Latinos holding out for old promises

By Tony Castro, Voxxi

Can a year that fails to produce the jewel of a long-hoped-for comprehensive immigration bill be considered a positive one for American Latinos?

After all, this was supposed to be the year of delivery of the big promise to Latinos, just months after Hispanics helped secure President Barack Obama’s re-election and five years after he took the White House having vowed to deliver immigration legislative reform.

Or are Latinos, many feeling they have so much emotionally and politically staked in the Obama presidency, simply refusing to see matters as they are, as 2013 comes to a close:

Oh so near to a major change in immigration policies but nevertheless without them and entering an important mid-term election with Obama bogged down by increasing unpopularity and a slew of problems in the administration that also threaten congressional Democrats seeking re-election – leaving immigration reform legislation passage looking just as illusory in 2014 as in the past five years?

Immigration reform 2014

The end of any year is a time for sober reflection, but perhaps none like 2013 when it has become apparent that the heady Obama years of intoxicatingly high rhetoric have become a gridlocked presidency, frustrating not only the dreams of hope and change that put him in the White House but the reality of those who believed.

It is now obvious that the gridlock will spill over to 2014 and another emotionally-charged election year in which Democrats will again call on Latino voters in crucial states such as Texas, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as others.

Thirty-six states will be voting for governor in 2014. Republicans will be trying to win back control of the Senate, while Democrats will be defending 20 of the 33 Senate seats up for grabs in 2014.

The Latino vote will be more critical than possibly even in 2014 because mid-term elections have a peculiar pathology.

In midterms dating back to the 1990s, voters under the age of 30 represented a significantly smaller percentage of all voters – and this is across the board, according to a CNN voter analysis.

That means that the 2014 midterm electorate will be older and a bit whiter than in 2012, which could be a benefit for Republican candidates.

So will it be an enthusiastic Latino vote out there in 2014 or will some of the glitter and gloss have been lost to apathy from waiting for delivery of promises in 2013?

Put more bluntly, will Democrats be calling on Hispanic support with comprehensive immigration reform already a reality as has been promised for so many years or will that legislative goal critically important to so many Latinos be yet another promise made one more time?

It is particularly poignant that a record number of Latinos entered the mainstream of American politics amid the hope and change promised by Obama. There was a moment in the 2008 presidential campaign and again in 2012, when Barack Obama made it appear that all he talked about was possible if you believed.

And this Latinos have done.

But in all candor, by the middle of Obama’s second term, the country appears almost cleft in two, more deeply divided than at any time since the Civil War.

Meanwhile, president’s agenda lies in shreds, except for the Affordable Care Act – Obama’s legacy – which must still pass the test of how successfully it will operate in spite of a myriad of problems.

Standing in line, as if waiting for a Black Friday store opening that gets delayed are the nation’s 52 million Latinos, waiting for hope and change to be delivered.

How poetically ironic it would be if, ultimately, they were the ones who closed somebody’s store.

This article was originally published in Voxxi.

Tony Castro is the author of the newly-released “The Prince of South Waco: American Dreams and Great Expectations,” as well as of the critically-acclaimed “Chicano Power: The Emergence of Mexican America” and the best-selling “Mickey Mantle: America’s Prodigal Son.”