A lot of Mexicans on both sides of the border have a new spring in their stride. And after a multitude of threats and an avalanche of vilification that increased as the United States’ presidential election neared its culmination, they are beaming with unabashed self-confidence. The rap on Mexican American voters has long been: They may have fervent political views, but they don’t vote. Even though a vote might begin to ease their problems. But their voting record showed an indifference that bruised their cause.
That assumption became history November 6. In an unprecedented turnout, Hispanic voters gave President Barak Obama 75 percent of their support. African Americans, Asia Americans and other “minorities” also gave a majority of their votes to Obama, as did women and young people. Level-headed political decoders, here and there, attribute this to what appears like an intentionally created image of a party of self-satisfied racists created by, not all but many, conservatives. For proof of this, Mexican-American political operatives – and common citizens – pointed to the noisy log-jamb of derogatory references by conservative “commentators,” candidates and political spear-carriers aimed at the U.S. Hispanic population of some 50 million. And despite a host of post-election remarks critical of Romney, Hispanic commentators noted that Republicans were not embarrassed or regretful concerning their party’s self-created image as a self-satisfied, racist (and misogynist) organization that also saw sectors of the middle- and poor-classes as the enemy.
True, Romney contradicted his early vigorous anti-Latino declarations and tried to “soften” that stance. This despite a campaign process that seemed endless – beginning January 3, officially ending July 14 – and was dense with unkind characterizations of Mexican immigrants. That, topped off by Romney’s inflammatory “47 percent” remarks, sealed the election for Obama, many Hispanics will tell you. (They are referring to Romney’s remark: “There are 47 percent who are with Obama, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it –that’s an entitlement … And they will vote for this president no matter what ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... My job is not to worry about those people.”) Said one Hispanic university teacher: “That was reckless and simply insults too many people.”The statement, as most people know, was untrue, because it’s hard not to pay some kind of taxes. True, according to the U.S. Tax Policy Center, which reports data showing that in 2011, 46.4 percent of American households pay no federal income tax. That same data, however, shows that nearly two-thirds of households that paid no income tax did pay payroll taxes. And most also paid some combination of state, local, sales, gas and property taxes.
But aside from that insistent dishonesty, for U.S. citizens and educated, thoughtful Mexicans, U.S. conservatives seem to have retrogressed, to have turned their backs on the modern world. That is something that puzzles many Mexicans who admire the United States’ churning modernization. Yet the conservative denial of global warming, women’s right to choose, contraception, sex education, food stamps, medicare, evolution, science of any kind, regulation of dangerous wastes – all while zealously coddling of corporate greed – offended too many people.
All Hispanics don’t oppose all such policies, but they do most. Since the 2008 election, many of a whole new generation are now internet savvy, or are becoming intently education-wise to a new degree. They may not be able to attend top universities, but are, in surprising numbers, finding inventive ways to continue their educations. One reason for this is that, particularly here, university grads are helping younger members of their extended families to keep on learning. That’s for one simple, utilitarian reason: an adequate-paying job becomes easier to find. The discipline produced even by cobbled-together home-made variety study teaches things many of their parents missed: mental discipline, persistence, curiosity in books, the practical value of education. Mexico has a stack of world-famous poets and prose authors, that nourish reasoning and imagination.
And some of these relatively unschooled, but steadily tutored, youngsters slowly perceive the advantage, and often even the fun, of learning. One local family with nine children, has an 18-year-old son, a laborer, who is quietly relentless about acquiring an education, picking up inexpensive after-work classes of whatever kind he can find. Just before the November 6 election he asked, “How is it that these Republicanos who don’t want anyone to use contraception have such small families?” That struck me as a sly question. But logical: he has eight siblings and a passel of uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. It’s a question that didn’t come up in the campaigns. Though brave young women were called “sluts.’”
Another concept is scratching a lot of people’s minds in this time of great and dangerous divisiveness. Danger for a party that appears perilously lost among people who seem to hate too easily, too bitterly denigrate all who have opposing opinions. This is not the party of brilliant, swift-minded William F. Buckley, the man who created the modern GOP.