REP Workshop with Lisa Garcia Bedolla

DateMay 14, 2015

Time12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location
4357 Bunche Hall

Contact
Contact Information
Belinda SunnuPhone bsunnu@polisci.ucla.edu

Presenter: Lisa Garcia Bedolla, UC BerkeleyTitle:  “Latino Political Engagement and the Future of  U.S. Politics”Abstract: After the 2012 election, there was much talk about the importance of the Latino vote for both major U.S. political parties. Yet, by 2014, the conversation had flipped, with President Obama bowing to pressure from fellow Democrats not to provide administrative relief to unauthorized immigrants, under the assumption that showing support for Latino immigrants would hurt Democrats’ chances to retain control of the U.S. Senate.  These assumptions stem from one source: voter turnout. Latino turnout in presidential elections is always significantly higher than in midterm elections and is concentrated in areas that matter for presidential politics. But, this ebb and flow in pundits’ focus on Latino voters ignores a critical question – what is the best way to understand Latino political engagement patterns in the United States? In this talk, Professor García Bedolla attempts to answer that question, using what we know about Latino politics to develop a new framework for thinking about U.S. Latino political engagement, one that does not use white voter behavior as the norm but rather considers Latino participation patterns as a rational response to their history of exclusion and subordination in the United States. She then considers what such a reorientation would mean for the future of U.S. democratic politics.

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