SF Chronicle Muses About AZ Border Politics

I suggest reading the entire article, but this section is what I wanted to highlight

Latinos make up 25 percent of the state's population -- and 17 percent of voters -- yet they are not a force in any contested race. Democrats are too busy courting the anti-illegal-immigrant vote.

"If Martians landed and watched Democrats' ads, they would assume both Mitchell and Pederson are right-wing conservatives on immigration," said Rodolfo Espino, a political scientist at Arizona State University.

Far from cowering before the stern GOP stance, Democrats are inoculating themselves by sounding just as tough as Republicans on border security, while accusing them of being all talk, no action and soft on employers.

linkage

Finally. Someone in the MSM (whatever that means) calling out the obvious. This election has been a rat-race to the right when it comes to immigration reform and all we're left with are a bunch of turds in the form of walls and national guard deployments.

Oh, but we have to elect the Democrats because they will be our greatest hope to passing comprehensive reform, right? RIGHT?

Let me say this: I stared at my early ballot for an hour yesterday with the Senate race left blank after I had filled out everything else.

It took everything out of me to fill in that black bubble next to Jim Pederson's name. The reason? The line didn't read "Not Kyl"; which is exactly where my conscience rests at the moment - not in support of Jim's corporate-minded platform and history.

The SF Chronicle is right to point out that AZ politics has been dominated by Joe Arpaio-like antics from both sides of the aisle. Meanwhile the rest of us whose conscience still registers a heartbeat whenever we read about the latest exploitation of human desperation or neighborhood round-up gone awry are left waiting for the next round of opportunists to call our phones to ask for money or a few hours of our time to go hit the neighborhoods to "GOTV!!!!!!".

The cynicism you read is warranted. Don't think so? Do a word search within the linked article for the name of my Congressman, Raúl Grijalva, some one who gets it. Nada.

Once again we are either ignored or dismissed. Never mind that the Congressman's district spans a huge swath of la frontera and he is going to be re-elected handily.

The only thing that will truly register on their radar screens is a huge turnout on Tuesday by humanity-centered voters. It'll be interesting to see what happens, because I didn't stare at my blank ballot for personal amusement.