Trump Voters Harbor Mixed Feelings Ahead of Inauguration

Voters like Deborah Forster, an independent in Michigan, are part of a pivotal group who harbored reservations about Donald Trump but helped put him in the Oval Office. PHOTO: FABRIZIO COSTANTINI FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By
JANET HOOK
Wall Street Journal



President-elect Donald Trump owes his election in 2016 in part to voters like Deborah Forster, an independent in Michigan who had deeply mixed feelings about the Republican nominee.

Ms. Forster, a 52-year-old attorney, voted for Mr. Trump mostly because she didn’t want Democrat Hillary Clinton to win. Now she is nervously watching as he prepares to enter the White House. She likes some of his cabinet picks, but isn’t pleased with his penchant for sending harsh tweets about everything from the U.S. intelligence community to actress Meryl Streep.

“I am hoping that Trump begins to speak and act like the intelligent businessman that I’m sure he is,” she said. “I’m hoping he stops tweeting like a 13-year-old boy and starts acting like an adult.”


Ms. Forster is one of a pivotal bloc of voters who harbored reservations about Mr. Trump but helped put him in the Oval Office. According to exit polls, 18% of voters had a negative view of both major party candidates, and nearly half of them voted for Mr. Trump.

Their evolving view of Mr. Trump—whether their qualms are relieved or exacerbated by his performance—could tip the balance of public opinion, affecting how much leverage Mr. Trump will have with Congress and his prospects for uniting the country.

The Wall Street Journal identified a pool of these voters, people who said last fall in Journal/NBC News surveys that they preferred Mr. Trump but with some reservations and concerns about his temperament. They will be interviewed periodically through the Trump presidency as a window into whether he is winning converts or losing support.

Despite complaints from supporters, Mr. Trump shows no sign of giving up his use of Twitter. In a weekend interview with the Times of London, Mr. Trump said, “the tweeting, I thought I’d do less of it, but I’m covered so dishonestly by the press, so dishonestly, that I can put out [on] Twitter” a fast response that is viewed by millions.

Daniel Gallegos II, of Colorado, objects to Donald Trump criticizing corporations for moving jobs out of the U.S. PHOTO: THEO STROOMER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

A Trump transition team spokeswoman said Mr. Trump “is always going to be clear about his principles, honest with the American people and committed to fighting for American jobs.”

As of now, voters generally are giving him the benefit of the doubt. Many are pleased with his cabinet picks, but are uneasy with his attacks on people and broad, often confusing, statements of policy that he circulates on Twitter.

“So far I think he’s doing a decent job,” said Matt Triplett, 47, a Republican salesman in Dublin, Ohio. “But I sure wish he’d get off Twitter. The guy is a loose cannon. I’m going to sit back and be entertained by what’s going to be transpiring. But it’s a little unnerving.”

Mr. Trump’s high-profile moves to pressure companies such as Carrier Corp., an air conditioning manufacturer, to keep jobs in the U.S. is speaking to people like Cathy Coats, a former Barack Obama voter in Raleigh, N.C., who has been out of work for three years.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” she said. “If he does what we want him to do—on immigration, jobs—then he will be an excellent president.”

She worries that he is already easing off his demand that Mexico pay for building a wall on the southern U.S. border and softening his tone on immigration policy.

“I may be jumping the gun a little myself, but I am wondering why we haven’t heard anything about deportation of illegal aliens,” said Ms. Coats, 59, an Army veteran who had worked in marketing.

John Brickner, 78, a Republican former school superintendent in Wilbur, Neb., is eager to see the new administration roll back regulations of the Obama era, but was uneasy about Mr. Trump’s postelection rallies. “When he comes on with those damn rallies, I turn the TV off,” Mr. Brickner said.

Mr. Trump’s decision to nominate Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp., to be secretary of state and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be attorney general eases his concerns. “The more I read about his choices the better I feel about it,” Mr. Brickner said. “These are people who will do what needs to be done. I like it that they are not all career politicians.”

