I am a Latina and the former Democratic majority leader of the California State Senate.
The first woman to ever hold that position.
I represented one of the most Latino and Democratic areas in California: East L.A., the birthplace of the Chicano youth walkout over racism in education in the 1960s.
Yet I, too, am on the brink of leaving the Party and the roots of my disillusionment run deep.
The media first began paying attention to this shifting political allegiance when significant numbers of Latinos defied the Democratic party label in 2016 and cast a vote for Donald J. Trump.
But I, and many others in my community, have been observing this change over time.
Seventy-one percent of Latinos supported President Barack Obama in 2012 then 66 percent went for Hillary Clinton and 59 percent voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
You see, the problem for Democrats isn’t the messages or the public relations and it’s not for a lack of brown-skinned consultants.
The problem is the party itself — and what it has come to represent.
Historically, Democrats have claimed to be the party of the working-class—the little guy—and pocketbook issues were essential.
John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama (in his first presidential run) were aspirational, and they embraced the American Dream.
Not anymore.
The modern progressive Democratic Party increasingly leans toward socialism, bewildering definitions of the genders, greater state-control of our children, infanticide defined as reproductive rights, and of course, hostility to the idea of border and law enforcement.
(Above) State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles (left) with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (center) and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles (right) on Aug. 29, 2006 in Sacramento, California.
+4
View gallery
(Above) State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles (left) with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (center) and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles (right) on Aug. 29, 2006 in Sacramento, California.
The Democratic Party is run by out-of-touch political elites who push a Green New Deal which we see as dinero for their pockets and Teslas in their driveways, but regressive tax policies for the rest of us.
And make no mistake about it: the puppet masters behind the Party understand that the choices they are making are not in the interests of Latinos.
They don’t care.
These are not policies that help the working person. In fact, they hurt him, her, and their families.
The far-left, coddled by a senile Democratic president and incompetent Vice-President chosen by back-room operatives, viciously condemns conservatives and anyone else, who may be against this so-called ‘progressive’ push.
But what these Democrats don’t fully grasp is that Latinos are not the stereotypical ‘little brown ones’ of the past.
What the Party is now understanding is that we do not feel beholden to a Party in which Brown Lives just seem not to matter.
In greater numbers, that proverbial ‘sleeping giant’ is awakening to give the Grand Old Party a new look as we see our values ridiculed and culture canceled.
Latinos largely embrace the American Dream.
We know how to hustle, to work hard, to believe that ‘si se puede.’
According to the Small Business Administration, as of 2021 there are an estimated 4.65 million Latino-owned companies in the U.S., making Latino business owners the fastest-growing segment of this community, up 34% in the last 10 years.
But instead of pursuing policies that reward hard work, Biden’s gratuitous COVID relief spending has stoked inflation that is making it harder to earn a living.
Latinos are also not about to abandon our mothers to now label them as birthing people.
We even have two celebratory Mother’s Days.
Call our language sexist, but we don’t care.
Spanish is a gendered language that has existed for centuries, and we are not about to redefine ourselves with an ‘x’ to appease some out-of-touch college kids, who thought ‘Latinx’ would be less offensive to them.
Latinos are very family-oriented, and while we have increasingly embraced change and confronted machismo in our culture, we are not interested in shoving explicitly sexual education in the faces of our ninos and ninas in their earliest school years.
But those of us who reject these ideas risk being labeled as ‘homophobes,’ ‘right-wingers,’ ‘Neanderthals’ or ‘the brown face of white supremacy’ by the intolerant woke.
Latinos understand that education is the key to the American Dream.
But year after year, decade after decade, we see the chronic underperformance of public schools serving Latino students and the unwillingness of Democrats to support school choice.
Just in time for the upcoming celebrations of Cinco de Mayo, Latinos are sending unmistakable mutterings of ‘Que @#$%&! es eso?’ ¿ a spicy Spanish version of ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ ¿ to the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party.
+4
View gallery
Just in time for the upcoming celebrations of Cinco de Mayo, Latinos are sending unmistakable mutterings of ‘Que @#$%&! es eso?’ — a spicy Spanish version of ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ — to the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party.
While in office I chaired both the Education Committee and oversaw prison reform.
Democrats continuously bowed to the power of the biggest special interest in the Golden State: the California Teachers Union that buttered its bread off the poor, little black and brown bodies enrolled in a public education system that failed to serve them.
Since leaving the Legislature in 2010, I have continued to fight for reforms in education.
The choice is clear: kids vs. campaign contributions.
Democratic Party-led efforts to defund the police fell flat in our neighborhoods.
According to Los Angeles Police data, the surge in homicides since the beginning of the pandemic heavily impacted Latinos who account for 49 percent of the city’s population but 50 percent of homicide victims during that period.
Meanwhile, non-Latino whites, who make up 29 percent of the city’s population, made up fewer than 8 percent of homicide victims.
Lastly, what the Democratic Party is choosing to ignore is that Latinos are more likely to support patriotism, citizenship, and legal processes for immigration.
We know that open borders — favored by big business and a Party intent on growing its consumer base for years to come — comes with real costs to the working-class communities in which newly arrived migrants are expected to settle in.
No one should be surprised that the first signs of Latino discontent have occurred in south Texas precisely over the question of unfettered immigration.
Biden has no shot of getting reelected because of his…
Moment a confused looking Biden sticks out his hand and…
This Cinco de Mayo, I anticipate that it will be Democratic Party operatives experiencing a hangover after the celebrations are over.
What is needed is for the Party to examine its own stereotypes of Latinos as second-class Democrats who would remain submissive to the Party elders.
Not so.
And all the branding of Republicans as ‘racist’ has not built back our lives better.
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which a smaller, poorly equipped Mexican force defeated the larger and better-armed French army.
The victory represented a significant morale boost to the Mexican people in kicking out a would-be oppressor and helped establish a sense of national unity and patriotism.
It has long been acknowledged as the ‘ganas’ — the will — to courageously stand up to the power of a Goliath without fear.
Undoubtedly, Latinos are waking up to wokeism and understand that the political coyotes in the form of Democratic Party elites have abandoned what the Democratic Party once proudly stood for.
Share on Facebook «||» Share on Twitter «||» Share on Reddit «||» Share on LinkedIn