Latinos to Mitt Romney: “It Is A ’2nd Termer’ Thing.”
by Dee Dee Garcia Blase on Jun. 21, 2012, under 2012 Presidential elections, female-led political movement, Hispanic Latino Vote, Independent voter centrist moderate swing vote, Mexican-American / Chicano political activism, Women VotersI was invited to be on The Takeaway again tomorrow morning to discuss Mitt Romney’s speech at NALEO. I will share the MP3 audio once it is online and available. The Takeaway is a national show that is co-produced by the New York public Radio, Public Radio International, the BBC and the New York Times. As you may already know, the Tequila Party is a Latina counter movement to the extremist Tea Party people.Most pundits believed Obama would wait (like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush waited) to address the DREAM Act or immigration related issues only after being re-elected to a 2nd term. They were wrong, and now the relief offered to babies, children and our youth via the Deferred Action MEMO has become historic immigration news – particularly for those of us who are legal immigration reform activists.
Bottom line: I stated that Mexican-American / Latino voters should NOT gamble their voting chips away on Mitt Romney who has aligned himself with protectionists, economic isolationists and restrictionists via Pete Wilson and Kris Kobach. It is a calculated risk for Latinos to invest their voting chips on an incoming 2nd term President via President Obama because both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush waited to confront legal immigration reform related policies until after they were re-elected. President Obama addressed some partial DREAM Act relief within his first term in an era where anti-immigrant activists have demonized us and made the issue a toxic one.
We have American history to learn from regarding this issue, and it should not surprise anyone that not one single American President over the last 100 years has confronted or taken on immigration-related reform within his first term as President of the United States (aside from continued Cuban Amnesty via the Cuban Adjustment Act). The one American President who addressed immigration within his 1st term as President was President Benjamin Harris (of Ohio) when he designated Ellis Island as the first federal immigration state that helped Irish, Italian, European, Latin immigrants and etc. from all over the world. Ellis Island was established in 1890 (over a century ago), and it is time for legal immigration reform to be addressed once again. This nation was founded by immigrants that helped our Nation to become a beacon and a Shining City on a Hill to the whole world.
Finally, it would be advantageous for Latinos to invest their vote on an incoming 2nd term President rather than to gamble our voting chips away on Mr. Multiple Choice Mitt Romney who has flip-flopped so many times we don’t know who is who with him anymore. Mitt Romney is the same man who was for ObamaCare initially but flip-flopped and now states he is against government health care — even though he created RomneyCare that helped lay the foundation to ObamaCare.
It is my view that it is better to have 4 more years of Obama than 8 more years of Mr. Romney. If Romney sincerely wants the Latino vote by November Election Day, he would have to round up enough Republican Senators and Republican Congressman to pass a fair, full and comprehensive legal immigration reform bill and have it passed before November 6, 2012. Latinas and Latinos cannot afford to throw their votes away anymore because this issue has been used as a political football for far too long, and we have no choice but to make the best calculated decision for the sake of all immigrants from all over the world. Immigration does not affect only us (Mexicans and Latinos), it affects the Irish, the Asians, the Europeans, the Canadians and etc.
A healthy and legal immigration solution will secure our borders, create a safer North American Continent and promote a stronger relationship with our contiguous neighbors. Enforcement-only initiatives promote a situation that emulates the failed days of Prohibition, which serves only to encourage the underground labor market. Our government needs the additional tax revenues that new immigrants generate in order to sustain the burgeoning entitlement programs baby boomers require as they continue to retire. By developing a reasonable legal immigration plan, we create a system where immigrants share American tax burdens as they continue to contribute millions of dollars into our tax coffers. New immigrants sharing our tax burdens will help discourage our government from increasing taxes, because under the current system these entitlement programs will drain all federal revenues within 15 years.