Mr. Trump hit it out of the park for Carol Jansson, 54, a former home-school teacher in Acworth, Ga., when he picked as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a noted advocate for school choice.

Like many social conservatives, Ms. Jansson supported Mr. Trump because of his abortion policies. And one of her highest hopes for Mr. Trump is that he cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood, an issue that the president-elect has sent mixed signals about.

Polls indicate that Mr. Trump on Election Day benefited from some 11th-hour switches from people who had been backing third-party candidates like libertarian Gary Johnson.

One of them is Daniel Gallegos II, 53, of Commerce City, Colo., a post office worker and libertarian who now objects to Mr. Trump’s calling out of corporations over moving jobs out of the U.S. and his threatening to impose tariffs.

“Donald Trump appears to be economically ignorant,” he said. “I really don’t like the strong arm tactics on business.”

Mr. Trump’s success as president may also hinge on winning over voters like Beckie Toney, 49, of London, Ohio, an independent who was so turned off that she ended up voting for neither Mrs. Clinton nor Mr. Trump. Still, she is willing to keep her mind open to the new president.

“He is the winner and we have to give him a chance,” she said. “You are the president and I will respect it. We need someone who will bring us together. We needed to get an outsider.”

—Peter Nicholas contributed to this article.

How Republican's Can Pass Immigration Reform Now, Here's How

By Stephen A. Nuno

NBC




As President-elect Trump prepares for his term in office, Republicans in Congress have stumbled out of the gate with an ill-advised attempt to gut an independent ethics office that investigates House lawmakers and staff accused of misconduct. But if the GOP is looking for an easy victory that could put the Democrats on their heels, they may look no further than a compromise on immigration reform.

Immigration reform has been difficult, mainly because of one important disagreement between the GOP and the Democrats; what to do with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. Democrats desire a pathway to citizenship for this population; they have touted the economic and social benefits and it doesn't hurt that new citizens also means new potential voters.

However, Republicans have been opposed to a pathway to citizenship, saying this would reward illegal immigration and sidestepped the legal system, despite the many incentives businesses provide to undocumented labor. Some in the party have also used thinly veiled racially charged arguments against a pathway to citizenship because these immigrants would dilute the social fabric of the country, ie. they may be less likely to assimilate into American culture. And frankly, given the GOP's performance with minority voters, the party knows they have a demographic disadvantage with new Latino and Asian voters that would only be made worse by extending this population with the right to vote.

Immigrants without documentation are faced with daily struggles. It is difficult to work without proper identification. They are susceptible to human and labor rights violations because of their status. Their status is also a source of extreme stress for their families, many of whom are citizens. An undocumented immigrant may be pulled over for a traffic infraction and be taken to a detention facility without any notice to their family which can last weeks or months.

Moreover, many undocumented immigrants were young when they migrated to the United States and had no idea that they were not processed properly until later in their lives. Recall that Senator Ted Cruz, who is married to a corporate banking executive and who has a law degree from Harvard University, did not discover that he was a Canadian citizen until he announced his candidacy for President. Cruz was also the longest serving Solicitor General of Texas who argued nine cases before the Supreme Court.

However, a key compromise exists between the two parties that is both acceptable to the majority of voters in the country and would humanely solve the immigration issue. Perhaps as important, immigration reform would be beneficial to the economy and to Donald Trump's investment portfolio.

Marco Rubio floated an immigration reform plan that addressed the most important issues outlined above in 2012; a plan that granted undocumented immigrants a pathway to legalization without a special pathway to citizenship. His proposal became the basis for a compromise under the "Gang of Eight" proposal the following year, which died when an upswell of dissent rose from the Republican grassroots. But while Rubio's plan was also cast as unacceptable to Democrats because it did not provide an explicit path to citizenship, President Obama was praised for implementing a temporary reprieve program for Dreamers, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which was essentially the same as legalization without a special path to citizenship.

For undocumented immigrants, the economy, and Donald Trump, the benefits are immediate.

"Increasing immigration is a guaranteed way to boost economic growth. Immigrants boost the supply and the demand side of the economy," says economist Alex Nowrasteh with the conservative Cato Institute. Even for immigrants already here without status, formally integrating them is a boost to economy, says Nowrasteh.

