Jimmy's Politico is a fiscal conservative's viewpoint of American and International politics and their impacts to the American people. Honesty is always the best policy...especially in today's political system!
PHILADELPHIA — Democratic National Committee operatives came under fire this week on social
media and in posts for leaked emails in which Latinos were labeled as a "brand."
Yet at the Latino Leaders Luncheon on Tuesday, part of the Democratic convention's activities, the
event was a clear display of Latino branding and business generation based on the image of
Hispanics as an emerging political and cultural force in Washington and throughout our nation.
With almost half of Latinos born in the millennial generation, Latino pop culture will become as
valuable as their votes. And their votes matter: More than 40 percent of the eligible Hispanic
electorate in 2016 is millennial.
There are about 55 million Hispanics in the U.S., and their purchasing power has been estimated at
over one and a half trillion dollars. Corporate America know this; the function was sponsored by
companies such as Geico, AnheuserBusch and Southwest Airlines.
All of this "branding" power allows us to flex our political muscle through our numbers and our growing
political presence. And politicians take notice.
At the luncheon, the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer said to those assembled, "If I
become [Senate] Majority Leader, we will pass comprehensive immigration reform."
This statement was immediately followed by a remark from Mickey Ibarra, a longtime Washington
lobbyist and Beltway insider, who was the honoree of the luncheon. "And we will hold you
accountable," said Ibarra in a friendly but pointed tone. Democratic legislators know they cannot
discount the Hispanic vote.
At the event, Latino elected officials rubbed shoulders with consultants vying to expand their network
to capitalize on the growing Hispanic image within the Democratic Party and around the country. The
long list of elected officials included Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, the Chairwoman of the Hispanic
Caucus, former Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, former Governor of New Mexico, Bill.
Richardson, and Julian Castro, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
While some may scoff at the notion of Latinos as a brand, any political or social movement must be
keenly aware of how they are viewed by society in general and broad acceptance brings power,
money, and the ability to change policy.
Latinos at the overflowing room of leaders and government officials have spent years honing the
Latino brand, and its effectiveness was evident in the room.
CLEVELAND-- Make no mistake, the party of Lincoln
is dead, but don't blame Donald Trump. The real Republican Party signed
its death warrant the day it embraced the land of Dixie and the kinds of
politics whom the Party of Lincoln spilled vast sums of American blood
and treasure to cripple.
A party who sends Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who once came under scrutiny
for his checkered racial past, to speak at their convention about his
concern over Hispanic and black unemployment can only be seen as a gross
attempt at ridicule.
Party platforms are important statements about the principles that
bind political parties together and the recent release of the 2016 GOP
solidifies the Republican Party as the most anti-immigrant force in
American politics today. The policy proposals are standard Republican
fare, but the hostile tone of the platform towards immigrants is
reflective of the GOP's descent.
The platform mentions "aliens" seven times, and
the section on Immigration and The Rule of Law is a deliberate affront
to immigrants. The platform encourages the implementation of a new
internet-based verification system, called S.A.V.E., which stands for
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. It supports building a
border "wall along the entirety of the southern border", even though experts agree
it's a pretty ludicrous - and ridiculously expensive - proposition. But
much of this language was already in the Party platform, as was its
hostility. For instance, the word "alien" was in the 2012 platform ten
times, while it is in the 2016 document seven times. The SAVE program is
a retread of 2012, as well.
The entire document reaffirms the anxiety that
propelled Donald Trump to the nomination, mentioning a derivative of the
word "terror" 25 times (the 2012 Platform used the word 29 times), and
comforts whomever supports it by clearly communicating its disdain for
immigrants, foreigners, and people generally seen as incapable of
becoming American.
This would be a profound disappointment to our Founding Fathers, and frankly, the originators of the Republican Party itself.
Days before the Republican convention and having
just celebrated the birth of our Nation on the Fourth of July, it is
useful to revisit the principles of our country. Among those ideals of
liberty, equality, and justice, this country has struggled to rectify
these honorable endeavors with the ugliness of racism and the very real
American belief in the supremacy of whiteness. However, to say racism is
an American ideal is not a radical statement.
