Obama should read between the lines – Latinos matter

Early evidence indicates that the nation’s growing Latino population created a voter bloc this year that was a significant portion of Barack Obama’s support base, which means the Hawaii native-turned-Chicagoan must experience a change in his view of the political world.

I say that because Obama got strong Latino support, even though he ran a presidential campaign that at times seemed not to care about the part of the U.S. population that is skyrocketing in size.

LATINOS VOTED FOR Obama because he was NOT a Republican – the political party that they have come to see as being filled with officials who are hostile toward their existence in this country.

And while some of those social conservatives will argue they are opposed only to illegal immigration, the fact remains that the perception is that those conservatives believe much immigration should be illegal and that they see the problem as being one largely caused by people with ethnic backgrounds from Latin American countries.

So, we went into Election Day intending to vote in ways that punished the Republican Party. If that meant we had to take it out on presidential nominee John McCain, so be it.

After all, McCain is the guy who thinks he should get Latino voter support because he once tried (and FAILED) to push a significant immigration reform proposal, and has since said he would not make such efforts again if elected president.

IN SHORT, HE sided with the people who we have come to see as our opposition.

Not that Obama was much better.

While a reading of the books he has written, particularly the latter “The Audacity of Hope,” indicates he has a sympathy for newcomers to this country and appreciates their contributions to our society, he didn’t always express that viewpoint during the campaign.

At times, he seemed so obsessed with getting the youth vote and African-American vote that he seemed indifferent to the Latino vote.

WHILE HE MADE some vague statements criticizing Republicans for their tactics that demonized Latinos whenever immigration reform came up, we couldn’t help but notice that he never went so far as to offer up anything resembling a detailed proposal for reforming the nation’s immigration laws – which are desperately in need of change.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez, publisher of a website (http://www.myimmigrationstory.com/) that shows the human side of the people who struggle to succeed in this country, said the campaign rhetoric really did little to differentiate Obama or McCain on the immigration issue – which is important to us because it shows us how political people perceive Latinos in general.

Noting that both candidate were more concerned about angering the nativists who get worked up over immigration, Ramos said during a recent speech at Columbia College in Chicago, “they acted as though they had more to lose than to gain” by bringing up immigration reform.

Obama has to do better. His victory and promises of “change” had better include positive trends for Latinos. Those of us who have made it through all the hurdles to gain citizenship (personally, I have the advantage of an 80-year head start – my grandparents came to this country from Mexico that long ago) are going to have our numbers grow (130 million by 2050?) and grow in coming years.

THERE’S ALWAYS THE chance that Republicans will learn from their mistakes of recent years and adapt themselves in ways that make it possible for Latinos to shift about the political parties.

How bad was it for Republicans this week?

The most recent poll of Latino voters, done by Zogby International for the Reuters wire service and Univision Spanish-language television network, showed 78 percent of us favoring Obama, compared to only 13 percent for McCain.

That’s a 6-1 ratio of Latino support for Obama, far ahead of the 2-1 or 3-1 ratios that other polls have shown. In terms of Latinos who actually voted, exit polls indicate 66 percent went for Barack, compared to 31 percent for McCain. It is what helped Obama win New Mexico, while also being competitive in places like Colorado and Nevada.

WHAT MAKES THIS situation pathetic is that 2004 was supposed to be the year that Republicans finally figured out how to get Latino support, with some exit polls claiming George W. Bush got up to 44 percent of Hispanic support (a more accurate figure is something like 36 percent, which is still good for a Republican presidential hopeful).

Yet that positive attitude some Latinos might have felt for Texan Bush was dissipated by the hostility, some of which was displayed at polling places on Tuesday.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund said they heard reports of up to 5,500 Latino voters who either asked for help in casting a ballot, or had to deal with challenges to their ability to cast a ballot.

Those include cases of Latino voters saying they were given ballots in Florida that did not contain names of Democratic candidates, Latinos in California being asked specifically where they were born, Latinos in Arizona being told to fill out their ballots at an open table offering them no privacy and Latinos in Virginia being told there was a time limit on them filling out their lengthy ballots.

MY POINT IN reciting this litany of complaints?

Latinos voted against Republicans. Not for Obama. We could very easily flip to someone else in the future if he doesn’t treat us with the respect that our growing percent of the population of this country deserves.

-30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Cable News Network came up with the following figures to measure the Election Day (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/05/exit-polls-where-latino-voters-tipped-the-balance/) impact of the Latino voter bloc.