Globalization

In a piece in the Washington Post today, Marcela Sanchez discusses U.S. Senator Barack Obama's "Clues for Wooing the Latino Vote." Ms. Sanchez discusses the point made in NDN's report on Hispanics Rising that the harsh tone of the immigration debate on the part of Republicans has been perceived by many Hispanics as anti-Hispanic as opposed to anti-undocumented, and has thus cost Republican candidates votes - and elections - since 2006. However, Ms. Sanchez makes a distinction between the perception of John McCain and that of the Republican Party among Latinos; based on Sen. McCain's current stance on a number of issues, I do not see such a distinction.

As Marcela Sanchez cites herself, the polls show Sen. Obama ahead of Sen. John McCain by at least 62-29 percent. She argues that many of those Latino Obama supporters might be in States that are traditionally Democratic, however, the polls are taken at the national level. While it is true that Hispanics are definitely not monolithic, the fact is that most Hispanics are concentrated in the Southern and Western swing states, and Florida:

Ms. Sanchez posits that it is in these states, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Colorado,"where McCain could connect with enough Latinos to make a difference." I disagree for one main reason - Sen. McCain could not even win Latinos in his own home state, where about 30% of the population is Hispanic. In the 2008 primary elections in Arizona, the exit poll data showed 68% of all Hispanics who voted cast their vote for a Democrat, and only 32%voted for a Republican. John McCain's share of that 32% was 21.76% of the entire electorate. This is particularly dramatic because when he ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Sen. McCain was able to secure 72% of the Hispanic vote - that is a fifty percent drop in votes from the Hispanic community of his home state in just four years. Which begs the question - who is really in the tougher spot with Latinos? The candidate who won his Senate election with 82% of the Hispanic vote in his own state and currently has a lead of over 30% among Hispanics nationally? Or the candidate who has lost fifty percent of the Hispanic voters in his own State who supported him in 2004? Mind you, this is not to say that it will not be a challenge for both candidates to secure the Hispanic vote, nor is it a matter of favoring one candidate over another, it is a matter of wanting to encourage the media and readers to provide a more detailed analysis and not buy into sound bytes.

You'll note that one of these slides cites to Meet the Press; at the time this blog was being drafted to post, a man that I look to as an example of the type of professional and person I can only hope to be, Tim Russert, passed away. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Following on Sarah's post, the two celebrities most recently added as U.S. citizens highlight an important point we should not forget: the United States is a nation of immigrants. The best way to attack existing negative advertising campaigns designed to perpetuate stereotypes and demonize immigrants is by introducing the public to who immigrants really are.

In addition to the beloved "Big Papi," a national sports figure, a celebrity of the Radio industry also recently obtained citizenship. Eddie "Piolin" Cuauhtémoc Sotelo, known by his listeners as "Piolin" (translation of "Tweety bird" in Spanish) due to this small frame, energy and comedic disposition, called becoming a citizen a "dream come true" during a ceremony in Los Angeles held two weeks ago today. He became a citizen next to 18,000 other people from 100 different countries.

His Spanish-language show is the radio show with the largest audience in the country, and as a citizen, Piolin reiterates his desire to use his microphone and celebrity to help immigrants adjust as they live in the United States. A native of Jalisco, Mexico, he has a strong religious faith and faith in the "power given to me to help my people." In an interview with Univision, he also highlighted the important contributions of immigrants to the United States, and the importance of having immigrants become citizens so that they may demonstrate their love for this country and prosper. Piolin himself has spearheaded citizenship drives, voter registration drives, get out the vote campaigns, and he has lobbied Congress for comprehensive immigration reform. Eddie is an immigrant who, like so many others, came to this country to be better. He is hard working and he attributes his success to "hard work and group effort." Eddie is also a friend of NDN, here he is with Simon Rosenberg and Joe Garcia:

High energy prices are proving a threat to the American way of life as they become an increasingly large share of how Americans spend their incomes. In today’s New York Times, Clifford Krauss writes about the impact of gas prices on rural communities:

Gasoline prices reached a national average of $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, adding more strain to motorists across the country.

