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Armando Vazquez. Courtesy photo.
We Must Now Demand a Strong Representative Presence in the New Administration
By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor
The American people have driven the mad tyrant out of the White House, long live Democracy! The last four years have been the most polarizing, uncertain, and painful years in our lifetime, nonetheless, we got the job done we have a new president. Without doubt Biden would not be the president-elect if Black, Latino, Asian, Native American and the young folks vote had not come to the rescue of the Democratic Party again. 19 million Latinos voted in this Presidential Election, more than 13million or roughly 67% of the Latino votes went to Biden. The first time in American history that the Latino vote represented the highest minority vote in the nation. The powerful and decisive Latino voting pattern will continue to grow in the coming years. Both the Democrats and the Republican are aware of this growing American electorate, and we will no longer will be appeased, marginalized, manipulated or simply be ignored. Biden know this better than most, and he must act accordingly! We will closely watch Biden not in what he says but in what he does.
As Bernie Saunders noted after the defeat of Trump, “We made phone calls, we texted, we registered voters, we did virtual rallies, we distributed literature and we knocked on the doors whenever possible. Knowing the importance of this election we did everything we could, and more. Together we built widespread support for Biden among young people, people of color and the working class. In my view, Biden’s success would not have been possible without those extraordinary efforts” Yes, and we were also at the polls assuring that everyone, especially Latinos, Blacks, the youth, and any new registered voter that might have trouble or in some way was intimidated by the voting process was helped to exercise her/his right to vote. We got the job done.
So now that the number one objective of sending Trump and his evil cabal packing has been accomplished, what is in store for the Latinos and other minorities of this country?
Power sharing: When Latinos were recently asked on a national survey what their number one priority was that needed to addressed by the new president, the overwhelm (71%) response was addressing Covid-19/Health Coverage. To the average Latino you cannot separate the pandemic from basic and humane universal health coverage. Latino households are primarily worried about the health of their families, and then they have to struggle mightily, often and disproportionately as frontline workers, to put food on the table, very little time is left for active involvement in politics. The establishment politicians understand this quandary and exploit it to the hilt. The Democratic Party, in particular exploits the unwavering loyalty of Latinos (67%), Blacks (82%), Asians (66%) and the youth vote (66%) and in return we have gotten little to nothing in the past. This grotesquely undemocratic and skewed political power sharing paradigm must be radically change NOW! To begin with California Governor Gavin Newsome, (lobbied/pressured by Harris, Biden and a strong Latino coalition that will not take no for an answer) can appoint current Attorney General Xavier Becerra the next Senator of California to replace Vice-President elect Kamala Harris. That is an important start.
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a broad based coalition of 30 influential organization from throughout the country have already present the incoming administration with 19 names of qualified Latinos to fill the 15 cabinet positions that will appointed by the new administration. We must demand and fight for a strong and representative presence on the new cabinet.
Coalition Building: Since the presidential victory of Richard M. Nixon in 1968, the majority of white people have voted Republican. So let pause here for a moment and dispel some simple minded and erroneous myths being perpetrated by political talking heads and disingenuous politicians.
Myth One: The Latino vote is a monolith. This is utter non-sense. We Latinos know better, when in just about every Latino family you have heated political disagreement and debate because you are a Democrat and your Boomer Tio Ernie is a stanch Republican. The Latino vote in 2020 is diverse, becoming more knowledgeable, fluid and demanding with each election. This trend will only continue to grow. In fact if there is a national voting block that either party can take for granted it is the white male vote, they vote overwhelmingly for the Republican candidate. That has become quite a problem for both parties, but as we say in Spanish, “Es su bronco” let them (white men) figure out their own political priorities and future. Needless to say both the Democratic and Republican Parties have a tremendous amount of work to do the win the vote and support of the Latino Electorate nationwide.
Myth Two: Latino and Blacks are at each other throats when it comes to politics. It the oldest movidas in the American political playbook of dirty tricks, divide and conquer and throw miserable crumbs to the disenfranchised minorities and have them fighting so that the never unite. The recent Presidential Election demonstrated to the county that the Latino and Black voters know exactly what they are fighting for and will vote accordingly. An astonishing 81% of the Black vote went to the Democrats and a full 67% of the Latino voter went to Biden. It was with this united and discerning Democratic vote that Blacks and Latinos help significantly in helping to “Throwing the Bums out of the White House” and put Biden in the White. Today and in the future the coalition of Black, Latino and other minority populations in this country will continue to grow and become stronger under the able leadership of brilliant young women, the Squad and the new progressive representatives that we just elected into national office. We will have a Black progressive woman Kamala Harris as the first ever Vice-President of the United States.
Myth Three: Latinos, Blacks and other minority groups are politically apathetic: There are 39 million Latino and 33 million Black registered voters, this number will continue to grow significantly in the coming years and continue to be a political force that both parties must reckon with. We have more political representation at the national, state and local level than we have ever had. Our collective Latino (19 million) and Black (13 million) national vote of 32 million votes put Biden and Harris in the White House. We are not apathetic, on the contrary we have been fighting for decades, if not centuries to be fully franchised and included in American democracy and the electoral process. We are at this unique and glorious critical mass period in our American history where Blacks, Latinos and other minority groups will for the first time take control of their political interest and lives and help America fulfil it long deferred aspirational dreams. There is now turning back America. We have shown ourselves and the world that through our resolve and in multi-ethnic unity we can defeat a tyrant and protect our democracy. Our time has come, will not take one step back, siempre adelante!
— Armando Vazquez, M.Ed., founding member of CORE and the Acuna Art Gallery and Community Collective.