AT A TIME when our communities are under siege with unduly harsh immigration enforcement measures, our young people are dropping out of high school and getting pregnant at higher rates, the schools that predominantly service our children are in a state of decline, healthcare is out of financial reach and racial profiling across the country is at its worst, we deserve more than empty political promises by a campaign that says it wants the Latino vote but doesn’t want to give our issues the time of day.
AS USUAL, Presidential Candidates will claim (especially in an election year) to care about their constituents and the issues affecting their communities. And this year, the Latino Vote is a spicy chile they are all grabbing after with much bullhorned sincerity. In service of this vote, they saunter into a taco joint and talk guacamole, they throw around Spanish worker’s slogans, they parade icons of the Latino community onto stage at highly visible events, they make pleasant sounds about immigration reform at exactly the right moments—but how do all these gestures translate into action? How seriously should this year’s highly-sought-after Latina and Latino voters take these politicians?
There are probably a few ways to gauge that answer, but the editorial board at The Sanctuary came up with one way. We created a detailed survey on issues we felt were crucial to the current immigration issue and sent it out to various Presidential campaigns. You probably remember some of the media’s interest.
Of the two major campaigns, only one has responded by the deadline we established. Only one, so far, has given us answers to our questions. And only one has continually stalled before finally meeting our repeated phone calls by hanging up on us and disconnecting the line without so much as a “One moment.”
The following press release has been sent to The Sanctuary Groups’ media contacts:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 4, 2008OBAMA CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO SURVEY ON IMMIGRATION REFORM/PUBLIC POLICY, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN SILENT
The Sanctuary responds to Obama’s Co-operation and McCain’s Silence
NEW YORK, NY – The Obama campaign has responded to The Sanctuary’s comprehensive survey on Latino issues. The McCain Campaign has remained silent.
In June, the editors of The Sanctuary sent both campaigns a survey on Latino issues. Since both candidates have been courting the Latino vote, the editors of The Sanctuary wanted the candidates to speak openly and honestly about their positions.
“We were tired of seeing the candidates tip-toe around the issues and merely pay lip service. So we created this questionnaire posing specific policy questions for the candidates to answer,” said Sanctuary editor Edmundo Rocha of www.xicanopwr.com.
By the July 31st deadline, only the Obama campaign had responded to the survey. The Sanctuary conducted extra follow-up with McCain’s campaign headquarters via e-mail and telephone to investigate their failure to meet the deadline.
“The first phone call I placed was answered cordially. I was told that someone would get back to me. I never heard back from anyone,” said Sanctuary editor Kety Esquivel of www.CrossLeft.org, who has appeared on CNN to discuss the questionnaire. “The second time I called, the person I was speaking with hung up and the third time I called the line was disconnected.”
“It is clear to me that the McCain campaign is not interested in speaking to the issues,” said Sanctuary editor Maegan Ortiz of www.VivirLatino.com. “We believe that they owe it not only to us to respond to the questionnaire, but to their base.”
The Sanctuary has stated that it will give the McCain campaign until midnight, August 6, to respond to the survey.
“If they don’t respond at that point, we can only surmise that they do not take the Latino community seriously and are truly delivering nothing more than political pandering to get the Latino vote,” said Sanctuary editor Manuel Guzmán of www.LatinoPolitico.com.
At a time when our communities are under siege with unduly harsh immigration enforcement measures, our young people are dropping out of high school and getting pregnant at higher rates, the schools that predominantly service our children are in a state of decline, healthcare is out of financial reach and racial profiling across the country is at its worst, the writers of the Sanctuary, along with the rest of the Latino community, deserve more than empty political promises or being ignored by a campaign that says it wants the Latino vote but doesn’t want to give them the time of day.
The Sanctuary is a grassroots effort of pro-migrant, human rights, civil rights bloggers and on-line activists dedicated to the enactment of meaningful immigration reform that is practical, fair and most of all humane.
As amigo Kai says, we do look forward to responses from other parties, and to Cynthia McKinney’s with special interest. But again, I have to say, Senator Obama so far is the only candidate for President of the United States of America in 2008 to at least demonstrate in this small but tangible way, that he means to look us in the face and take these concerns seriously. And they do need to be taken seriously, and not for one community’s sake, either. We are, after all, all connected. In many ways. Economic, familial, geographically. We share hospitals and homes and schools and business and dreams.
But like George W. Bush, utterly concerned about pleasing a relatively small group of rich, white, elite, millionaire, country-club friends (”My base” the man said to meet hearty and well-cultured guffaw) Senator McCain projects disdain and contempt for others, evoking the specter of a very certain brand of politics. One that leaves out the rest of us.
And let’s not get it confused: that’s most of us.
UPDATE: Remember that media attention we promised on your follow-ups, Senators? XM Satellite radio is, so far, first to contact us and request an interview. We are, of course, agreeing to it. Happily.
UPDATE: [Thurs 7:12 am Pacific] One of the Sanctuary’s founding editors, our very own Kety Esquivel, will be on CNN talking about this on Friday Morning, between 6 and 9 am EST. Will update with more specific times if we get them.
UPDATE: Kety will be on CNN at 6:24 EST, Friday August 8, 2008.
UPDATE: Thanks to HuffPost for covering this. And FDL, too.
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You are so right, Andre. Great point. A rich, selfish, elitist, Shore-drilling, Iran-hating Latino/African-American/Asian-American would have McCain’s ear quicker than a poor white person.
McCain will not respond. Guaranfuckingteed.
It even has a name, an ugly name. He is pandering directly to the racist vote.
