Take a deep breath, take your time today. Now vote. You can almost feel a collective relief coming from the Latino community saying, “This feels right. This feels good. Adelante! Right on! Sí se puede!”
It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. The Latino community feels and reacts to what is in their hearts. It’s a community that listens to what their heart tells them, not what others say. The most beautiful heartfelt statement the Latino community can make is to vote.
In 2020, as never before, the Latino community is using this act of voting in order to secure the right to participate in our democracy, to secure the right to love our communities, our families, our culture, our faith, our history. Yes, voting in this election means saving our neighborhoods, our culture, our health, our children, grandchildren, and grandparents. It is truly an election of a lifetime. “One person, one vote” is a sacred right not to be taken for granted.
The Latino community knows that this president thinks little about our community and cares nothing for what anyone else thinks. Latinos have seen and felt his racist policies. The Latino community is here to vote. Latinos will vote against the president and his Senate co-conspirators against democracy. We will help elect Biden-Harris and other Democrats. Nothing is more important at this time in our shared American history.
The stress-filled nightmare of four years of a racist and chaotic administration can finally come to an end. The time is running out: November 3 is right around the corner. There is no time to waste. Get ready for the most important election in our lifetime.
The Latino community is and has been under attack by the Trump administration since he was elected. There is no time to have second thoughts about voting out the current president. Almost every Latino is shouting, “Vote him out!” This is no time to feel sorry for a president who has done everything in his power to intimidate, create fear, sow division, and pursue his xenophobic policies against the Latino community.
Our time and our turn are now. So do whatever you can to tell your family, relatives, and friends to register and to vote, Do whatever you can to help get out the vote for Biden-Harris in these days now that voting has already started.
The Latino community has nothing to lose by voting for Biden-Harris. On the contrary, the Latino community has so much more to gain by taking the direct action to vote out this dangerous, uncontrollable fascist—and make no mistake about it, the fascists are here and they want to take power. Trump and his allies are politically moving to consolidate their corporate allies and armed militias by aligning their policies to benefit corporate interests against the working class. This administration is catering to and consolidating the power inside Wall Street’s financial, banking, industrial, and manufacturing sectors. He is reshaping every government institution with the ultimate goal of moving toward an undemocratic dictatorship. This is not make-believe. This is happening right under our noses. This is why voting in this election will be among the most important actions the Latino community will take in our lifetime and for our future.
Over the past four years, the Latino community has felt the brunt of this racist president and his policies. The only thing standing between the fascist takeover and our very livelihoods are those willing to stand up to keep our democracy alive, those of us committed to exercising the vote.
Latinos organized successfully that when we supported César Chávez in building protections for Mexican Americans, Latinos, Filipinos, and others in the fields who plant, tend, and harvest the food that we eat.
At the same time, Latinos are also part of the broader working-class and people’s movements. Where would the American labor movement be without the solidarity of Latino garment workers, teachers, social workers, hospitality workers, service workers? We must stand up in unity with all our non-Latino friends and allies. Our struggle is the same.
U.S. Rep. from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said, “No one politician is the answer, no one president is the answer. You are the answer. Mass movements of people are the answer. Millions of people are the answer—you are the answer. I need to show up. We need to show up.” AOC is saying that the Latino community must show up and vote. We have before and we can again.
Latinos are sick and tired of all the BS, all the lying, children in cages, separated from their parents, wars against people of color across the ocean, refusal to condemn the Nazis and violent white supremacists, and all the harmful stress created by this president. We know stress itself is a killer. There is no other way to say it. Either we help defeat this president by voting for Biden-Harris or we face dreadful consequences of another four years of hostile, abusive attacks on the Latino community and the continuing betrayal of our country’s highest democratic values under a fascist-minded regime held unaccountable by a compliant Senate and Supreme Court.
In order for the Latino community to move forward, we must stand together with others to defeat the current president and his gang, the whole Republican Party that supports him. There is no other way to say it: Vote with pride. Stand up, use your ballot and kick the living daylights out of this president and his administration. Vote. Sí se puede!
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, this article reflects the opinions of its authors.
ELECTION 2020: Everything you need to know to vote in your state
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