In politics, world or local, throughout history, we have witnessed the old adage “The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.”
First, you try to go what you want to do, on your own terms. You may build an organization and work hard to mobilize your base. If that doesn’t help you to reach your goals, you make changes and try again.
When it becomes clear you aren’t making headway, there are several options. You could change direction, change leadership, find new blood for the organization or try a different approach. If none of that works, you could look around for help.
One choice is lobbying. Find a sympathetic politician and a persuasive talker and fund the effort with cash. Another choice is forming a relationship with another organization that has a similar problem. These relationships don’t always make a lot of sense. They are relationships of convenience, such as the one we’ve seen recently between Venezuela and Iran.
So today, I was surprised to see three Latino Immigrant Rights groups siding with gay rights activists. No gay rights or gay marriage group was cired, so it could just be that the groups are latching on to gay marriage as a way to get their own news out.
Most times when diverse groups come together, some principles are dropped for convenience. As long as those principles aren’t fundamental to the organization, they can more easily explain them away.
I always thought that Latinos were deeply religious people, yet here are three of their leading rights organizations, dumping some of their fundamental tenets for the convenience of strengthening their push to alter the laws of the US in their favor.
These organizations had already weakened their positions by supporting not only Latinos legally in the US, but also those here illegally. The only thing common to their constituents is that they are Latino. It seems very strange that an association could be formed that aims to improve the situation of Latinos legally in the country and at the same time, support people who have broken the laws of the land, but explain it away because they too are Latino. I think that part of the reason they are not succeeding is that they link their legal constituents to people who break the law.
Now, these three groups are discarding other principles to gain a political advantage, supporting the gay marriage groups. They probably expect a quid pro quo when they need help.
One thing that really is very interesting is that these three groups are so selective about the law of the land. In their press release today, they invoke the law to strengthen their case:
“We join in celebration and pride with the gay and lesbian community in this important victory. When any one person is discriminated under pretense of an unjust law, we all are diminished by such discrimination.”
They intimate that they believe in the law, but there are unjust laws that should be changed. Then, in the very next sentence, they tell us they have zero respect for the law:
“As immigrants in the United States we know what it’s like to live in the shadows…”
Legal immigrants have no reason to live in the shadows. Only people who have broken the law, such as those here illegally, have a reason to do that.
Then, just to bash those horrible law-abiding Americans with their own whip, they raise the spectre of the Constitution:
“In our pursuit of equal moral and constitutional rights for all…”
This shows they have no use for the US Constitution or the law unless they can bend it for their own purposes.
The three Latino and immigrant rights organizations in California that issued the press release are BIENESTAR Human Services, Central American Resources Center (CARECEN), and Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
It will be interesting to see how much standing these three organizations, that champion the breaking of laws, have with the politicians, the governors and the courts. It will also be interesting to see what gay Amercians think about teaming up with organizations have have such little respect for the law.
I wouldn’t like to hear all of this rationalized away for the sake of expediency.