In an election where Obama represents people of color and racial inclusion, unity rather than division, McCain’s only hope is the Racist White Supremist vote.
Now whether or not Obama’s answers will be reflected in his actual actions in office is another thing, (hello? politicians lie… remember Clinton & gays in the military becoming don’t ask don’t tell?) but I do think he will respond.
McCain wants the fear vote, the devisive vote that is the coattail of the failed bush administration… more war, more prisons, more walls.
Obama is speaking to the hope vote, but still voted for fisa and retroactive immunity for crimes committed.
I think in the end, both are bought and paid for by the Uber-rich kleptocracy that really runs this country. I think neither will truly be populist, nor care about the widening economic divide that is the concern that unites people of all hues and ethnicities.
It is time for a Populist party, a party in which all workers everywhere stand up and say “No Mas!”
I am for an open border. The same mentality that hated “WOPS” (”With Out Papers”… sound familiar?) has become obsolete. The US has done much to cause Mexico’s economic trouble, and done everything to create the US’s current economic hell.
In the end, neither will brave standing against Korporate America… there is too much at stake in walls and detention centers and keeping people divided while they steal us all blind. God knows, they find ways of killing off those who espouse REAL change and have since Martin, John and Bobby.
I could go on, but hate to make an essay-long comment, my apologies.
Ok, so now you have an idea of how responsive the “straight talker” might be
with those not high on his agenda. Try to imagine what kind of response
these same people, or others, might get when McCain is elected. Hey!
That’s politics. Now, if you and your friends had contributed over a
million bucks to his campaign last month, you would at least get his
attention. (Oil greases palms)
Somewhere in my previous education, prior to 1984, I heard the words “Government of the
people, by the people, and for the people.” The word “people” was replaced by the word “corporation” somewhere and I missed it!
I suppose it is possible that I was duly notified by a legal notice hidden away in the back pages of the Wall Street Journal or MAD magazine.
“McCain wants the fear vote, the devisive vote that is the coattail of the failed bush administration… more war, more prisons, more walls.
Obama is speaking to the hope vote, but still voted for fisa and retroactive immunity for crimes committed.”
I don’t mind if politicians rest on some laurels and appeal mostly to particular agendas. That’s the way it’s always been and I’d be naive to think that in one administration, our nation would drastically deviate from that. But I can’t think of a single politician (with the exception of Bush who did it twice) who has been able to win a national election without conceding to at least a few points/issues from the opposite side. But I suspect that McCain will do just that. Instead of opening himself up to perspectives from the other side, McCain will try to follow Bush’s lead by exclusively pandering to the right using race, national security, and “experience” (while luring a considerable amount of pissed off supporters of Sen. Hillspawn), and by keeping his wealthy buddies happy without even so much as listening to minorities’ concerns.
Anything outside of that will come as a complete and utter shock to me.
Good Point Andre.
It is which particular agendas that bother me… they are never in favor of the people, they are in favor of the money that supports them.
But, hey, I’m fairly radical.
I lived in Arizona when John McCain was just
getting into politics. (Please google ‘Cindy McCain, Married to The Mob’)
McCain’s history is sticking up for ‘CROOKS’, like
Charles Keating.
I remember after that ‘mess’, there were a lot of
empty malls, and strip malls wherever you drove
around Phoenix. The reason: many small business owners had their loans tied-up with Charles Keating’s ‘Savings & Loan’ institutions
–as well as seniors pensions and life savings.
Keating swindled them all, and went to prison.
John McCain was fined, but escaped prosecution
because his in-laws, ‘The Hensley family’ had deep political ties to local Phoenix and State
politicians who got McCain off the hook.
I was one of hundreds of A.S.U. students who
protested against John McCain for voting against the ‘Martin Luther King Holiday’.
He is open about his racism. He said he hated
‘gooks’. And I know for a fact he hates the Indian population in Arizona. What he thinks of Hispanics I could care less. He doesn’t have
too much longer to live.
signing off—-a LATINO who can’t stand McCain!
[...] LINK TO THE FULL STORY HERE: MCCAIN REFUSES TO RESPOND TO SURVEY ON LATINO ISSUES [...]
[...] theunapologeticmexican.org [...]
Hey Nez,
I just caught Lety on CNN discussing McCain’s non-response. I have to admit, she was far more gracious than what the McCain camp deserved. Lucky for him, Leslie Sanchez came to his rescue; essentially saying the McCain camp has been inundated with tons of similar requests and also couldn’t determine if the survey was designed to get to heart of the matter or if it would be used for…get this…”political posturing.” I couldn’t make this up, dawg.
PLEASE GET THAT MCCAIN ADD OFF THE SITE.
You shouldn’t be promoting that ‘ASSHOLE’
who doesn’t give a shit about HISPANICS!
eric, i admit, it’s a compromise. i’d like to not have mccain on my site. but i’d rather write the truth about him and collect money from the google ads at the same time. ::sigh::
actually, i’d rather not have the ads and collect money from readers like you. are you in? let’s make it happen.
Jump to comments
I’m really curious to see if Sen. McCain takes the time to respond; though I’m not holding my breath.
Sen. McCain has failed to make the plight of middle to lower class WHITE citizens a priority; let alone the issues faced by people of color. Losing the 2000 Republican primary taught him that certain agendas have to be brought to the forefront. Those issues don’t have a thing to do with any of the concerns we bring to the table. Unless you wear $520 shoes, fly around in private jets, and own eight homes, don’t expect to get much validation; at least not the validation that isn’t read from a teleprompter.