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Hillary Clinton is not a popular candidate but her campaign has raised the specter of a Donald Trump victory as a means of winning support from people of color and other marginalized groups.
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The Democratic Party seems to place a great deal of confidence in that strategy, Clinton largely spent the month of August fundraising money from rich donors instead of campaigning and generally shying away from public events.
But that strategy appears to be showing some cracks, as many communities express displeasure at feeling like they are being taken for granted. Polls indicate that young people — and Black people especially — are considering abstaining from voting in the general election.
Clinton's apparently lack of appeal in the Black community has even led the Trump campaign to make a concerted outreach effort to the Black community.
But it's not just Black people who find Clinton unappealing.
In interviews with the online outlet Desinformemonos, several grassroots Latin American migrant organizations say the track record of Democrats in office makes it difficult for them to vote for Clinton come November.
“The organizations and collectives that have a perspective from below, we know that Hillary Clinton operates in the same dynamic as Republicans so whatever she says will be just words, there is no assurance of absolutely anything,” Juan Ramos, a member of the La Resistencia collective in Los Angeles, told Desinformemonos.
“Both with the Republicans and the Democrats, the migrant community has waited for immigration reform, but there was none, nothing was achieved, it seems that this situation is a tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans to see who takes the credit,” he said.
Ramos says many grassroots groups “have never trusted in the electoral system” but admits that “the current context is particularly worrying” since Trump has deliberately targeted Mexicans.
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He does not absolve Clinton, however, bringing up her role in the Merida Initiative, a security agreement between Mexico and the United States modeled on Plan Colombia.
According to Ramos, through the Merida Initiative “billions of dollars have been allocated to Mexico for the purchase of arms and military training under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking, but in practice this has resulted in an increase in violence and insecurity in Mexico.”
Despite criticism, Clinton has not wavered from her support for security agreements like the Merida Initiative or Plan Colombia. When asked about her support for the 2009 coup in Honduras, Clinton said the region needed “a Colombian Plan for Central America,” alluding to the much-criticized security agreement that allowed for the proliferation of paramilitary groups and generally led to an increase in violence.
“We see no chance for real change through elections, the only option is that we continue organizing ourselves in the community,” Ramos told Desinformemonos.
Eliseo Vasquez, a member of the En Pie de Lucha Collective in Dallas, argues the Latin American migrants must “recognize their power and what we contribute to the United States.”
“People do are not yet aware of the strength we have as a community … In this country's political moment many of us feel orphaned because we feel there is no safer bet or one we feel confident in, however inaction will be worse,” said Vasquez.
He also calls for grassroots organizing instead of seeing elections as the only means of engaging in political action.
“We must use the strategies our ancestors utilized, economic boycotts, that we organize ourselves and not consume a specific product one day or not to send money to our countries, collective demands, public demonstrations, making demands of U.S. authorities but also of our countries of origin because we are not here by choice but because there are no job opportunities or security in our homelands,” Vasquez told Desinformemonos.
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