Was ‘Don’t Vote’ Campaign Real? Or a Way to Keep Getting Paid?

With the mid-term elections nearing, everything is heating up and things are getting intense, and in some cases, a bit overwrought. Check here, here and here, if you don’t believe me.

The story that got me, however, was that of long-time, high-ranking Hispanarian GOP operative Robert De Esposada, whose ad, urging Nevada Latinos to NOT vote took awhile for the mainstream media to catch on to. His ad was a simple one — voiced over in gravitas-laden faceless Spanish — “tired of being taken for granted, send a clear message; this election don’t vote.”

This writer, who happens to be a Mexican American whose adult life has been about getting people out to the polls, was appalled (and, for he life of me, I don’t know how to translate “appalled”). How could this obvious sellout — and believe me, I have long had the pleasure of knowing responsible Latino Republicans — be plainly urging Latinos, on Spanish-language TV, no less — to stay away from the polls?

After posting stories about this disgraceful advocacy of abandonment of civic duty, I recalled a story from a fellow college student, Eduardo Espinel, a colombiano, who told me of a tiny party in his country, then a multi-party representative democracy, that didn’t have a prayer in coming elections. With few followers, they were likely to produce a blip in the final turnout. So, its leaders made a big splash by denouncing the elections and calling for a national boycott of the elections.

“They knew they weren’t going to get many votes and that a lot of people would not vote at all,” he laughed. “So they called for a boycott of the elections and took credit for all the people who didn’t vote.” I searched for a reference to the actual election and was unable to find it. But it makes perfect sense, and seems like a plausible strategy, whether it happened or not. Perhaps that is what our GOP operative was hoping for here.

Latinos have long had a lower-than-average turnout. By calling for them to NOT vote, and being that he and his fellow travelers have had an increasintly hard time convincing Latinos to support a party, many of whose leaders have been openly hostile of immigrants and Latinos, he was hoping to take credit for the non-turnout. Of course, few took the bate. And his call has been condemned universally. But hey, you run into people like him, go home and take a shower and go on with your life and hope you don’t have to shake their hand again.