What You Should Know
By Senator Rev. Rubén DÃaz
32nd Senatorial District, Bronx County, New York
Not
Democrat, Not Republican … We May Be Better off Voting on the Conservative Line
You should know that the majority of
people in the minority community identify themselves as members or followers of
the Democratic Party. During election time, most minorities vote Democrat
regardless of what the purpose, plans, agendas, ideologies or beliefs of the
actual candidate may be.
All that our minority community seems to
be interested in, regarding any candidate is knowing if the candidate is a
Democrat because they will never vote for a Republican. They think that
the Republicans are the devils. That was the case of the late
Senator Olga Mendez. Our community chose to lose one of the better and
more dedicated public servants we ever had instead of voting for her as a
Republican.
Since our community doesn’t like
Republicans, all what a Democratic candidate has to say is: “I’m a Democrat,” and then blame the
Republicans for all the wrongdoing in the world.
On the other hand, you should know that
the Republicans do not spend resources or pay attention to us because they
think they’ll never get our minority community to vote for them. All the
Republicans need to do is remember what happened to Olga Mendez, and how after
30 years of faithful service to our community, she changed her enrollment to
Republican, and lost the election.
Now Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s
Presidential candidate appears to have given up his pursuit of the Hispanic and
minority vote. He has given up on us, suggesting that since he will never
get our vote, he’s not interested in or cares about us.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the big
dilemma of our community.
When the Democrats get elected, they
don’t actually help our community, but instead, cut our services – like
Governor Andrew Cuomo did – and take us for granted by saying: “We don’t have
to worry too much about solving their problems or protecting them because they
are Democrats and they will always vote Democrat.”
When the Republicans get elected they say:
“Why help them? Why bother investing in their communities? Why bother visiting
their communities or spending resources on them? They are Democrats and they
will never vote for us.”
You should know that out of the five
counties in the City of New York, only one is controlled by Republicans: Staten
Island. The vast majority of elected officials in the other four boroughs
are Democrats. We should ask ourselves: “Why is it that the areas
controlled by Republicans are better served, better protected, and cleaner -
yes, the streets are cleaner! – than areas that are controlled by
Democrats?" Republicans continue to ignore us. In national
races they aren’t even interested enough to campaign in our areas.
On the other hand, when Democrats get
elected they balance the budget in the backs of our community, cut our
services, close senior citizen centers and hurt the poor and the needy and
blame the Republicans for it, knowing that we will always vote Democrat.
Last year, people of faith – Jews,
Muslims and Christians (Catholic and Protestants) – saw how the Democrats and
Republicans, led by Governor Andrew Cuomo, forced same-sex marriage laws on us.
I
believe that the moment has come when we need to stand firm and protect our
communities, our beliefs and our principles.
In this upcoming election on Tuesday
November 6th, we need to send a message to the State of New York and
to the entire nation. Enough is enough – not Democrats, not Republicans,
we might be better off voting on the Conservative Line.
Our commitment to our faith, beliefs and
our religions, force us to work for the betterment of social, spiritual,
economic, moral and educational conditions of our communities – once and for all, we need to stop allowing
people to take us for granted.
I am State Senator Reverend Rubén DÃaz
and this is what you should know.
