DEMOCRACY: Government & Politics | November 4 & 5, 2004

NOT TAKING THE LATINO VOTE FOR GRANTED

An E-Mail Exchange with a Latino DNC Member

After reading "Bush Snags Much More of the Latino Vote, Exit Polls Show: His 7 percentage-point gain in support over 2000 is a strategic political win. But the constituency's support is considered 'volatile.'" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, in the Los Angeles Times, I wrote the following to the DNC member...

Personally, I think Bush appeals to a lot of Latinos for the same reason he does to a lot of Rust Belt Dem's -- cultural conservatism. But we've won them in the past with our economic stands, and I think we can again, IF we frame them -- rightly -- in "family values" terms. What's your perspective?

...to which he replied, in part...

...to which I responded...

I see.  That was a BIG mistake...There was too little connection between the leadership and the grassroots in general (working people, people of color, the poor...).  I'm afraid it will take a crisis to re-unite us -- even more than the crisis of this election.  A national crisis, even more than the war in Iraq.  I'm sure Bush will provide more than one.  I just hope the people at large wake up and wise up.  Leadership can be changed.  It's always "the people" I worry about the most.