Thread: Krikorian's Observations on Yesterday's Debate

Univision Debate [Mark Krikorian]

A few observations on the debate:

*I really wish politicians would treat Americans of Hispanic origin as citizens, in all their heterogeneity, rather than simply ascribe to them their own political leanings. McCain, for instance, started off with this: "Hispanics are pro-small business, they are pro-life, they are pro-religion, they are pro-less regulation, pro-less spending, pro-military, they're serving in incredible numbers in Iraq as we speak today." First, of course, is the simply falsity of some of these claims; for instance, chart 18 of this Pew poll shows that Hispanic Republicans are more supportive of big government than white Democrats ("Would you rather pay higher taxes to support a larger government that provides more services or pay lower taxes and have a smaller government that provides fewer services?"). But ignorance is what I expect of politicians — it's the objectification of Hispanics strikes me as morally worse. The gold standard for that is Bill Richardson, who told a Mexican delegation (one of whose members related the incident in a 2006 Backgrounder I published), "What do Hispanics want? Fully funded government programs!" That's actually a more accurate claim than McCain's but they share the perspective of Hispanics as a kind of Rorschach test where politicians see what they want to see.

* Huckabee still hasn't figured this issue out. McCain and Giuliani are openly calling for amnesty, but Huckabee's new immigration plan says that "Policies that promote or tolerate amnesty will be rejected." Yet in Sunday's debate he responded to "what to do with the 12 million of undocumented that already live in the United States?" by echoing the Pence "touchback" amnesty scheme: "If you can get an American Express card in two weeks, it shouldn't take seven years to get a work permit to come to this country in order to work on a farm." He'd said the same thing earlier in the day, on Fox News: "But that pathway to get back here legally doesn't take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce."

* What right does Jorge Ramos, one of Univision's anchors, have to moderate a debate for American citizens about the American presidential election? The man is a foreigner — I don't mean foreign-born, I mean a foreign citizen. As this profile explains, Ramos "maintains Mexican citizenship in order to have the option to return there one day." Ramos (a "minority" champion who's one of the whitest men I have ever seen) has written, among other books, No Borders: A Journalist's Search for Home and is an explicit cultural separatist; from a 2002 column (original here, Allan Wall's translation here):

"The famous and stereotypical idea of the melting pot is a myth. The European immigrants — Italians, Germans and Poles, that preceded the Latinos assimilated rapidly to the American culture. But the Latinos have achieved the feat of integrating economically to the United States without losing their culture. Such a phenomenon has never occurred before."

As Allan asks, "Would Mexico allow Lou Dobbs to moderate a debate for Mexican presidential candidates? Of course not."

* I'm no RonPaulista, but you've got to admire a guy who tells a Cuban audience in Miami that "Actually, I believe we're at a time where we even ought to talk to Cuba and trade and travel to Cuba." He was booed, which was predictable, but it's good to have politicians who are at least occasionally willing to say things that will get them booed.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... JkNTdhMDU=

and Ramos' side kick is Maria Elena Salinas.... US born, raised in Mexico, married to a Gringo of British origins. She likewise makes fun of "Americans" in this corrupted debate..... to the point of laughing at the legal terminology of "alien" by referring to aliens from space. Of course she implies that US law borrowed the term from the movies, but the opposite is true... "illegal alien" is the legal term used for decades....

Ramos bragged one time that HE went across the border illegally just to experience what those "humildes" (humble peasants) experience.... a further insult to his guest status....

"Hispanics are pro-small business, they are pro-life, they are pro-religion, they are pro-less regulation,

Pro-less regulation of:
rule of law
immigration laws
illegal entry to U.S. laws
U.S./Mexican border laws
drivers licenses
traffic violations
motor vehicle insurance requirements
housing and zoning laws
voting rights
U.S. government benefits--housing, food stamps, medical care, etc.
U.S. citizenship standards
state and federal tax filing
colleges
Social Security
drug laws
idenity theft laws
employment laws
English as official U.S. language
protests
civil rights of any ethnic group other than their own

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
Franklin D. Roosevelt