Hispanics flex their political muscle.

• Author: Rodriguez, Samuel
• Position: Domestic Policy

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FROM THE TEA PARTIES to Independents, political pundits constantly attempt to draft the up-and-coming segment of the American electorate. Who will decide the 2010 midterm election? Which constituency will determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential election? What group will change the game? The answer lies embedded within the fabric of a critical domestic public policy debate. Forget soccer morns, Scott Brown Independents, Reagan Democrats, and Blue Dogs: the hottest commodity in the arena of American political engagement is no other than the Hispanic values voter and the central issue is immigration reform.

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How important is this community? Ask Pres. Barack Obama. Without the Hispanic values voter, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Florida would have fallen in the John McCain electoral count. Predictably, in the 2010 mid-terms and, more important, in the 2012 presidential election, the Hispanic values voter stands poised to impact the outcome significantly, not only in the aforementioned states, but in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia. Hispanics, by sheer demographics alone, stand ready to change the U.S.'s social-political landscape.

How will the Hispanic faith voter transform our collective social political experience? By coalescing around values reflective of a community that cannot be framed in the archaic context of right or left political ideology, but rather one that stands in the nexus of a vertical and horizontal intersect. Accordingly, this voter delivers a commitment to transform society by renewing faith, broadening the values agenda, and ushering in a new social and civil rights era--all the while prompting the Democrats and Republicans to move more towards the center.

The Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the country at around 43,000,000, constituting 14% of the nation's total population. This does not include the 3,900,000 residents of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, nor the entire undocumented population. Accordingly, the total estimate stands at approximately 60,000,000. In addition, Hispanics are an ethnically and racially diverse population. For instance, the Latino population on the U.S. mainland is composed of Mexican Americans (64%), Puerto Ricans (10%), and Cubans, Salvadorans, and Dominicans (three percent each). The remaining 17% are of some other Central American, South American, or other Hispanic or Latino origin.

Further, this community...