Legalization brings undocumented immigrants out of the shadows so that they may work, take their kids to school, go to church or participate in society without fear of being torn from their families.

Research from the social sciences shows that greater social integration increases immigrants' assimilation into American culture, like speaking English and gaining the education they need to maximize their contribution to the economy. And as Pew Research has shown, many immigrants do not desire to be citizens even if offered.

Legalizing undocumented immigrants who can then freely participate in the economy brings them formally into the community. For Donald Trump, a real estate mogul, the benefits are obvious. Nowrasteh of Cato says, "The smallest estimated effect of immigration on rental prices is that a 1 percent increase in population from immigration increases rents by 1 percent. A huge impact."

The case for immigration reform that includes a path to legalization without an explicit path to citizenship is obvious for all except those who either see immigrants as a threat to cultural purity in the Republican party or those in the Democratic party who see their value only in what they can provide in votes.

But a great majority of voters in the 2016 wanted undocumented immigrants to be offered legal status. Exit polls during the election showed that 70 percent favored legal status, and these data have been consistent for years. Voters are not resistant to legal status, except that the real point of disagreement is over what "legal status" actually means.

Politically, a Republican solution to immigration reform would put Democrats in a difficult spot. Obama enjoyed a majority in Congress in his first term in office and could not get immigration reform through, largely because the GOP was united against it and a few Democrats in red districts defected against the party. Obama had also largely expended all of his political capital on health care reform. But the inability to get immigration reform passed was one of the biggest failures of the Obama administration. The GOP can start by settling an issue that is long overdue.

Presidential Election Prediction & Chapter From My New Book!

By Jaime Rojas, Jr.
November 3, 2016, Book Launch - Los Angeles, CA
Chapter from "Fiscal Conservative's Pocket Constitution 2.0 aka Latino Republicans"

Predictions of the November 2016 Presidential Elections and Beyond

If I was a betting man, never in my wildest imagination would I have predicted Donald Trump to be the Republican Party’s Presidential nominee for the November 2016 elections.

In September 2015, the Republicans had over a couple dozen potential candidates for the position of President of the United States of America. These Republican candidates’ policies fell on various parts of the “conservative/right” spectrum: moderate right to “God is going to scorch your ass” beliefs. But the interesting part, many more candidates were closer to the “God is going to scorch your ass” than usual. Overall nothing to out of the ordinary, well at least for the Republican party, since the 1980’s and its hostile take-over by the Southern Conservative Christian extremist.

The Democratic Party too was going through its form of “extremism”. Once again you had the presumed Presidential Candidate and political machine, Secretary Hillary Clinton, who just eight years ago lost to a no brand name candidate from Chicago, President Obama. On the leftist spectrum, she is very moderate, some even feel more Republican than Democrat in her policies and beliefs.

Now to the extreme left you had the very popular Congressman from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who in my humble opinion would give everything to the American people for FREE or more on the socialist ideal. But to be honest, as a former Democrat, I felt Bernie was more refreshing and “Obama” like in his philosophies (at least in the aspect of “hope”) than his counterpart of Secretary Clinton.

The stage is set and now we have both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton representing their respected parties.

I will preface my next statements by saying I am a first-generation American and the product of immigrant parents who came from Colombia to the United States over forty years ago. As many immigrant stories, they too came with no money, no network, and not speaking a lick of English. But they had the burning desire of the “American Dream” and God bless them….they achieved it! My parents, like many of yours, have a strong work ethic, have old-school beliefs, saved money and were entrepreneurs in their thinking and in their actions. They worked hard all their lives and have a retirement to show for it.

But I believe their crowning jewel above all is the success of their two American sons. Who in just one generation, attended & taught in the best universities, worked for Fortune 500 companies and in the White House, became entrepreneurs themselves and who at the end are productive American citizens.