The Constitution chiseled into the soul of this
country the notion that black Americans were not equal to whites. The
Declaration of Independence began a path to war against King George
over, among other things, immigration, but it was white immigration and
white citizenship that was of greatest concern to the colonists.
Once the American Revolution was won, among the
first acts of Congress was to determine who could become American
citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790
stated "That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have
resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United
States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen…"
The history of American immigration is rife with
examples of the country trying to socially engineer whiteness as an
ideal. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
sought to erect a great wall between the United States and China as
white labor grew increasingly restless with competition from the East.
The 1924 Quotas Act (Johnson-Reed Act) sought to turn the clock back on
the influx of Eastern European immigrants infecting the country.
During the debates over the passage of the act, Senator Ellison
DuRant Smith of South Carolina said, "The time has come when we should
shut the door and keep what we have for what we hope our own people to
be." What the Senator "hoped" our people should be, was to retain what
racial purity the country had lost with the growth of immigration. Only
six senators voted against the immigration bill. D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"
had captured the imagination of the country and had capitalized on the
anxiety of whites over the inclusion of African Americans into society.
President Woodrow Wilson
hosted a screening of the film in the White House and worked diligently
to resegregate Federal workers. He also justified the presence of the
Ku Klux Klan as defenders of their way of life and was illustrative of
the racial sentiment of the time.
The Republican Party, however, was borne out of
different ideals. Out of the ashes of the struggle between Democrats and
Whigs emerged a truly radical party who sought to make good on the
promises of the original principles of this country to form a union
based on the ideals of liberty, equality, and fairness.
The 1860 party platform fashioned by these
radicals sought an expansion of the original Founder's conception of
immigration and sought to extend the rights of passage and
naturalization to all.
It was the party platform of Lincoln, in 1864,
amidst the rubble and anxiety of the Civil War, which stated, "That
foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth,
development of resources and increase of power to the nation, the asylum
of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and encouraged by a
liberal and just policy."
And just four years before, these radicals
sought to expand the rights to all migrants, stating that the
Republicans were "in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to
the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized,
both at home and abroad".
The death of the GOP this country once knew
began with the embrace of Southern whites. Decades later, this
perversion of the Republican Party can be readily seen throughout.
Iowa congressman Steve King said on Monday that "this 'old, white
people' business does get a little tired," going on to say that no
"subgroups" had contributed as much to society. When asked by MSNBC host
Chris Hayes if he was referring to white people, he said "western
civilization."
No doubt Rep. King forgot that excluding every
place that contributed to society but Western Europe would include the
birthplace of Jesus and before that the societies that brought us
algebra and other mathematics, medicine and astronomy and the Code of
Hammurabi, one of the first forms of law.
By the way, a confederate flag sits on the desk
of Rep. King, a duly elected representative of a state that once shed
blood fighting to preserve the union against the racist framework of the
Confederacy. It's an unconscionable reminder of the values and history
of this country's original sin.
The Republican Party chose the Southern Strategy
as an explicit attempt to attract southern whites to the GOP. Donald
Trump has amplified on this, making Latinos and the southwestern border
one of his main targets.
The party platform is following Trump, taking
the GOP proposed anti-immigrant stance to new heights, though it is not
much different from past platforms in its intent. The first modern GOP
platform to make "illegal aliens" a part of its cause was in 1972, and
it was the party of Nixon who first organized the GOP to establish a
policy infrastructure that appealed to whites throughout the South. The
statements against "aliens" have not left the party platform since, and
the party of Trump has run with it.
The latest platform reaffirms the GOP's call to change the way we count human beings living in our cities and states. "
"We
urge our elected representatives to ensure that citizenship, rather
than mere residency, be made the basis for the apportionment of
representatives among the states," the platform states.
For
anyone trying to convince you this is still the "party of Lincoln",
recall that his party once sought "full and efficient protection to the
rights of all classes of citizens", not a new twist on separate but
equal where Americans are distinguished from one and other by the
government.
The Republican platform takes the worst of America's
ideals and, once again, attempts to turn the clock back in a time of
high anxiety over the future of what it means to be white in America.
