non-voters

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Jan 16 08:02:01 PST 2003


Joanna:
>
> I'd say this was true for most of the east-european/former soviet
> union/Indian people I have met (conservative), but it's
> definitely not true
> for the Latino immigrants, and it's half/half for the middle
> east. It's a
> mixed bag.

I think with Latino immigrants situation is a bit more complex than simple liberal/conservative dimension. Latino populism has some features, such as the importance of social solidarity ties that may sound dear to union ears, but that solidarity has a definite down side - nationalism. Another feature is anti-establishment attitudes, but again the downside is anti-intellectualism and low value of education. Add to it machismo, patriarchy and Catholicism, which often has populist overtones, but it is still Catholicism.

To illustrate that with an anecdote - when I was in Mexico a few years ago I noted that all my leftists friends there had housemaids. When I made a comment abou that, they replied that they are giving work to those otherwise unemployable people instead of buying household machinery and making capitalists rich. That was way in the left fieled, but still plausible (I guess). But then they invited a union activist and his wife to a dinner, and that was more that I could bear. That woman was like a slave - waiting on his husband and making sure that he had food and drinks while he was debating left-wing politics with other guests.

Wojtek



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