Mitt Romney and Pete Wilson: The Two New Amigos
- Categoría: Opiniones
- Publicado el Jueves, 16 Febrero 2012 22:27
- Julio Reyna, Psy.D.
- Visto: 746
Mitt Romney and Pete Wilson are now officially on the same team. Per several news reports, Mitt Romney has appointed Pete Wilson – one of the most disliked individuals by Latinos residing in California- as the “honorary chairman” of his campaign in California.
As we know, Pete Wilson and the anti-immigrant proposition 187 will go hand by hand in the memory of most Latinos for many years to come, and anyone who politically befriends Pete Wilson is immediately perceived as anti-immigrant in the Latino community living in California and in some other states.
The strange part about this partnership in that Pete Wilson has no recent record of helping political candidates win competitive elections. Isn’t common sense that if a politician wants to win an election he or she will try to bring to the team, and get endorsements from others who can truly deliver results? Pete Wilson’s latest publicized fiasco has been the defeat of Meg Whitman during the California elections for governor. Meg Whitman’s defeat to now governor Jerry Brown was not only decisive, but clearly humiliating. And by the way, Pete Wilson was Meg Whitman’s campaign chair.
This begs the question: Why Mitt Romney took this apparently politically miscalculated and self-defeating decision by bringing Pete Wilson to his team? Several reasons could be explored, including the need for Mitt Romney to be perceived as conservative, ultra-right candidate.
However, I believe the reason why Mitt Romney made such decision was because he does not believe he will win the presidency, and by becoming a Pete Wilson ally, he is trying to position himself with a group of individuals as being “one of them.” If that’s the case, then his decision to team up with Pete Wilson is not a faux pas but rather a post-election political calculation. He wants to maintain political relevance after his likely defeat during the presidential elections.
Taking this information into consideration, then, while keeping a focus on the presidential candidates, we Latinos must turn our attention to state and local elections. Many of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and propositions are being voiced in several states at the local and state legislature levels. We must put enough political pressure with our vote to make sure anti-immigrant propositions and anti-immigrant candidates do not succeed in their quest of spewing more hate toward immigrants, and more specifically towards Hispanics/Latinos.
Nos ayudas?
