psalazar9@satx.rr.com
Let's get serious/realistic; we might have the NUMBERS,
population-wise, to form another party, but how many of us actually get out the
vote to make any difference? I don't
believe either party can do much for us, if we do not bother to get off our
butts and PARTICIPATE in sufficient numbers to have some influence. If more of us GOTV (strength in numbers), the
Democratic or Republican party would be more responsive to our needs..... or
maybe then, our own party would be a viable choice, but - how many voted when
La Raza Unida was formed? Would we only
be biting our nose, to spite our face?
Placido Salazar, USAF Retired Vietnam Veteran
-----Original Message-----
From: Foro de comunicacion
para Latinos del suroeste de los EEUU [mailto:LARED-L@LISTSERV.CYBERLATINA.NET]
On Behalf Of
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 3:37 PMTo: LARED-L@LISTSERV.CYBERLATINA.NET
Subject: Re: [LRL] Time for a Latino Political Party?
Not only do we need a Chicano political party because
Obama is spineless but our people are getting the short end of the stick when
it comes to Immigration reform but also on the question on higher education,
truth in lending; loss of the illegally fostered housing loans which resulted
in many Raza losing their homes but also their life'ss saving and etc. There
are many reasons for a new party. Last the illegal jailing of Ramsey Muniz on
trumped drug possession.
Agustin Cebada
from Aztlan
wrote:
Establish a new latino party, really? Why is it whenever
an issue doesn't go our way as promptly as desired, some clock-watcher always
says it's time to radicalize into a separate party? And why would the author of
the Hispanic American voter article below compare our situation to farmers? And
even if a latino party were to be formed wouldn't it be a matter of time before
that party would split itself into another separate latino party and another,
and another...? an example of a party split happened just several months ago
during memorial day remembrances; chicanos on lared-l honored the heroism of
chicano veterans who served their country and still other lared-l chicanos took
a separate approach throwing rocks not only at these same veterans but at our country
as well. How would the latino party Ms.
Givens envisions stand on everyday issues such as: recreational use of
marijuana, abortion, gay marriage, snowden's claim regarding nsa snooping,
over-regulated Hispanic businesses, the word god in the pledge of
allegiance, bombing militant Islamic
terrorists, nafta, etc. I don't believe
a separate latino political party would be any more effective in bringing
attention to immigration reform than exists today; if anything, this ethnic
party might create an impression that reform is strictly a separate ethnic
matter and not a mainstream concern. ronald reagan like him or not achieved
comprehensive immigration reform after his sixth year in office; he did it by
negotiating this reform as a mainstream issue important to the entire country
and not just something to appease the latino community; he even included
powerful mainstream business people (capitalists) at the negotiation table. How
badly do we want immigration reform? viva la raza .
-----Original Message-----
From: Foro de comunicacion
para Latinos del suroeste de los EEUU [mailto:LARED-L@LISTSERV.CYBERLATINA.NET]
On Behalf Of Valenzuela, Angela
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 9:32 PMTo: LARED-L@LISTSERV.CYBERLATINA.NET
Subject: [LRL] Time for a Latino Political Party?
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-proble
m.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-demo
crats-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-o
pportunity-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-m
aybe-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<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/09/23/hispanic-demo
crats-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-o
pportunity-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<http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/after-obamas-punt-m
aybe-latinos-should-sit-election-out-110728.html?ml=m_b3_1#.VBT83hYhD_y>
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<https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/BeginnningReading/h
owprwor.htm>, 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<http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html>
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<http://www.lp.org/> and Green<http://www.gp.org/index.php> 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<http://www.aoh.com/>
("the oldest and largest Irish Catholic organization in the United
States") and the Immigrant's Protection League all mobilized against the
restriction of immigration<http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7288.html>
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).<http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/en
c_mississippi_freedom_democratic_party/> 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<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/war01>
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<http://www.latinodecisions.com/blog/2013/01/25/latino-representati
on-in-the-113th-congress/>, 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<http://grijalva.house.gov/news-and-press-releases/grijalva-slams-de
lay-for-executive-action-on-immigration-reform/>
(Ariz.) and Luis Gutierrez<https://gutierrez.house.gov/press-release/no-delaying-tactics-exec
utive-branch-action-immigration-after-election>
(Ill.). Organizations utive-branch-action-immigration-after-election> like
the National Council of La Raza<http://www.nclr.org/>, the Mexican American Legal Defense<http://www.maldef.org/> 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<http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/04/26/the-latino-electorate-in-2010-m
ore-voters-more-non-voters/> 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 www.terrigivens.com<http://www.terrigivens.com/> and she is on twitter @TerriGivens.
Read more:
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