Right-wing xenophobes, cowardly Dems and the misunderstood Latino vote

*There’s political theater, political posturing, veiled threats, and then there’s political reality. Here’s a take on what’s really going on with Latinos and the mid-term election votes. VL

By Gabriel Arana, Salon

Given how hostile the Republican Party is to them, whenever Latino-rights advocates are mad at President Barack Obama or the Democrats, they resort to one thinly veiled threat: Latinos just might skip going to the polls this coming election.

Since the White House announced that the president would delay executive action providing undocumented immigrants a reprieve from deportation until after the midterms, such frustrated talk has made a resurgence. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus expressed this concern in a meeting with the White House last week while Presente Action, a Latino social-justice organization, is urging Latinos to think twicebefore showing up at the polls for Democrats who’ve opposed immigration reform.

Most Latino-rights groups and activists are careful not to discourage members of their community from voting directly. But after enough iterations, the observation that inaction on immigration may have a chilling effect on voter participation, like the stream of will-they-won’t-they news stories about Latino turnout, come to resemble a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here’s a time-saver: Latinos won’t be showing up in force on Election Day this year, and it has less to do than advocates would like to think with Obama or the Democrats’ inaction on immigration.

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