Tenemos el Poder

As I hope everyone knows, elections are soon upon us. There is no set of ideals or beliefs that are completely constant in any population or group, there is always variation and diversity. I am not going to claim that all Hispanics feel one way or another when it comes to politics, society, the duty of the government, etc.

However, I will argue that our vote is more powerful than ever before as a demographic. We are already the largest minority in this country, and are on our way to becoming the majority. The majority of births in this country are to Hispanic mothers, and we are poised to cast the deciding vote on the direction of our nation. It is OUR time. Because there is no clear winner between the candidates in the eyes of many Hispanic people (many of whom traditionally hold conservative views but do not feel at all welcome or wanted in the Republican party) we are the group that the candidates should be most heavily courting. We are the largest bloc of possibly undecided voters, as many others stick to their party lines even when doing so is against their best interest. Never have we had such an opportunity to make the changes we want to see. And while neither presidential candidate truly seems to understand just what those changes are, some very important and pertinent issues are on the table.

These issues are important not just for Hispanics, but for everyone, especially the young people of this country (a growing number of whom are Hispanic). As young people in this nation, it is in our best interest to vote for candidates who support equal opportunity for education and improving our nation's education system. The manufacturing jobs of our grandparents' times are gone. Never again will the US hope to be competitive when it comes to cheap labor. The standard of living we expect in this country and have grown accustomed to cannot be supported by wages low enough to entice transnational corporations to have their factories here.

A point the President made in Tuesday debate was to the effect of, yes, we are going to lose some jobs. But what we can and should do, is invest in the development of high-skilled, high-paying jobs. This is something we are very well-positioned to do. Our higher education system is one of the best in the world, but it is in desperate need of help, as the system can only withstand so many budget cuts. It is in everyone's best interest to increase funding for education, yet in times of austerity measures, education is often the first sector to be cut. This is ridiculous and dangerous. It is one of the easiest sectors to cut, as its effects are not immediately felt. But this problem is linked to so many other issues in our country, such as poverty and high teen-birth rates and unemployment. Ultimately, it all comes down to education.

Nearly everyone I know will be drowning in debt by the time they graduate from undergraduate school, and many would like to continue on to grad school, as that is now necessary to be competitive. Helping people who want to further their education can only help this nation as a whole. Bending to the will of the capitalist elites will not save us. They do not care about any nation in particular. They are a class all their own and are loyal only to the system and their money.

The idea of "less government" appeals to many. But the private sector does not always do it better. Real wages have not risen in the US since the 70s. Producing more for export in Latin America has not raised wages there. Our families, our kin, in this country and others are hurting. We are all hurting under this system, and people like Romney, who buy into his brand of economic theory, say that not having job security is just something the working class will just have to get used to. Easy for someone not of the working class to say. The majority of us will spend our lives working. It is not in our best interest to vote for someone who represents the interests of the capitalist elitist class, rather than our own.

Please, think about what is best for your future. How many of you out there want to have to put an early halt to your higher education career because you get pregnant or your girlfriend gets pregnant because she can't afford reliable, easy to use birth control? How many of you want to pay taxes to fund the ER visits of people who can't afford or refuse to buy health insurance? To me, it makes sense that we all pay in to the system, and we all can benefit. I'm not arguing for the equal outcome idea, that we all should get the same results no matter what. But I am arguing that we should all have equal opportunity to live the best lives we can, and make the most of our future.