So back to the Republican party’s nominee, El Donald Trump. As you remember over eight years ago, he just like Hillary, ran for his prospective party and lost. But back then he was a kinder and gentler Trump, who everyone remembers as the person who hobnobbed and networked with anyone who he thought would either make him richer or bring him higher TV ratings, including his friends the Clintons.

Welcome back to 2016 Presidential campaign. The “new” Trump starts off his bid for the Presidential Republican nomination by calling “Mexicans” everything under the big, blue sky and the scapegoats for all of America’s problems. They are rapist, murderers, illegals….who came to this country to basically gut it and return back to their Mother country fat and rich. He now wants to build a continuous wall on the  Mexican/American border to keep America safe. But I wonder what happed to building a wall between the Canadian/American border as well….oh yeah….those Canadian have white skin and look European.

The blame game has been played since the inception of this already great country. It all started when the Puritans were being persecuted in Europe for their religion. They decided to escape this persecution and they landed on Plymouth Rock. The American Indians for the most part welcomed them and helped them with the necessary survival skills to make it through the harsh seasonal weather….and America was born…more or less.

In return, these Europeans gave them diseases and in the long-run committed genocide through the slaughter of the native Indians of this country.

If that wasn’t enough, the agricultural revolution was in full swing, and it was very labor intensive. Due to the lack of numbers of strong European men (and the social class mentality)….slavery thus began. African men were being shipped to America in high numbers to meet the demand of tobacco, cotton and other agricultural products.

As most business-minded folks know, the highest expense any business has is human resources (aka labor), and the conservative numbers is somewhere around 50% of a business’ expenses. So how did the United States become so rich and powerful so quickly….the cost of labor = “zero”….so profits soared through the roof.

Almost forgot….so as American was born, the fore-fathers were very intelligent and forward thinkers of their time. They designed and created a government that was like no other and still is like no other. The core foundation of America are two documents: the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights (luck you, this book contains copies of both).

Our founders believed passionately of the protection of its citizens from its government. But also a controlled government was necessary to protect the people and keep balance and harmony.

So now we have a Presidential Republican nominee (or more like a snake-oil salesman) that literally spews fear, hatred and racism all under the cause of the “Let’s Make America Great Again” slogan. Blaming everyone but himself for the problems of America. What’s wrong with this picture….many things!

America is currently facing a fork on the road. On one hand you have, for example, coalminers in Virginia who have seen their great paying, union jobs decline (if not almost disappear) and are not be prepared for globalization. They are undereducated, underemployed and really pissed off. On the other hand you have immigrants (I include African-Americans in this mix….they too are immigrants) who have dealt with racism, glass-ceilings, police/government brutality, scape-goating…they too are pissed off.

So what now? This is the million-dollar question.

My Presidential election prediction should not be too shocking. If we have a high voter turnout, Hillary wins in a landslide. If we have poor turnout, Trump wins a close race.

But the question all Americans should be asking, what happens after Tuesday, November 8^th? Are our problems fixable? My short answer is yes but with a hell of a lot of work.

America needs to go back to the basics. We need to begin by getting involved on the local level…that means with our families first. We need to be better parents and better children. I truly believe this is the start of the renaissance of America. Without love and structure of a strong family (traditional and non-traditional) as the foundation, American will continue in this downward spiral of fear, anger and hatred.

How American is that?

Please be a responsible Americans and vote on election day…your country is depending on it.

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Donald Trump's call for poll watchers brings back fears of 1988 Santa Ana

Donald Trump, in Altoona, Pa., on Aug. 12, told the crowd that he would dispatch supporters to monitor polling places to guard against voter fraud in "certain parts" of Pennsylvania. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

By Kurtis Lee
 AUGUST 19, 2016, 10:30 AM

He phone calls to Donald Tanney’s office began shortly after polls opened on that election day nearly three decades ago.

Tanney, then Orange County’s registrar of voters, was told that when residents — mostly Latino — arrived at 20 Santa Ana polling locations on Nov. 8, 1988, they were greeted by uniformed guards holding signs with a message in Spanish and English: "Non­Citizens Can't Vote." The guards, dressed in navy blue attire, had been hired by the campaign of Curt Pringle, a Republican state Assembly candidate from Garden Grove, and the Orange County Republican Party. Their mission? Monitor the polling places to ensure no fraudulent ballots were cast, insisted Pringle and officials from the county GOP.

