For Hillary: This is what you should have told Latinos

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

I fully intend for Hillary Clinton to read this.

I know how these things work. Some of you will share this on social media, and it’ll ripple across networks and find its way to someone who will tell someone else about it until it get’s piled on a stack of papers on Clinton’s desk with “read this” written on a post-it on top. I’m assuming that’ll happen.

So I’ll go straight to the reason I write this. I heard Clinton’s speech at the NAHJ/NABJ UNITY conference on Friday. I went back to C-SPAN and listened to it again and was drawn by a Lori Montenergo question at the very end of the session. I’ve transcribed the question and answer, if you’re interested, and I’ve clipped the portion of the video I’m referencing:

This is what Lori asked:

Does the Democratic party, does your campaign take Latino voters seriously or are you talking them for granted that they would automatically vote democratic?

The question carries the weight of decades of history and thousands of conversations. And it’s especially relevant today, in this election, because Latino voters overwhelmingly and collectively dislike Clinton’s rival. So the natural fear, as we’ve told each other at after dinner talks and on social media, is that Clinton, and more so the Democratic Party, will assume they have our support. It would be a correct assumption because it’s always been that way.

This is what Hillary said: the usual.

She talked for 4 and-a-half minutes, a total of 661 words. It amounted to an echoed pandering, akin to “I know many Latinos, I love Latinos, some of my best friends are Latino.” It was a list of the work she’s done with and for the Latino community: as a child baby sitter; as a legal services lawyer; as a Senator. She explained that politics is based on relationships and that relationships are hard work. And she assured Latinos that she won’t take them for granted because she won’t take any voter for granted. And she ended by saying that she’s going to need Latinos to help her achieve her goals, which include Latinos.

But she didn’t answer the question.

This is what I wish she had said in response to Montenegro’s question: that’s she’s going to take decisive action to include Latinos in the highest levels of her administration. That’s she’s going to listen to Latinos because they’ll have her ear in the day-to-day decisions that affect national and international policy. That she understands that Latinos carry the optimism that moves our nation forward and that she’s going to cultivate it – the ganas, the entrepreneurship, the hard-working attitude, the intelligence, the historical presence, the perseverance, the patriotism, all of it. I wish she would have said that she gets it: that she wants to hear our ideas because she understands that the heavy lifting required for the future of our country will rely in a large part on Latino energy. I wish she would have said that she carries the dreams of Latino parents for the best education for their children, that she’ll listen to those parents to find the best way to make schools better, college more attainable, skills more achieveable; that she knows that the Latino spirit is resourceful, and imaginative and creative, that she will include Latinos and not take them for granted because the Latino experience is an American experience and deserves more than the rote, pandering answer that so many before her have given.

I was hoping she would answer in a way that would show she understood the question, and not used it as a platform for a slice of a stump.

She’s not going to get to that answer by reading polls and listening to the consultants who advise her only when it comes to “Latino” issues, consultants who are so few and far between that their interest is in preserving their place, not in telling a truth.

She needs a list of candidates for senior White House positions. A real list. And she needs to tell Latino voters that she’s listening.

She’s going to get the Latino vote. There’s no doubt.

It would be good, though, for her to tell Latinos how she’s different from so many other politicians who only come around with speeches and promises when it’s election time.

It would have been good for her to tell Latino voters, directly, that she won’t take them for granted becasue she sees them. She didn’t say these things because Latinos aren’t a part of her political conciousness. If they were, her answer would have been different.

Latinos are betting she’ll be the next president . . .

So share this.

Let’s see how long it takes for it to get to the pile of reading on her desk.