Trump
has not emerged out of nowhere. He has emerged from the soul of this
country, which Lincoln gave his life to changing. Going into the
convention, the platform reinforces this stance. The Republican Party
will endure, but make no mistake, it is no longer the Party of Lincoln,
and it has not been for a very long time.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Donald Trump will come to the 2016 Republican
National Convention to find a shrunken Latino presence, but it will not
be absent.
Even though Trump started his campaign bashing
Mexicans, promising to build a wall on the border, saying those here
illegally "have to go" and calling a U.S.-born federal judge Mexican
while questioning the judge's competence, there are Latinos who say
Trump is this election's better candidate and that they will cast their
vote for him to be the party nominee.
Not all have been Trump supporters throughout.
Some are part of a thus far unsuccessful movement to allow delegates to
vote for the candidate they choose, an attempt to keep Trump from being
the nominee. Others have switched to Trump after their first choice
bowed out. Some just want to beat Hillary Clinton.
The convention begins Monday, after a week in
which Trump named Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate and scored
a victory in preventing a rules change in the Republican platform
committee that threatened his nomination.
In marked contrast to 2012, when rising Hispanic
Republican stars like New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Nevada Gov.
Brian Sandoval and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio rallied the convention
delegates and put a more diverse face on the party, what is remarkable
about 2016 is the few Latinos who will be there. The initial roster of
speakers for this convention only included Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
A group of Latino conservatives who have been harsh and vocal critics of Trump said Monday
that they are backing the presumptive GOP nominee to get a Republican
administration in the White House after recent terror events and
shootings. But many Hispanic elected officials and other prominent
Latinos who served in previous administrations are not attending.
The convention also comes after the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal Marist poll shows the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump in four of the most diverse presidential battleground states, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
Nonetheless, there are several Latinos excited
to be at the convention and among them those who are enthusiastically
supporting Trump. They recognize the diminished Latino presence but are
optimistic about their party's chances for the White House and Congress.
Here are summaries of conversations from three of the delegates who talked to NBC News before arriving in Cleveland:
JESSICA FERNANDEZ, Florida delegate
Jessica Fernandez, a Donald Trump delegate from Florida to the 2016 Republican National Conveniton Florida Federation of Young Republicans
Believed to be the youngest delegate from the
state of Florida, 31-year-old Jessica Fernandez comes to the convention
with a sense of duty.
A Miami-Dade County resident, she is from the
one county of Florida's 67 counties that Trump did not win. She had been
a Marco Rubio supporter in the primary, but because she represents the
state, she feels obligated to the other 66 Florida counties' preference.
"I feel as a Republican delegate I have a duty
to fulfill and I want to do the correct thing and that means supporting
Trump," Fernandez said. "I want to do the correct thing. I don't want to
add to chaos."
The Miami-born daughter of Cuban exiles,
Fernandez's parents arrived to the U.S. at a young age in the late '60s
and early '70s. Fernandez said her mother told her stories of life under
the Castro regime and the attempt to brainwash her as a little girl
into loyalty to the communist government.
"They would tell her to put her head down and
pray for candy and they would open their eyes and there would be candy.
Then they would say pray to the father Fidel (Castro) and pray for candy
and there would be candy or a penny," she said. He mother and her
mother's family arrived on one of the last Freedom Flights from Cuba.
One of her grandfathers was forced to leave the
country after being told that because of his political work, if he did
not, he would face a firing squad, she said.
The political activism has remained with
Fernandez, who leads the Miami Young Republicans as its president and is
the executive director of the Florida Federation of Young Republicans.
She worked on the Mitt Romney campaign and has
worked to helped recruit Hispanics to the GOP and build Hispanic leaders
in the party.
She said she expects she'll be one of the few
Hispanics at the convention, but was looking forward to it nonetheless,
despite the opposition among the ranks of delegates to keep Trump from
getting the nomination.
"I respect that there are people who say don't
want to vote for Trump," she said. "He got the nomination by the
process. There will be delegates like myself who are bound to play their
part to deliver the vote of their district," she said.
"The alternative is not pleasant. We have
someone running on the other side who has been testifying in front of
Congress, the FBI, who's been a liar," said Fernandez. "Those problems
supersede a comment that would have insulted people."
