Don't 'Don't Vote'

Many Latinos Are Angry That Immigration Reform Has Not Materialized. But A 'Don't Vote' Ad In Nevada Is A Cynical Ploy To Help Republican Candidates.

Los Angeles Times: Latinos who are frustrated with Congress' failure to adopt comprehensive immigration reform are being targeted with a lie: that the best strategy to achieve their goal is to stop participating in the democratic process. Don't vote. Be silent. Go uncounted to teach the politicians a lesson. But that approach cannot and will not work. No group in the United States has ever forwarded its political agenda by auto-disenfranchisement. Last year there was a don't-fill-out-the-census campaign. This latest effort to marginalize Latinos has taken the form of a "Don't Vote" ad drive in Nevada, sponsored by an organization cynically misnamed Latinos for Reform. The group, led by conservative pundit and former Republican Party official Robert de Posada, is asking Latinos to punish Democrats for failing to pass immigration reform by staying home Nov. 2. If Latinos follow that advice, they will harm the reelection chances of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is locked in a tight race in Nevada. But the ads cleverly do not encourage Latinos to vote for Reid's Republican rival, Sharron Angle — a request that might backfire given that Angle has run ads demonizing illegal immigrants and supports SB 1070, Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant law.