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 Editorials | Opinions | June 2006 
Hispanic News Endorses Andrés Manuel López Obrador for President of Mexico
 Jon Garrido - Hispanic News
Hispanic voters, many of whom (including me) responded favorably to President Bush’s campaign appeals emphasizing patriotism, family and religious values in Spanish-language media in 2004, now need to turn away from the administration on immigration and a host of other issues. Polarization on immigration brought about by Lou Dobbs, Kyl, Hayworth, Tancredo, Sensenbrenner and others expose true beliefs by not supporting comprehensive immigration reform. Therefore, the only way to make change in Washington is to have all American Hispanics vote for Democrats in 2006.
Some of the reasons I am changing my registration from Republican to Democrat this week:
• The Senate on Thursday voted to make English the national language of the United States, a historic move that arose out of its debate of comprehensive immigration reform. The vote also appeared to be an important moment of reaction against multiculturalism in the U.S. In recent weeks, large protests across the U.S. by supporters of immigrant rights have pointed to America's increasingly polyglot future. Although the immigration bill passed by the House last year doesn't have a similar provision, there is a separate "official English" bill in the House with strong support. The Senate's action on Thursday raises the prospect that when Senate and House members meet to iron out differences in their immigration bills, the final product will include an "official English" provision. Senator Inhofe's legislation originally called for English to be the nation's "official" language, but to draw enough support to pass his amendment, he made a subtle change, calling for English to be the "national" language. To some, this softened the measure slightly, but supporters said it made little difference. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the legislation struck him as invidious--if not in motivation, then in result. "While the intent may not be there, I really believe this amendment is racist," he said. "I think it's directed basically at people who speak Spanish."
• Former Jimmy Carter in an editorial wrote, "Competing legislation from the House of Representatives has strong racist overtones and is almost entirely punitive in nature. It would automatically brand all undocumented workers as felons and call for their mandatory deportation. Many of their children who are U.S. citizens would be left behind to be raised by distant relatives, friends, churches or state governments. The House bill would impose severe penalties on any employer who has hired them and calls for the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican border. Collectively, these moves are impractical and would be catastrophic to the American economy."
• This past week CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked the United States Attorney General if his grandparents were legal or illegal. If the Attorney General was not an American of Hispanic heritage, this question would never have been asked.
BLITZER: Give us your — tell our viewers who aren’t familiar your personal story, how you got to where you are, your grandparents, your parents. They struggled, they came here. I don’t know if they came here legally or illegally. But give us the story.
GONZALES: Well, three of my grandparents were born in Mexico. They came to Texas. My parents — both my parents were born in Texas extremely poor. My mother...
BLITZER: When they came to Texas, were they legally documented, were they un-legally documented?
GONZALES: You know what? It’s unclear. It’s unclear.
And I’ve looked at this issue, I’ve talked to my parents about it and it’s just not clear.
But in any event, my mother had a 2nd grade education — my father had a 2nd grade education, my mother had a 6th grade education. And my father worked construction.
And so, for me, my life has — represents the American dream.
I have been a life time Republican. I now believe all American Hispanics would be better represented in Washington by Democrats. I now encourage all American Hispanics to move to become Democrats.
To promote this move, requires marketing promotion. We need help to implement and promote this program to urge all American Hispanics to vote for Democrats in 2006.
We need to duplicate the model of MoveOn.org with our own marketing campaign. MoveOn has very effectively produced videos and television commercials to get their message out across the USA. We now need to do the same targeting American Hispanics to vote for Democrats.
The 2006 congressional elections will become our focus. As a priority, we will strive to change the House and Senate leaderships from Republican to Democrat. Republicans hold a 55-seat Senate majority and a 30-seat advantage in the House. We will focus on making change in specific congressional legislative districts where Congressional Republicans are determined to prevent comprehensive immigration reform. Priorities include Kyl, Sensenbrenner, Tancredo, Hayworth, and Hunter.
Today, I purchased the domain name GoDem.org and within 24 hours, it will be up on the Internet. This week Go Dem will be registered as a non profit and upon approval as a non profit corporation, an application will be submitted to IRS to become a 501 c 3 to make donations tax exempt. Donations now made, prior to IRS approval, will still be tax exempt upon IRS approval.
Today, I set up a Pal Pay account for donations at Hispanic News.
Today, I established an account with www.ActBlue.com for donations.
Today, I contacted the National Democratic Committee in Washington to see how we can help bring change in November.
Today, I contacted the Federal Elections Commission and within days, I will summit FEC Form 1 to register Hispanic News PAC as a Political Action Committee (PAC) to help raise funds to implement our goals.
Hispanic News and AX will continue the boycotts. The Senate bill may make it out of the Senate but a train wreck is forthcoming when the House and Senate meet to reconcile the proposed bills. Sunday, I listened to Sensenbrenner as he was interviewed by CBS. Sensenbrenner is dead set opposed to a guest worker program. Sunday I listened to Charlie Norwood R-GA and Lindsey Graham, R-SC on Meet the Press. Norwood is a strong supporter of Sensenbrenner and is strongly opposed to a guest worker program. He stated the House will not move on this. Graham, one of the few articulate senators on the Republican side approaches immigration with the need to do something just and reasonable.
The probability of a bill reaching the White House for signature prior to the 2006 elections is very very low.
I now believe the senate bill is so diluted after rejecting California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein's plan to allow the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country to remain, work and eventually become Americans that I now think immigration reform should not be approved in this diluted form giving us more time from now to after the 2006 national elections to bring pressure on approving legislation more favorable to Hispanics.
If Democrats were to become the majority in the House, the conference committee would certainly become more receptive to approving legislation allowing all the 12 million undocumented to become Americans.
The 2006 elections now take on more importance. Hispanic News has now established www.GoDem.org to ask all American Hispanics to vote for Democrats in 2006. We also need to focus on the AX boycotts. Last week AX was approved as a non profit corporation.
This is why we need to continue the boycotts and move American Hispanics to vote for Democrats.
Jon Garrido, Owner and CEO
Hispanic News www.Hispanic.cc
JG@JonGarrido.com
602 244-1000 |
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