“It was bad,” Tanney recalled. “People were really upset.” The incident became a blemish for California Republicans, producing allegations of voter intimidation and racism. A lawsuit was filed and a settlement reached.

“I remember thinking, ‘Really?’ This is something you could have easily imagined in other parts of the country,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State L.A., who back then was teaching political science in Orange County. “This was a clear attempt to intimidate Latinos.”

Now, nearly three decades later, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calls for his supporters to volunteer as election observers, concerns of voter intimidation have come to the forefront. At a rally in Pennsylvania last week, Trump used strong racial overtones to allege to his mostly white audience that “certain areas” of the state — such as Philadelphia, where almost half the residents are black — will commit voter fraud to support Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

 Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania have said they will be on watch Nov. 8 to ensure every eligible voter is able to cast a ballot. Trump’s campaign says it’s simply advocating for an open and honest election.

The incident at the Santa Ana polls came six years after the Republican National Committee began operating under a consent decree, which was handed down by the Supreme Court and prevents the party from engaging in some voter­fraud prevention efforts without court approval. Yet that does not apply to campaigns, which routinely dispatch volunteers to observe activity at polling places.

 But what happened in Santa Ana was far from routine. At a news conference after the incident, Jose Diaz Vargas, a 53­year­old Santa Ana police officer, said he was on his way to vote when he heard that uniformed guards were patrolling the polling areas. He went home but later changed his mind in anger and went back to vote.
"I was very upset," he said back then. "This kind of conduct, I did not expect this to happen in the United States. Maybe in some other countries, but not in the United States. . . . I went back to the voting place, but how many other people didn't go back?"

Pringle bested his Democratic challenger, Rick Thierbach, and went on to become Assembly speaker during his time in Sacramento. He did not respond to interview requests. Thierbach said he sees similarities between then and now.

“Trump is afraid he’s going to lose,” Thierbach, a retired Superior Court judge, said as he reminisced about the race he lost by fewer than 900 votes. “What form those poll observers take will be interesting to see.”

 Some Republicans in the state said the uniformed guards of 1988 came at a time when Californians began to see a demographic shift. Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant and expert on Latino voting trends, said the incident was an “encapsulation of an action that was taken that demonstrated how some people in the party viewed a changing electorate.”

“Demographic change is never easy for any constituency or any group — it never has been,” Madrid said. “When it manifests politically, it becomes extremely charged and very explosive.”


Madrid said the growth of the Latino electorate in California in the late 1980s and early 1990s is what some swing states, like North Carolina and Virginia, are experiencing now.

 The stationing of guards in 1988 came six years before Proposition 187, a ballot measure that sought to deny taxpayer­funded services to those in the country illegally — another sign of unease with a changing electorate. Later it was nullified by the courts, but the message from the GOP — the measure was championed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson — had been sent.

Prior to Prop. 187, Republicans received one­third or more of the Latino vote in California, according to a study by Latino Decisions, a polling firm. The vote peaked in 1984, with 45% of California Latinos backing Ronald Reagan and dropped to 22% supporting Mitt Romney in 2012.

Trump’s rhetoric this election cycle — he’s called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug runners — is not likely to help increase those numbers, say political analysts. Polls in swing states consistently show Clinton outpacing Trump among Latino voters.

“It’s been awhile,” recalled Tanney, “but it was certainly the most memorable moment of my time working on elections in Orange County.”

Now retired, Tanney, a life­long Democrat, was asked if Trump’s calls for election observers in certain states could reignite what occurred at those 20 polling locations in Santa Ana 28 years ago. He sighed and offered no comment.

Khizer Khan to Donald Trump: Have You Read the U.S. Constitution?

By Ghazala Khan

CHARLOTTESVILLE
Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.

Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up for the ROTC at the University of Virginia. This was before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to.

