The Latino Vote .

So as the republican primaries continue and the next stop is Florida ,the importance of the hispanic vote becomes front and center of the different candidates aspirations to close the deal and be the republican nominee for the national presidential election in 2012.We the hispanic voters , as members of the hispanic community I feel have the moral obligation and the responsibility, to speak up in defense of our brothers and sisters who are constantly maligned and demonized by the republican extreme right wing nut xenophobes and bigots,who are always misrepresenting the realities of the immigrant community in general and the hispanic community in particular .Most hispanic voters have a dear friend,or a family member who is or has been an illegal alien,or we ourselves as is my case have been an illegal alien,and we know they are LYING, knowingly or not when they say we are bankrupting this country ,it is shameful how they perpetuate false myths such as : illegals benefit from the welfare state ,this is false, illegals do not receive FOOD STAMPS,UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS,DISABILITY COMPENSATION of any kind.The truth is illegals have to work in order to put food on their table ,this is a fact.Another myth perpetrated by the republigots is when they say that any comprehensive immigration reform would reward illegals with instant citizenship therefore implying they would instantly become citizens and run to the voting booth to vote for the democrats,there has never in the history of this country nor is there now any immigration reform plan that would grant citizenship to illegals , what in reality has been the case is that every immigration solution contemplated has provided for a path to the regularization of the status of illegals ,with numerous requirements and costs and conditions that must be fulfilled by the person who is here illegally in order to qualify and benefit from any kind of comprehensive immigration reform that may be eventually put forth to solve a problem that will have to be solved at some point and that to the shagrin of the republican zealots, bigots and xenophobes will not involve rounding up millions of hispanics putting them on boats and shipping them out.

After thinking it through for a long time ,I've come to the conclusion that the best course of action for us the hispanic voters to take in the Florida primaries is to abstain from voting and stay home, sit this one out, this is the strongest message we can send these candidates ,a record low hispanic participation in a primary that has shown a field of candidates that are competing on who despises hispanics the most and who would take a harder line against us.This has not been an easy position for me to take, because i strongly believe in the importance of participating in every electoral instance we possibly can and I encourage every person that has the chance to become a citizen and go out and vote on every election be it at the local, state, or national level.But in this instance, where there is no candidate that shows any sympathy for our community, and us being the fastest growing minority in the country ,it is imperative we send a strong unified message that if the hispanic vote is valued at all,we should at least not be portrayed as leaches and parasites by the politicians that seek our vote.

The republican primary candidates have either by ignorance or by misinformation definitely lost the hispanic vote for the upcoming national elections, the latest polls show them gathering the favor of about 15 percent of the hispanic votes, and let me tell you what this means;it means that at this point the only hispanic votes they are getting is the cuban vote that majoritarily will not vote for a democratic candidate under any circumstances.My guess is that they are convinced that even though they will only carry the cuban vote, this is all the hispanic votes they need to carry the ever important state of Florida, while satisfying the demands of the tea partiers and the right wing loons, which are the forces that drive the republican base.Another idea that might have been sold to them is that many hispanics who are citizens and vote do not have as a top priority the issue of immigration and are more worried about the economy, unemployment, the real estate market and the economy as a whole.This point really shows ignorance of the hispanic culture and mindset.While there may be anecdotal stories of hispanic voters who do not have the immigration issues as a top priority,these hispanics are akin the african american voters and politicians who are either republican voters or conservative leaders, they do exist, but they are a very small minority, and 95 percent of african american voters will vote democrat in the upcoming election.In reality what the right wing extreme strategists don't seem to be able to comprehend is that the majority of hispanic voters have been, or members of their family have been, or close friends have been, or are illegal, so the issue of immigration is not theoretical to us, it's visceral, and it's personal,even puerto rican voters who have not had in their life any issues of illegality , consider the attack on the immigrant issue as a priority to them, and you may convince each other , when you say that you really love immigrants but just don't like illegal immigrants , but as the polls over the last decades show, we don't believe you for a second.And we will act acordingly, voting in record numbers for the democratic candidate in the upcoming election.Which in all honesty brings me to the point, we should be grateful for two positive result all this anti immigrant rhetoric has brought about for us, one is that whoever is a legal permanent resident right now and has the required conditions to become a citizen is doing it right away, and not remaining just a permanent resident for years as we did in the past, and the second is that we no longer stay home on election day and not fulfill our civic duty of voting, hispanic voting has grown exponentially and will continue to grow even more thanks to the xenophobes and the bigots.