LatinaLista — Every time mention is made of the political repercussions awaiting those politicians intent on obstructing the DREAM Act, most of these same politicians don’t take the prediction seriously.
I can’t blame them.
While Latinos in Nevada rallied to denounce Sharron Angle and helped put Harry Reid back into office due to Angle’s insistence in painting negative pictures of Latino immigrants and Latinos are pretty much credited with getting Jerry Brown into the California Governor’s mansion, the truth is not all Latino communities get that worked up to come out and vote.
Are mass marches like this immigration march in Los Angeles on the horizon if Congress fails to pass the DREAM Act?
For some reason in South Texas, Latinos just don’t come out and vote as they should.
Yet, that may change if the DREAM Act is prevented from coming to the floor of the Senate.
Those politicians opposing the DREAM Act wouldn’t just be dismissing the value of Latino voters and dismissing the recommendations of their own colleagues and Latino professional organizations that have publicly endorsed the bill, but they would be committing the highest insult a politician could commit against constituents — failure to represent.
The notion that anyone would wait until the next election to make feelings known to those politicians that their opposition didn’t go over very well in the Latino community is unrealistic.
The anger that will be felt in the Latino community can’t be put on hold for two years. It will manifest in various forms and hopefully it will be civil in all its forms but emotions are running high and there’s no doubt there will be a swift and enduring response.
Will it take the form of mass marches? Protests? Boycotts?
Who knows, but one thing is certain.
There will be enough anger to cause reflection on how Latinos figure in the democracy of this nation and what will need to be done to change the current dismissive attitude of some good ol’ boys and girls in Congress.
