October 17, 2000

THE OAXACA JOURNAL 

TRUST AND VALUES, THE LATINO CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT

By Fernando Oaxaca, for HispanicVista.Com

It is unreal that in just three weeks we must decide whom we want in the White House for the next four years!  Latinos will join other Americans in picking the man we think is the best next President.

The candidates assume we want the new President to deal with bad schools, violence in our streets, keeping our economy upbeat, keeping us and our families healthy, giving us affordable gasoline, planning our retirement, taking care of our elderly, assuring our military is strong, stifling international hoodlums like Arafat and Saddam, keeping China and Russia in line, and the rest of a wish list they believe we will carry into the voting booth!

Guess what?  There is no such potential President!  The role of a President is to motivate and lead a nation.

We absolutely don't need some one to merely preside over the redistribution of our hard-earned income taxes.  And, above all, we don't need a pompous general of an army of bureaucrats who collectively will try to make decisions for us along a distorted, officious view of what is good for us.

And we do not seek the guy who offers the biggest handout.  Orgullo is still in all of us!

Instead, we must pick a man we can trust and in whom we can believe; a person who can lead our country through dangerous times and a complex world.

To lead is to move us from the status quo when the need is clear.  To lead is to help create a national environment where individual freedom is real and where our families and we are free to progress and prosper.

We need a leader unafraid to say that some of the status quo is just fine.

We don't need change for its own sake.  Less governing is preferable to over-governing.  More governance is only needed where there is gross injustice or where growth, unexpected events or scientific progress dictate changes in law.

Another major duty of our new President is to help assure equal opportunity for all and to propose and ensure help for those in society who cannot help themselves.  Generally, the legislative principles for achieving this are in place.  We need fair enforcement of laws on the books far more than new laws.

Above all, we want our new President to be a man whose basic principles are clear and dependable and whose core values come closest to ours.  We want a new President who understands our unique character, our behavior, the way we are as Latinos in joy, in sorrow, in celebration, in the way we work, the way we worship, the way we love our families, the way we respect our elders, the way we deal with our fellow man, the way we love our country.

So what are some Latino traits that a new President has to approximate in character and nature for us to be comfortable with him, for us to want him as our leader?

Latinos are family people.  Our parents, our spouse if we are married, our children, our siblings and other relatives come first in the scheme of things. 

George W. Bush and his family represent an attitude to family that Latinos can admire.  And his presidential proposals are aimed at helping families in education, in health care, in retirement planning, in using our own income with minimum government involvement.

Latinos respect those we can trust to tell the truth.  We accept that truth-stretching comes up at times in politics. 

But time and again in this campaign, and historically, Al Gore has lied and invented, even when it seemed unnecessary.  Conversely, even his political enemies, of this behavior have not accused George W. Bush.

George W. Bush, unlike Mr. Gore, seems to trust people to make better choices than governments and most importantly, does not believe that bureaucrats and more government is the solution to all our problems.

Analyzing both their proposals shows that a Gore government would be gargantuan; a Bush government would focus on less taxes and reducing the role of government in our daily lives.

George Bush also has those people skills and a proven ability to work across party lines with a possibly reluctant Congress.  What are all those Gore promises and programs worth if he cannot get a Republican Congress to go along with him?  After eight years, what can Gore point to, credibly, as achievements for Latinos?  The internet?  Can we afford to pay for all his promises?

Our next President must mesh with Latino principles of family, religion, independence, honesty, patriotism and pride.   And he must be able to make things happen in Washington on those ideas that fit with what we are and what we want in our President.  Honestly, is Al Gore the man who fits our values?  Can he lead us, as we want to be led?  You have three weeks to take a hard look.