Wendy who? Gregg who?

By Felix Alvarado

November 5, 2014

The drama, suspense and trivia are over.  The mid-term elections are over and the predicted winners won and the predicted losers lost.  Not a great surprise.  Texas continues to be a solid Republican state.  But the Republicans did not just win in Texas, nationwide they achieved “The Impossible Dream” taking control of the US Senate.  To the winners we say “Congratulations” or as we say in Spanish ”En Buena Hora”and to the loser we say “Hasta La Vista”.  The Democratic Party spent millions trying to change Texas from Red to Blue.  In an effort to change the color Texas was declared a “battleground state.”  Troops and money were poured into the state.  Troops and money could not do it.  Another Dream Team could not do it.  All these efforts are nothing more than gimmicks.  They offer nothing substantive.

There was no one thing that won the election for the Republicans.  We Latinos do not have a proud voting record.  When we did influence an election the outcome frankly sucked.  The man that was supposed to fix the immigration problem tried to solve it by deporting the problem.  In so doing he gave ammunition to the Republican Party to create a fictitious border crisis.  Obama created the problem Republicans created a solution. Send the National Guard to the border.  It worked. 

In North Texas, State Senate District 10 went from Democrat to Republican.  In Dallas County the office of District Attorney went from a Democrat to Republican.  Both of these elections were well funded.  Funny thing about elections they are events whose outcome is controlled by the people that vote.  Only those that vote determine who wins and who loses.  Those that do not vote are mere spectators.  We can honestly say that the people have spoken.

The question now is “Has the Democratic Party reached rock bottom?”  Another question is “Can the Democratic Party dig itself out of the deep hole it has fallen into?”  A question for the Republican Party is “Will the party become more inclusive and address those issues of interest to Latinos in Texas?”  At some point in time Latinos will be the largest voting bloc in Texas.  Eventually Latinos will be like a reed in the wind sway in one direction or the other.  This election pretty well points out that Latinos are not overwhelmingly attracted to either party.  That will change.  Perhaps Latinos do not realize the impact of non-voting.  That too will change. 

We Latinos need to become involved in the political process because in a democracy power is concentrated in the political process.