Editorial:

The re-election of President Obama is being hailed as a great success for the Hispanic voter, women, and minorities. It once again illustrates the great divide between the Republican Party platform and these categorical voters.

The Republican Party is a party of the older, white, tea party, gun-toting minutemen. It is a party that is slowly slipping into a minority status. It is a party that has not adjusted nor adapted to the changing demographics of the country where every month 50,000 Hispanic teens turn 18. One day, Hispanics will become the majority in the country.

We see the change in demographics take effect in Escondido where Nuestro Voto, Nuestro Futuro, where it was reported that over a thousand Hispanics were registered over a three month period. Mayor-elect Bob Filner understood that when he looked to the Hispanic community, the Black community, and the Filipino community he could find votes that make the difference in a close race. DeMaio didn’t adjust to the demographics when he repeated the Republican Party line, calling for stricter immigration enforcement.

And now and for the next couple of weeks, we will see the media talk about the impact of the Hispanic vote and of immigration, something we hear after each and every election. Regrettably those other issues important to Hispanics are ignored. But before we get too excited we need to check the euphoria with reality. While it is true that Hispanics voted in greater numbers, it was more of a result of the growing numbers of the Hispanic population in general. The question will be, did the Hispanic voter come out at a higher percentage? At the same time, it must be noted with presidential campaigns, money is the mother’s milk for success, Hispanic contributions did not even total 4 percent of the total contributions received. First thing politicans check when asked for a favor, how much money did you contribute?

As the Hispanic community continues to grow, so too will the vote, but are we voting a greater percentage? Are we voting above the historically low numbers for our community? We don’t have those numbers just yet but we will soon. It will be interesting to see if those registered to vote are actually coming out to vote? We already know that our community is underrepresented as far as voter registration is concerned.

And while our vote helped secure a Presidential victory as a community, what happens after the election? Do we have the organization or the tools to secure accountability from the elected leaders? Lest we forget we were not able to hold President Obama accountable after the last election on immigration.

Organization is a problem for the Hispanic community. We are not organized enough to delineate the issues, to educate on the issues, to organize and motivate our community. We do not have the internal mechanisms or infrastructure to move forward on the issues. Our organizing only seems to occur every election season, where as a commodity, there is a big registration push, and a get out the vote effort. After the election we once again become individuals. In politics, it is the organized group that gets action done.

It is good that Obama has been re-elected, but now, for the Hispanic community, the real work starts. Now is the time to keep those organizations and groups together and to start working together. Until we do so we will continue to be seen only as a commodity, a vote to court during the campaign but ignore after the election. It is all about accountability and only as a group can we hold our elected officials accountable.