LatinaLista — A recent post I wrote triggered a lot of “discussion” among my Facebook readers. The post was inspired after watching footage of the marches the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr lead at the height of the civil rights movement.
The mass of people who joined Dr. King in a common cause made me reflect on how differences among Latinos seem to be stalling any kind of progress on getting the GOP to curb their actions and rhetoric against immigration reform.
The differences were evident at the recent Hispanic Leadership Network conference where two Latino CNN commentators, one Cuban-American and the other Mexican-American, held differing views about the GOP’s messaging on immigration.
Many of my FB readers supported this difference of opinion that exists within the Latino community and didn’t see why it should keep Republicans from working on immigration reform. Some pointed out that some blacks even opposed Dr. King when he was alive and wanted Malcolm X to lead the charge.
Yet, I wasn’t talking about who would lead the Latino community. My argument is that we all need to get on the same page when discussing how we want politicians to treat the immigration issue if we want success with the GOP.
Well, a press release issued today by the group Somos Republicans underscores just how important it is for Latinos to unify and present the same message to impress upon politicians how serious an issue is taken.
The press release was thanking Nebraska State Senator Brenda Council for introducing a resolution in support of the Nebraska Compact guidelines in the legislature, along with several of her colleagues within her party and from across the aisle.
According to the press release:
Somos Republicans began a nationwide program called “Compact With America” to introduce the Utah Compact to other states in the U.S. We are actively promoting Utah-style Compacts in Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, Florida, and Arizona, and are actively building coalitions in these states, with more to come. Somos Republicans was among the early signers of the Utah Compact, which we believe is a powerful set of guiding principles. The lack of leadership from the political center from Washington has allowed the fringes to fill that vacuum with extreme rhetoric and positions, and the “Compact With America” is a way for the center to reassert leadership of the immigration debate, and tone down the hateful rhetoric.
While admittedly Somos Republicans is a much smaller group than the at-large Latino community, and it will always be easier to get a consensus with fewer numbers, their accomplishment shows the importance of having a unified message to get things done, especially when it comes to politics.
Had some members of their group been opposed to “Compact with America” and made their differences known, where would have been the motivation for these Nebraska legislators to support such a resolution?
Politicians know a group is serious about an issue when there is agreement among that group and they act as one body representing that issue.
It’s a lesson that the Latino community still needs to learn if the desire for change is the goal.
