State of the Union: 3 Things we Didn’t See Coming

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

For what it’s worth, President Obama’s State of the Union Speech delivered. In other words, it did what it was supposed to do: satisfy a constitutional mandate, provide political pageantry and theater, establish the chief executive’s vision and agenda for the coming year, rouse the party faithful, and give commentators fodder for a week.

There were highlights, to be sure.  The President mentioned policy points and national imperatives that will serve as either legislative starting points or political lines in the sand, depending on which side of the aisle you sit. We all expected these. But it was the unexpected points the President made that caught my attention. I want to mention three in light of how they may have an important impact in the Latino community.

Voting Rights

While the future of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is being considered by the U. S. Supreme Court, President Obama has raised the idea of a nonpartisan commission that will examine voting process irregularities, long voting lines in minority precincts, and other problems at voting booths that have resulted in denying basic rights to American citizens. To quote, the President said:

“We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home.  That includes our most fundamental right as citizens:  the right to vote,”

“That’s why, tonight, I’m announcing a non-partisan commission to improve the voting experience in America.”

The commission is to be led by the top lawyers of his presidential campaign and Mitt Romney’s campaign as well.

Minimum Wage

No one that I’ve talked to, listened to, or read saw this one coming. And yet it has deep consequences across the economic board: to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour. If you were watching the speech on TV, and if you noticed the nuances of the political theater, you saw Democrats surprised to their feet and Republicans shocked in their seats when the President unveiled this proposal.

Now, realistically, raising the minimum wage to $9 probably won’t become a reality any time soon. But, the effect (shock? exuberance?) was planned and calculated. What has become a reality is an immediate discussion – about wages, about the working class, about small business, about how the economy works. Somewhere in the White House, after delivering his speech, I’m sure President Obama sat back and smiled at the commotion he created by dropping this one idea in his speech.

Latinos stand to gain by this debate. It places working class issues front and center. What’s particularly important about a minimum wage discussion is that it’s not about “hard work”, per se, but about just compensation. Hard work is a given, no one disputes the Latino work ethic, period. A minimum wage debate allows us to discuss compensation fairness.

Preschool

Universal preschool isn’t a radical idea, at least not in the world at large. But in the United States it’s not only radical, it’s unheard of – at least until the President of the United States brings it up before a joint session of Congress.

Again, as in the minimum wage debate, it’ll be good to have a national discussion about it, and for that I’m glad the President brought it up in his speech. This is a serious and tricky topic. It’s one thing to acknowledge the need for universal preschool, it’s another to make it happen successfully.

The problem with large scale education initiatives is that they tend to become self-dependent industries. Latinos would stand to gain greatly from universal preschool, but only if the programs don’t become bloated.

Of the three, the Voting Rights Commission has the greatest possibility of becoming  reality, mainly because it depends only on the President’s signature and he’s said he would do it.

The other two ideas have to do with us, and our ability to keep the debate alive. All the President did was give it a jump start.