2009 National Ethnic Media Awards Winners

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Alejandro Manrique, Qué Pasa, Editorial

Latinos have a historic, unprecedented opportunity to influence and help define the final results of the presidential elections. While Latinos in Texas, California and Florida are accustomed to being considered crucial swing voters, North Carolina's solid tradition of voting Republican — they haven't voted for a Democrat since the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976 — has made this state rarely considered an electoral battleground.

But it is now. And Latinos can make a difference. The latest voter registration figures show that more than 60,000 Latinos are registered to vote. This represents close to 2 percent of the total number of voters. This figure may seem small, especially considering that Latinos constitute 7 to 10 percent of the state's total population.

However, taking into account the recent polls that show a virtual tie between McCain and Obama, in North Carolina, this 2 percent could define the election and tilt the balance. What better opportunity for the emerging Latino powerbase, than to be able to decide how the state's electoral votes — which ultimately elect the nation's president — will be allocated?

In this sense, Qué Pasa radio and newspaper supports the candidacy of Barack Obama because we believe that he and his running mate Joe Biden best serve the interests of our readers and listeners.

On the topic of the economy, the implementation of McCain's proposals — which represent a continuation of eight years of failed policies by the Bush Administration — are synonymous with disaster. Continuing the policy of market deregulation, in the context of the economic crisis, will mean increasing the already high level of unemployment and increasing inequalities. Latinos find themselves at the bottom of the income ladder and are the ones who would be hurt most by these policies. McCain would maintain the tax exemptions that Bush implemented and that are favored by only 1 percent of the population, at the cost of everyone else. That 1 percent of the population, as a result of Bush's tax cuts, pays $1,000 less per week, while 50 percent of the population, under the same tax policy, pays $1.50 less per week.

Millions of people would lose their health insurance under McCain's privatization plan. He proposes giving a tax credit to families who pay for their own health insurance. McCain offers $5,000 in tax credits, when the average cost of a family's health insurance plan is about $12,000 a year. Under the proposed budget established by McCain, various programs supporting the education and health of Latinos would disappear.

Nor will McCain make any significant policy change with respect to Iraq, which will increase the bleeding of our economy and resources with a costly war that has broken the Treasury and has left nothing to improve our old, declining infrastructure. At the same time, continuing this war will mean continuing the unnecessary bleeding of American soldiers — many of them Latinos — the devastation of populations, the death of innocent civilians, and the continuation of barbaric policies such as the legitimization of torture, or the war crimes committed at Abu Ghraib.

McCain's energy policy, and the strong connections that both he and Sarah Palin have with oil companies will keep the price of gas high, which will even make it difficult to afford trips from home to work. Palin says she is an expert on gasoline, but what she really knows is how to give tax breaks to the big oil companies, which ultimately will make gas more expensive for everyone.

Despite once proposing a bill for comprehensive immigration reform that would have granted a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants, McCain has changed his rhetoric and his proposals in order to satisfy the conservative Republican base. Now, his proposals don't seem so different from those that demand mass deportations, restrictions and the construction of a border wall.

McCain has even said that he will propose immigration reform only after the border "is secure." What he fails to say is: When will he, or the Republican Congress, consider the border to be secure? When the wall is built? When we stop the flow of Mexicans and Central Americans (which hasn't diminished in the last 100 years and which it is impossible to reduce as long as there are jobs available for them in the United States)?

A McCain victory would be a step backward for Latinos on all of these policies. But we believe that an Obama victory is not only a victory for Latinos, but for the entire country.

Obama would offer an emergency economic package that will put money directly into the hands of taxpayers before giving it to Wall Street banks or financial executives. This will alleviate inequalities and introduce the justice that has been lacking from Bush's economy.

Obama's tax policies will give tax relief to 95 percent of families by giving a tax cut to those who make less than $200,000 a year. In other words, if your family earns less, you will pay less in taxes.

On health care, Obama offers a universal coverage plan that the vast majority of families will be able to afford and that will allow them to choose their own doctors. If you change jobs or lose your job, you will be able to continue receiving benefits from this universal coverage policy.

During an Obama presidency, investment in education and social services will continue and will receive support and attention. Obama will offer aid to qualifying college students allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at North Carolina community colleges. He has also said that he supports the Dream Act, a bill that offers a path to legalization for undocumented high school graduates who are enrolled in college.