When Humayun was sent to Iraq, my husband and I worried about his safety. I had already been through one war, in Pakistan in 1965, when I was just a high school student. So I was very scared. You can sacrifice yourself, but you cannot take it that your kids will do this.

We asked if there was some way he could not go, because he had already done his service. He said it was his duty. I cannot forget when he was going to the plane, and he looked back at me. He was happy, and giving me strength: “Don’t worry, Mom. Everything will be all right.”

The last time I spoke to my son was on Mother’s Day 2004. We had asked him to call us collect whenever he could. I begged him to be safe. I asked him to stay back, and not to go running around trying to become a hero, because I knew he would do something like that.

He said, “Mom, these are my soldiers, these are my people. I have to take care of them.” He was killed by a car bomber outside He said, “Mom, these are my soldiers, these are my people. I have to take care of them.” He was killed by a car bomber outside the gates of his base. He died trying to save his soldiers and innocent civilians.

 That is my son. Humayun was always dependable. If I was vacuuming the house and he was home, he would take the vacuum from my hand and clean the house. He volunteered to teach disabled children in the hospital how to swim. He said, “Ilove when they have a little bit of progress and their faces, they light up. At least they are that much happy.” He wanted to be a lawyer, like his father, to help people.

CLICK HERE to hear his speech at the DNC Convention

Humayun is my middle son, and the others are doing so well, but every day Ifeel the pain of his loss. It has been 12 years, but you know hearts of pain can never heal as long as we live. Just talking about it is hard for me all the time. Every day, whenever I pray, I have to pray for him, and I cry. The place that emptied will always be empty.

I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun. For all these years, I haven’t been able to clean the closet where his things are — I had to ask my daughter­in­law to do it. Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?

Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but Itold him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family.

When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion.

Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.

Opinion: The Party of Lincoln is Dead, But Don't Just Blame Donald Trump

 

by Stephen A. Nuno - NBC.com

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.

Senator Jeff Sessions Speech at the RNC Convention

 

 

 

 

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.

GOP Senator Steve King Jaw Dropping Statements

 

 

 

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.

With Markedly Fewer Latinos at Republican Convention, Meet 3 Delegates

With Markedly Fewer Latinos at Republican Convention,Meet 3 Delegates

 by Suzanne Gamboa and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto - NBC.com

 

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.

Trumping Up Politics

Trumping Up Politics

Written By: 

Carlos Sepulveda

Business Professor

Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencias y Technologia (ULACIT)

San Jose, Costa Rica

No need for a crystal ball.  No need for Nostradamus.  Stop the Presses!  Drum roll please….  The next President of the United States will be Donald Trump for one reason only: the entertainment factor.

Since its birth, Hollywood has made America starstruck.  Throughout the years, celebrities have become gods.  From the days of Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable and James Dean to more contemporary stars, such as Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyoncé, and J-Lo, America’s fascination has grown immensely.  It has become a tradition to religiously watch the Oscars, Golden Globes, The Grammys, Fashion Police, and of course mainstream media has capitalized by providing apps with up to the minute information, not to mention the instant impact of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram.

Now enter Donald Trump, an outsider to the establishment and a multi-billionaire real estate mogul, who became a reality TV show megastar by being blunt and uncaring.   He made the expression “You’re Fired” a popular phrase that previously could have had a negative connotation.  From the beginning, his strategy during debates was ruthless, not only to other candidates, but also to Fox’s presenter, Megyn Kelly.  Even when people called him a fascist, racist, and bully, ratings went through the roof.   When you mix in the fame of a reality TV star and a powerful self-financed political figure that says things that some people are unwilling to say in public, you have the winner of the popular vote.

As shallow as this may sound, Americans want to be entertained.  If people by the millions tune in to Entertainment Tonight and TMZ online to get the “low-down” on Kanye and Taylor Swift’s beef, Miley Cyrus’ antics, Justin Bieber’s new girlfriend, and the latest Kardashian sighting, at the same rate, America will vote for Megastar Trump to hear his latest shocking statements as president for the next 4 years.  It is perfect to make conversation during coffee breaks.  “Did you hear what Trump just said?”  Without a doubt, it is the same “shock jock” phenomenon of the entertainment factor that made Howard Stern an instant success and one of the most popular radio personalities of his time.  

