General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hopes Frustrated, Many Latinos Reject the Ballot Box Altogether [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and I want you to tell me how exactly you want to bring Raquela out to vote.
She is in her mid 20s, and her first election was actually the 2012 election. She voted for Obama in a state where this did not really matter, after all California is currently blue. Yet she voted for the POTUS since he promised to solve this problem, and her father and mother do not have a legal status. Until they were deported both her parents worked as farm workers, and in the service industry. Her mother worked at a local hotel in fact, making beds for minimum wage.
Her father is now living in Mexico, after being deported, as well as her mother. Raquela is left raising her two brothers, and missing her two parents. The only good thing for her is that she is a US Citizen, so she could get a passport if she could afford it, so she could go visit. But how exactly do you get her back to the voting booth?
She is not only thinking of sitting out the 2014 election, but any and all future elections. To her politicians are just scum, and she makes no difference to which party. As I said, she at least can get a passport. Many in her cohort are dreamers, who have also seen the families torn asunder, and placed all their hopes in both the President and the Congressional delegation.
I just gave you a real life example. As I said, I hear these stories now so often this article is all but surprising to me. It is like, really took you guys so long? These issues have been "hot" in the minority press for the last at least 18 months.