Readers who have heard me speak know that it was as a teenager more than 40 years ago that I watched the impact that sudden changes in demography and in the economy can unleash. The winding down of the bracero program and the nearly simultaneous closing of the local air force base devastated the town in West Texas where my family once lived. From that experience it was only a matter of time before I realized what was coming to the country as a whole. As a young reporter in Corpus Christi in the late 1970’s, I saw the makeup of its schools’ HispanicLatino population prefigure the slow unfolding of the drama we are witnessing today. It was then that I first learned the power of 2.1.
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Anti-HispanicLatino Rhetoric – a Small Silver Lining
So it is true that anti-HispanicLatino rhetoric continues unchecked, driven by the prolonged Republican presidential primary campaign, fed by the fights in places like Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina over mostly unconstitutional state laws on immigration and festooned by the antics of the hate-filled Joe Arpaio. And the tone of the attacks that like shrapnel explode in every part of the HispanicLatino community might get shriller still. However, a sliver lining adorns every cloud.
Women Should Uncork a Knock-out Punch in November
Were I a woman, I would use the election in November as a blunt political tool: In one fell swoop, millions upon millions of women could send an unvarnished message to right-wing Republicans, the Catholic Church, the U.S. Supreme Court and gasbags like Rush Limbaugh to shut the heck up. What prompted this blog posting – okay, this is downright rant – is that, among other things, I have a niece, recently graduated from college, who is beginning to start building a professional career and, hopefully, a successful life.
HispanicLatinos within the Democratic Ranks: A Dangerous Unease
So I have a friend – a longtime Democratic liberal stalwart – who announced to me over lunch that he intends to vote Republican in November. I was stunned. His decision upends his long work record and rings totally out of character. You are going against the flow of history, I reminded him gently. A surge in the HispanicLatino community seems to be building in favor of President Obama and the Democratic ticket.
I am just tired of white liberals, he rejoined. I have never felt comfortable around them but now I am done with them.
PBS’ American Experience on Clinton: Incomplete but Invaluable
The retelling of the Bill Clinton story recently on PBS’ American Experience was more saga than the usual documentaries of that renowned series, which seeks to capture and project the nature of an American Presidency and its importance to history. Nevertheless, it set the mind to thinking how different and hopeful were the times then. We have gone from promise to precipice.
The Clinton Presidency of course gave way to the hapless administration of the nation’s affairs and its government by George W. Bush, and it would serve the Obama camp well today to make sure that it does not approach this year’s election in the form of Al Gore, one of the Clinton Administration’s endpoints. Gore bears the unique responsibility of having lost a national election for his failure to carry his home state or others where using Bill Clinton might have yielded victory.