Whether or not, Trump is the best candidate for the job, political incorrectness is a strategy that is effective and he is proving it in the political arena.  Trump is the master of ratings.  The Republican primaries have become a sneak peak of what is to come.  Only time will tell, if my prediction of the entertainment factor holds true.

The Wasted Gift of Donald Trump

The New York Times | OP­ED COLUMNIST


JULY 8, 2015
By Frank Bruni

I keep reading that Donald Trump is wrecking the Republican Party. I keep hearing that he’s a threat to the fortunes of every other Republican presidential candidate, because he sullies the brand and puts them in an impossible position. What bunk. The truth is that he’s an opportunity for them as golden as the namesake nameplates on his phallic towers, if only they would seize it. The brand was plenty sullied before he lent his huff and his hair to the task.

And by giving his Republican rivals a perfect foil, he also gives them a perfect chance to rehabilitate and redeem the party. As it stands now, he’s using them. If they had any guts, they could use him. They could piggyback on the outsize attention that he receives, answering his unhinged tweets and idiotic utterances with something sane and smart, knowing that it, too, would get prominent notice.

They could define themselves in the starkest possible contrast to him,calling him out as the bully and bigot that he is. Then he wouldn’t own the story, because the narrative would be about cooler heads and kinder hearts in the party staring down one of its most needlessly divisive ambassadors and saying: Enough. No more. We’re serious people at the limit of our patience for provocateurs.

There was a hint of this last weekend, when Jeb Bush, whose wife is Mexican­American, lashed out at Trump’s broad­brush comments about Mexican immigrants crossing into America with an agenda of drugs and rape. Bush labeled those remarks “extraordinarily ugly” and “way out of the mainstream” and said that there’s “no tolerance” for them.

But he didn’t exactly volunteer that assessment. It came in response to a reporter’s question, and it came more than two weeks after Trump’s offense. Neither he nor Marco Rubio exhibited any hurry in distancing themselves from Trump, though both of them trumpet their personal biographies as proof that they’re sensitive to Latino immigrants.

On Fox Business on Tuesday, Rubio gave a pathetic master class in cowardly evasion, stammering his way though an interview in which he was asked repeatedly for an opinion about Trump. You would have thought that he was being pressed for malicious gossip about the Easter bunny. He never did manage to upbraid Trump, though he was careful to mention the “legitimate issue” of border security that Trump had raised.

As in 2012, Republicans can’t summon the courage to take on the dark heroes of the party’s lunatic fringe. As in 2012, this could cost them dearly. The Charleston, S.C., church massacre and subsequent debate over the Confederate flag afforded them an ideal moment to talk with passion and poetry about racial healing.

But the leading contenders reacted in fashions either sluggish, terse, muffled or all three. They showed more interest in fleeing the subject than in grabbing profitable hold of it. Trump’s rant about immigrants, which he has since amplified, was another squandered moment. Chris Christie could have made good on his boasts about always telling it like it is and being unconstrained by politesse.

Instead he made clear that he liked Trump and considered him a friend. That soft crunching sound you heard was the supposedly hard­charging New Jersey governor walking on eggshells.

Rand Paul claims the desire and ability to expand the party’s reach to more minorities. So where’s his takedown of Trump? Bush has said that a politician must be willing to lose the party’s nomination in order to win the general election, but that philosophy can’t end with his allegiance to the Common Core. It has to include an unblinking acknowledgment of his party’s craziness whenever and wherever it flares. Trump’s hold on voters stems largely from his lack of any filter and from his directness, traits that they don’t see in establishment candidates.

So his fellow Republicans’ filtered, indirect approach to him just gives him more power. And while he should be irrelevant, he’s becoming ever more relevant, because he’s exposing their timidity and caution. They’re wrong to try to ignore him, because the media won’t do that and because he’s probably going to qualify for the debates. Looking ahead to the first of them, the conservative pundit George Will bought into the notion of Trump as an ineradicable pest who “says something hideously inflammatory, which is all he knows how to say, and then what do the other nine people onstage do?”

