Don't Vote If you're Latino!

[East New York]

A new Republican attack ad from "Latino's for Reform" attemps to encourage Latino voters not to vote. Historically, the vast majority of Latinos are Democrats. There are two versions. The other one is in Spanish, and Univision has refused to air the ad.

 

 

 

The Wall Street Journal

 

The ad was widely seen as an effort to hurt the campaign of incumbent Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat, who is working hard to turn out Latino voters. Mr. de Posoda, who has long worked with the Republican Party, said he didn’t like either candidate but acknowledged that a Latino boycott would hurt Mr. Reid’s chances.

 

Democrats from President Barack Obama on down condemned his effort. “I think it is terrible,’” Mr. Obama said Tuesday during a roundtable with reporters from Spanish-language outlets. “It is a cynical political ploy to try to drive Latino votes to benefit a Republican candidate in Nevada who would never vote for immigration reform.”

 

Mr. de Posoda argues that politicians take Latino votes for granted and have failed to deliver on promises including enacting comprehensive immigration legislation. To teach them a lesson, his ads argue, Latinos should stay home on Election Day. After complaints from Nevada Democrats and some Republicans, Univision said it would not run the spots, called “Don’t Vote.”

 

“Univision will not be running any spots from Latinos for Reform related to voting,” a Univision spokesperson said. “Univision prides itself on promoting civic engagement and our extensive national campaigns encourage Hispanics to vote.”

 

Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader, has tried to push immigration legislation but has not succeeded. He’s in a closely fought contest against Republican Sharron Angle. Recently Angle commented to Hispanic high school students that some of them looked Asian, a point made as she was defending a TV ad on immigration featuring men who appear to be Hispanic.

 

Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy emphasized that the ad was not associated with her campaign and said Ms. Angle encourages all registered voters to come to the polls.

 

Mr. de Posoda said he doesn’t like Ms. Angle but he said Mr. Reid “needs to pay for the fact that he betrayed Hispanics for the past two years.” He said his group has a $125,000 budget for its campaign but doesn’t know how it will spend the money now.

 

 

[CenSin]

I'm not surprised. It's just politics as usual.

[metsfan]

Disgusting. Anyone who encourages another to not vote does not deserve to run for any office. :mad:

 

- A

[Joe]

If you make a decision not to vote based on a desire to upset the election, you're still voting, albeit not with a ballot. It's just as patriotic as going to the voting booth and casting a paper vote for a**hole A or a**hole B.

[SubwayGuy]

The vote is one of the few rights the corporations and special interests have not been able to bribe and cheat to have taken away from the people. Americans have a civic duty to inform themselves of the candidates and vote. People fought and died for the right to vote. It is a slap in the face to them not to vote.

[metsfan]

People have suffered, been tortured, starved, died so we can vote. Not voting is an insult to everyone that came before us, including our parents and grandparents.

 

- A

[Grand Concourse]

But voting for someone without being fully informed can be just as bad as someone not voting. Basically throwing away a vote.

[SubwayGuy]

But voting for someone without being fully informed can be just as bad as someone not voting. Basically throwing away a vote.

 

And that's why my previous post includes the bolded line:

 

The vote is one of the few rights the corporations and special interests have not been able to bribe and cheat to have taken away from the people. Americans have a civic duty to inform themselves of the candidates and vote. People fought and died for the right to vote. It is a slap in the face to them not to vote.

[metsfan]

But voting for someone without being fully informed can be just as bad as someone not voting. Basically throwing away a vote.

 

True, sadly people base their voting on attack ads and not reality, it's like basing everything you think on wikipedia.

 

- A