their efforts, like the Populist party did in the
1890s.
Another relevant historical example is the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
Fifty years ago Fannie Lou Hamer appealed to the conscience of the Democratic
Party, asking for the Democratic National Committee’s credential committee to
recognize their delegation in place of the all-white Democratic delegation from
the state. The leadership came to a compromise and agreed to seat two members of
the delegation, but the white delegation walked off and wouldn’t accept the
compromise. Nevertheless, the example set by the MFDP would have a clear impact
on the Democratic Party in the South going forward. Despite the prospect of
losing white support in the South, the Democratic Party supported civil rights
legislation and gained the support of a majority of black voters.
An ethnic party did arise in the United States in the
late 1960s as the Chicano Movement organized and called for a third party to focus
on self-determination for Mexican-Americans. The main focus of organizers was
in Texas, where La Raza Unida
party won seats on city councils, school boards, and even ran a candidate for
governor in 1972 and 1978. However, the party’s support declined as party
activism slowed in the late 1970s.
Hispanic Americans are in a better political position
today than either the MFDP was five decades ago or even La Raza Unida was in
the ‘70s. In terms of representation, there is the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus, and the 113th Congress has a record number of Latino elected
officials
With 35 representatives and three senators. Most of these representatives are
Democrats, and the immigration issue has been a high priority, as evidenced by
the scathing criticism recently lobbed at the president by Representatives Raul
Grijalva
(Ariz.) and Luis Gutierrez
(Ill.). Organizations like the National Council of La Raza
the Mexican American
Legal Defense
and Education Fund and a variety of pro-immigration organizations have lobbied
for immigration reform and deportation relief. How long will it be before such
groups grow exasperated with the Democrats’ failure to move these issues
forward?
A Latino party might even help solve the biggest obstacle
to greater political clout—boosting turnout. At the time of the last midterm
election, data from the Pew Research Center
shows, Latinos chalked up a sharp increase in the number of eligible voters,
while the number of actual voters is increasing more slowly. Also, as Pew
notes, “even among eligible voters, Latino participation rates have lagged
behind that of other groups in recent elections.” For example, 31.2 percent of
Latino eligible voters said they voted in 2010, compared with nearly half of
white eligible voters and 44 percent of black eligible voters. An independent
Latino Party or a cohesive Latino bloc within an existing party that focused on
the issues most important to Latinos could spur increased participation—and
thus more political clout.
The smartest approach in the short run might be for
Latinos to work within the existing party system, even as they continue to
organize and swell their ranks within the electorate. In the
long-term—especially if Democrats and Republicans continue to disappoint—they
will need to assess their potential for working together as a voting bloc and
whether this could lead to support for a party. Is this a long shot? Yes, but
it’s better than sitting on the sidelines or waiting for others to act. How
long will it be before Hispanic-Americans’ patience runs out?
Terri E. Givens is associate professor in the Department
of Government at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Legislating
Equality: The Politics of Antidiscrimination Policy in Europe, with Rhonda
Evans Case. Her website can be found at
and she is on twitter @TerriGivens.
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