Oh, please. That’s hardly an existential crisis. It’s a prompt for an overdue smidgen of valor. Without any hesitation, they tell him that he’s a disgrace. Without any hedging, they tell him that he’s absurd. It’s the truth. And for the Republican Party, it might just be transformative. Thomas L. Friedman is off today.

I invite you to visit my blog, follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/frankbruni and join me on Facebook. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. A version of this op­ed appears in print on July 8, 2015, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: The Wasted Gift of The Donald.

Frank Bruni

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USHCC Responds to Donald Trump's Presidential Campaign Rhetoric

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce6 hours agoGlobeNewswire

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WASHINGTON, June 30, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) was disappointed by the harsh and insensitive rhetoric expressed by Donald Trump, Chairman and President of The Trump Organization and founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, during his recent 2016 Presidential Campaign announcement. Trump has claimed that Mexican immigrants bring problems like drugs and violent crime into the United States - an extreme and exclusionary position that has no basis in fact and is completely inappropriate in our national political discourse.

According to a study published by the George W. Bush Institute, in collaboration with the USHCC, America's immigrant community is highly entrepreneurial:Critics charge that Trump is promoting a racist agenda under the protective umbrella of the Republican Party, at a time when leading candidates, including Governor Jeb Bush and Senators Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, have acknowledged the economic and political contributions of the Hispanic community and all immigrants to our country.

The study also found that employment rates are highest among America's burgeoning immigrant community:

Also, despite his assertions U.S. incarceration rates are, in fact, lowest for the immigrant population, disproving Trump's claims that immigrants are a major source of criminal activity.

Finally, while Mr. Trump has been dismissive of our country's relationship with Mexico, it is worth noting that according to the U.S. Department of State, Mexico is the third largest U.S. trading partner after Canada and China, and our country's second largest foreign supplier of petroleum. The U.S.-Mexico border is one of the busiest, most economically important borders in the world, with nearly one million legitimate travelers and nearly a billion dollars worth of goods legally crossing the border each day.

"Donald Trump's statements - which may be dismissed as the rantings of a fringe candidate - certainly do not reflect the leadership qualities needed in 2016 and beyond, and are unwelcome in today's political conversation," said USHCC President & CEO Javier Palomarez "Mr. Trump should be well-aware of the critical role foreign-born workers play in the success of his enterprises. We commend those who have denounced Trump's extremist rhetoric, and look forward to a national, fact-based, dialogue with corporate leaders and Presidential candidates, regardless of political affiliation, that is predicated on dignity, respect, civility and compassion for all people."

Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic positions are diametrically-opposed to those expressed by the leaders in the hospitality industry, and we are proud to see that Trump's competitors have openly acknowledged the important contributions these workers make to their businesses. In a 2013 open letter to Congress, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, whose member companies include Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Lowes hotels and others, highlights that the hospitality industry is proud and fortunate to include many immigrants among its 1.8 million associates throughout the country.

Given his announcement, the USHCC has abandoned Trump hotels as possible sites for its 2016 National Convention in Miami, Florida, and its 2016 Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C., the two largest gatherings of Hispanic business leaders in America. The USHCC also commends Univision and Comcast NBCUniversal for ending their business relationships with Mr. Trump in response to his recent remarks.

The USHCC will continue to do business with like-minded individuals and corporations that are committed to equality, diversity, inclusion and the fair treatment of all who call our country home.

About the USHCC

Founded in 1979, the USHCC actively promotes the economic growth and development of our nation's entrepreneurs. The USHCC advocates on behalf of nearly 3.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses, that together contribute in excess of $486 billion to the American economy, each year. As the leading organization of its kind, the USHCC serves as an umbrella to more than 200 local chambers and business associations nationwide, and partners with more than 240 major corporations throughout the United States.

For more information, visit www.ushcc.com

Follow us on Twitter @USHCC