"When we have someone on the other side who has behaved very questionably," she said, "I'm all Trump."
GUSTAVO PORTELA, Michigan delegate
Gustavo "Gus" Portela, a Donald Trump delegate from Michigan to the 2016 Republican National Convention. Gustavo Portela
While in high school, Gustavo "Gus" Portela
would go to his local county party's meetings in Grand Rapids, Mich. He
liked George W. Bush and helped in his 2004 re-election campaign by
going door-to-door to drum up votes.
He went on to join the College Republicans in
Grand Valley State University and today is in Washington, D.C. serving
as the executive director of the College Republican National Committee.
Despite the years of history in party politics, Portela, 27, says what he likes about Trump is that he is an outsider.
Trump's success in the primaries is a continuation of elections of outsiders to Congress in previous elections, Portela said.
"I just think that he [Trump] brings a fresh
perspective to the process I don't think we've ever had. I don't think
we've had a Republican nominee who is an outsider," he said.
Originally from Puerto Rico, Portela and his
family moved to the mainland when he was 11 because his parents
"essentially were looking for a better life" and to get better
educations for their children. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and those
born on the island are American citizens.
In Michigan, his father worked in the Sara Lee
factory and his mother, who had been a receptionist in a hair salon in
Puerto Rico, was a stay-at-home mom while he was growing up.
Portela said Trump has said "controversial
things" but said his statements have been taken out of context by the
media, such as Trump's pledges to build a wall, which he said became
declarations that Trump wants to deport everyone.
At an Iowa rally in November 2015, Trump said:
"I'm tougher on illegal immigration than anybody. That's what I'm saying
we have to take people that are here illegally and we have to move them
out and you know what, it's going to be done, it's going to be done."
Trump has also said families would have to go
but some could return through the legal process. Although he was thought
to have backed off from some of that, Trump has not been clear about
whether mass deportation was still a policy.
Portela said he sees Trump as wanting to
establish law and order in the U.S. "He has said he wants people to come
here legally," Portela said.
As far as Trump's comments on the wall, Portela
said the policy is not unlike the policies of other politicians who have
called for border security.
ADRYANA BOYNE, Texas delegate
Adryana Boyne, a Ted Cruz delegate from Texas to the 2016 Republican National Convention Adryana Boyne
Texas delegate Adryana Boyne agrees with Trump
that immigration is a serious problem that has to be addressed head on.
And she does not believe that he is a racist or a nativist. However his
lack of consideration for the tone of his immigration comments is what
gets under her skin.
Boyne, a prominent political voice in the Texas
GOP and the Hispanic Republicans of Texas, has had to struggle with
Trump's comments. She likes his business sense but has been troubled by
his Latino related rhetoric.
Shortly after Trump announced his candidacy, Boyne penned an opinion piece for the TexasGOPVote site where she enumerated in detail her grievances with the soon-to-be Republican candidate.
What most bothered (and still bothers) Boyne is
the generalization Trump made out of the gate that Mexico was sending
people that "have lots of problems…They're bringing drugs. They're
bringing crime. They're rapists."
For Boyne "the focus on the minority of criminal elements overshadows the tremendous contributions that Mexicans have made."
The Texas delegate's struggle with fully
embracing Trump is personal. She was born and raised in the Mexican
state of Puebla and became a naturalized American citizen in 1994.
"I am a first-generation immigrant and I take Mr. Trump's comments to heart - he does not differentiate," she said.
Boyne said that if she were further removed from
the immigration experience she would likely not be as affected by
Trump's comments. But for her, the anti-Mexican rhetoric rings too close
to home.
Donald Trump is not Boyne's first choice. She is a Ted Cruz delegate because of his performance in the Texas primaries.
An attempt to stop Trump from securing the
nomination by changing rules and allowing delegates to "vote their
conscience" failed, so efforts to build more support for Cruz or any
other candidate aren't likely.
But Boyne's distaste for Hillary Clinton is so strong that it has moved her toward supporting Trump.
In Cleveland, Boyne will be looking to see a
change in tone from Trump, but ultimately, she is committed to helping
her party stop Clinton from reaching the White House.