Obama's policies call for a careful, orderly, honorable exit from Iraq and the requirement that Iraqis take charge of their own security. In addition, his plan will stop sending money into the black hole that is the war, and will allow the United States to refocus those resources toward Afghanistan and the border with Pakistan, where the real terrorist threat is found.

Obama says he will also promote an energy policy that ends once and for all our traditional dependence on foreign oil through conservation and development of clean alternative energy.

And unlike McCain, Obama has rejected the politics of racial hatred -which led candidate Sarah Palin to insinuate that there are some states in the country that are pro-American and others that aren't - and has said that he supports comprehensive immigration reform that offers a path to legalization and citizenship to the 11 million undocumented residents.

Across this beautiful and booming nation, as the economy is submerged in a sea of shadow and doubt, polls are beginning to go against the McCain-Palin formula. If history teaches us anything, the usual Republican response to defeat, which already hangs over them, has been the dirty and despicable game, as we've seen in the last few weeks, that attempts to resurrect three old, repugnant cards: deceit, fear, and a curtain of smoke.

The deceit card: which consists, essentially, in saying negative things about Obama and his policies — deceitful words and lies — about alleged hidden Islamic militancy (which is completely false), an alleged secret plan to increase taxes, and associating him with old and new terrorists.

The race card: we can find various members of the Republican Party trying to divide the multicultural coalition of voters that the Democratic Party has won over. So one can expect, in this last week of frenetic political battles, that they will re-ignite old resentments between the African-American community and the immigrant community, and against the alleged dangers of a black backlash if Obama wins.

The curtain of smoke: we will probably see Republicans, in this last week, trying to play the sexist card. They are currently doing this by marketing the ultra-conservative governor of Alaska as a kind of sexual symbol of political radicalism.

Latino voters must be prepared not to fall into the trap of these tricks and stay faithful to their principles and their culture. We need to agree that, no matter how many times it is voiced or expressed implicitly, Obama is not Muslim. We need to agree that it has been Obama, and not McCain, who has been clear, resounding and quick in expressing his support for immigration reform that entails a path to legalization; that it has been Obama, and not McCain, who is going to increase the minimum wage for workers. Sarah Palin may wink. But that new face, those expensive suits, that impeccable make-up don't necessarily mean new politics. And old politics are precisely what we don't need in this crucial election — the most important in a generation.

There is a lot at risk in these elections. The good news is that polls show that Obama has a clear lead over McCain among the country's Latinos. We hope this lead will be reflected in the state's vote. And it's best to vote for Barack Obama for President, Joe Biden for Vice President and Kay Hagan for Senate. Hagan beat out the discourse of Elizabeth Dole, who has had to withdraw her candidacy as Hagan has been gaining on her through the consistency of her ideas.

Hagan has a more comprehensive vision of the state, the economy and even immigrants, whom she prefers not to chase from county to county through the 287(g) program that made her rival so popular. Dole thinks that by demonizing the undocumented, she will be able to continue to cling to her position and gain the support of the people, but more than one person has gotten tired of this, at a time when the economy needs more prepared professionals than simple-minded politicians voicing anti-immigrant garbage.

In the state's gubernatorial elections, Qué Pasa supports Mike Munger, who has demonstrated himself to be a prepared candidate. A professor at Duke, Munger is an economist and knows that the Hispanic labor force worked the land, laid the foundations of the buildings, and even today continues handling the basic foods that end up on the dinner tables of more than one person.

Pat McCrory and Beverly Perdue, the two other candidates, are aware of this but it doesn't matter to them. Of the two, the more dangerous is McCrory, a threat to the immigrant community who has said on more than one occasion that she would do the impossible in order to deport them. Perdue maintained good relations with the community, but she erased this in one stroke when she said that undocumented minors had no reason to study at North Carolina community colleges.

Democrats Bob Etheridge, David Price and Brad Miller are trying to get re-elected in the U.S. Congress. Qué Pasa supports Price and Miller since they have been close to the Hispanic community. Etheridge, who also had some ties with Latinos, preferred to distance himself under an avalanche of criticism against them.

Qué Pasa also supports Ana Marie Calabria who is vying for a seat on the state's Supreme Court and Kristin Ruth for the Wake district court.

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