But the pain is not being felt uniformly. Across broad swaths of the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting an even tighter squeeze on family budgets.

Here in the Mississippi Delta, some farm workers are borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes.

People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel. Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.

The disparity between rural America and the rest of the country is a matter of simple home economics. Nationwide, Americans are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. By contrast, in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure has surpassed 13 percent.

Additionally, a new poll from CNN found that:

As more Americans become resigned to the possibility of paying $5 for a gallon for gas, they are driving less and seriously considering chucking their gas guzzlers, according to a poll released Monday.

These rising costs, along with rising healthcare costs and dropping wages, have the potential to widen gaps in the American economy and radically impact the way Americans live their lives. Reducing gas prices in the short terms is difficult, if not impossible, and there are far more bad ideas about how to do this than there are good ones. John McCain has come back to one of his worst, the gas tax holiday, which is impressive for its overt pandering and lack of foundation in economics. Americans need a sound energy policy and are currently feeling the burn from lacking a forward thinking one for the last eight years.

NDN is proud to announce the launch of the Latin American Policy Initiative (LAPI). This will include a monthly luncheon series that will feature Members of Congress, Ambassadors from Latin America, and other key policy experts. Each luncheon will focus on a single country and explore opportunities to increase understanding of the bilateral relationships that the United States shares with each country. Our next luncheon will be on Wednesday, June 18^th from 12:00pm-1:30 pm in Room 1116 of the Longworth House Office Building and will focus on Ecuador. Please join NDN, Hon. Luis Benigno Gallegos Chiriboga, Ambassador of Ecuador to the U.S., and U.S. Representative Eliot Engel as we continue this exciting new effort. For more information, please contact Andres Ramirez via email at aramirez@ndn.org or phone at 202-544-9200.

Background on LAPI

For years, NDN has been making the case that America is undergoing the most radical demographic transformation in its history. The rise of the domestic Hispanic population has brought about a New Politics in America. To help explain this, NDN and its team have conducted hundreds of briefings on the power of the emerging Hispanic community; and we've used Spanish-language media campaigns and press coverage to continue the discussion on what is such an important development in American politics.

Part of our analysis is that we must encourage our elected officials to engage in hemispheric relations more than they have in the past. The rising U.S. Hispanic population requires it, especially since our relationship with Latin America is becoming increasingly important for our domestic policy. That is why NDN began an effort to better discuss the importance of U.S.-Latin American relations. We heard from Governor Bill Richardson, who delivered a major foreign policy speech on ways to improve our relations with Latin America; and we convened an incredibly important forum on what a Post-Castro Cuba would look like.

We are excited to announce a new endeavor along these lines. We are launching a series of events focusing on the future of U.S.-Latin American relations. These events will focus on a different country each month, and work to establish an ongoing dialogue and research to better inform those interested in Latin American policy.

Courtesy of Mark Halperin's "The Page," Barack Obama is set to kick off a two week "Change that Works for You" economic tour. He will kick off the tour with a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Obama will travel across the country, talking to Americans about how the economy affects their everyday lives. He’ll hold events with voters where they work and where they live, discussing the challenges we face and his plans to turn the economy around.

This move is a necessary first step for Obama as he pivots toward the general election. With new unemployment numbers showing the biggest increase in job loss in 22 years (up to 5.5 percent, 49,000 jobs lost in May), Americans are clearly ready for a new economic agenda. We are excited to hear about Obama's vision for the economy, and will be following his tour closely.

Hey everyone! I just touched down in Cape Town, South Africa, where I'll be working this summer on entrepreneurial small business development projects through TSiBA Graduate Business School. I'm looking forward to building upon the knowledge I gained as an NDN intern this past Spring, and sharing my experiences right here on the NDN blog. And if my first few hours are an indication of what's to come, I'll have plenty to discuss.

As I stepped onto South African soil Sunday night I had no idea what to expect. For months I've planned to work in Cape Town for the summer, but with the recent attacks on foreigners in the country, I was forced to become more cautiously optimistic of my plans. When I arrived everyone was extremely welcoming, but I was truly amazed when during breakfast this morning, I looked out the window to see hundreds of people protesting the recent xenophobic attacks marching down the street.

What I saw opened my eyes to multiple aspects of this problem that have been somewhat overlooked. First, while the media portrays the attacks as attacks on foreigners, they are largely assaults on Mozambicans, Zimbabweans, Malawians, Nigerians, and others who have been accused of stealing jobs from South African citizens, not attacks on tourists or volunteers who are also foreigners in the country.

In addition, the situation reminded me of an exacerbated parallel of the Minutemen in the United States who task themselves with patrolling the American border with Mexico. In drawing this similarity it can be seen that these feelings of xenophobia are not exclusive to South Africa, however the means will hopefully remain vastly different.

Moreover, in Peter Fabricius' article (subscription only) in the Cape Times, he brings up the point that this violence has tremendous potential of completely changing the way that South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki conducts foreign policy in the region. Interestingly enough, while the Nigerian foreign minister has said that South African apologies are not sufficient in making things right, the foreign nations whose citizens are being attacked have been surprisingly understanding of the violence. (With its strong words, Nigeria at this time has not requested compensation.)

Lastly, in a time when the world is suffering from tremendous humanitarian problems all at once, the way in which Mbeki handles the growing refugee problem in the country will determine how effectively South Africa can manage its own, as well as act as a leader in African humanitarian efforts in the time to come.

Before the speeches and other primary news started dominating the blogosphere yesterday, I saw this interview by Nathan Gardels with Fareed Zakaria. It's about Zarakia's new book The Post-American World, which Gardels claims is on Obama's reading list. This sobering statement opens the article:

If Barack Obama succeeds in his campaign against John McCain and
becomes president of the United States, he will have to deal with much
deeper issues beyond Iraq, namely the "rise of the rest" as China,
India and the developing world aspire to catch up with America and want
a seat at the table of global power.

Just last week, our own Simon Rosenberg has commented on the the book--which takes the long-run view on the challenges facing our nation and our economy. Considering the similar view coming out of the Globalization Initiative at NDN, it's safe to say that we're fans of the book.

This recent ad by Elizabeth Dole goes along with the continuing tide of GOP ads on national security and immigration. However, unlike other ads that directly attack Hispanics, representing them as undocumented immigrants, this ad is much more moderate. Instead of showing people crossing the border, it focuses on just talking about border security; instead of showing someone being deported, it is limited to discussing deportation, and it limits the discussion to "tough" undocumented criminals, as opposed to immigrants in general. It is also telling that Sen. Dole does not speak on the issue herself - might she be heeding the warnings by GOP leadership that directly anti-immigrant tactics are counterproductive?

With a strong challenger and limited funds, Sen. Dole is, quite literally, banking on fear and the desire for a sense of security among many in North Carolina. This ad promotes her efforts to bring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to North Carolina to train local and state police to aprehend undocumented criminals. The information that is ommitted in the ad is that this type of training is performed under Section 287(g) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, and under 287(g), ICE must enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the county or State in question. In the case of North Carolina, ICE does not have a state-wide MOA, as expressed in the ad; ICE only has MOAs with five counties in the state, and each MOA can vary in scope and severity.

From a policy perspective, these type of agreements are criticized by Police Chiefs and law enforcement officers because they often have unintended consequences that actually make it harder for them to work with their community to fight crime, particularly in the case of areas with a large immigrant or minority population. Additionally, these agreements with Federal immigration officials come with no additional resources - only additional responsibility and strain on local law enforcement. So we're left wondering why Sen. Dole promotes her push to impose an unfunded mandate on North Carolina.