Ann Romney Tells Hispanics to “get past some of their biases” About the Republican Party

Posted by icarus on 30 Aug 2012 / 0 Comment

According to ABC News – Ann Romney had some very peculiar words to the Latino community at a lunch yesterday – she said HERE:

“You’d better really look at your future and figure out who’s going to be the guy that’s going to make it better for you and your children, and there is only one answer.”

Ok – not horrible. A little heavy handed and assuming but … not insulting. Somehow – she thinks Latinos should vote for the Republican party. Curious. Then she says:

“It really is a message that would resonate well if they could just get past some of their biases that have been there from the Democratic machines that have made us look like we don’t care about this community. And that is not true. We very much care about you and your families and the opportunities that are there for you and your families.”

Somehow she has come to the conclusion that Latinos are voting for the Democratic party mostly because they have biases not because her husband and the rest of the Republican party have gone out of their way to demagogue and insult the Latino community. She says “you’d better really look at your future and figure out” blah blah blah. It is almost as if she just like her husband has come to the conclusion after evaluating the situation that when given the option that perhaps her husband’s agenda runs at odds with the priorities of the Latino community or it is just that tens of millions of Latinos are just not paying attention and are clinging to their biases – she went with option B. In other words – it’s not me … it’s definitely you.

I make it a point not to attack wives of candidates because I find that sort of thing to be below a minimum standard that I set for myself. But that only relates to when “the significant other” doesn’t inject themselves into politics. She is injecting herself into politics and her comments are fair game. As we’ve shared HERE – Republican strategist Mark McKinnon disagrees with Mrs. Romney.

“Republicans have done a mystifying job of either ignoring or offending Hispanic voters. And the consequences for the general election are likely to be significant and perhaps determinative to the outcome.”
~Mark McKinnon, GOP strategist

So – let’s review why Latinos aren’t really into Mitt Romney and the Republican Party:

#1 – The unconstitutional Arizona law that targeted Hispanics. The court struck down 75% of the law (source) pushed forward by the Arizona Republican party. Now the ACLU requested and won via a court request access to emails from within the Republican party. These emails showed many racist emails by the author of that law (source). Just a taste of what was on one of those emails:

“We are much like the Titanic as we inbreed millions of Mexico’s poor, the world’s poor and we watch our country sink.”

Here was the Romney campaign’s response to whether or not they supported the ruling by the Supreme Court.

“I would have preferred to see the Supreme Court give more latitude to the states, not less. And there are states now under this decision [that] have less authority, less latitude, to enforce immigration laws.”
~Mitt Romney, today

He didn’t directly answer the question and neither did his aide on the video, but in February of 2012 – Mitt Romney said the Arizona immigration law was “a model” for the country. (source)

#2 – The Dream Act. President Obama and the Democrats pushed through a bill in the House that passed with a huge majority and then received 55 votes in the Senate in December of 2010. That would normally be enough to pass a law but the Republicans used a filibuster to block the bill requiring 60 votes to allow for a final vote on the bill. 36 Republicans in the Senate voted against the Dream Act; only 3 voted for it. (source). Compare that to the 50 Democrats and 2 Independents who voted for it. In the House it was even worse – 160 Republicans voted against it and only 8 voted for.

In January of 2012 – Mitt Romney said that he would VETO the Dream Act (among many times he said this) (source). In November of 2011 – Mitt Romney said that people who came here illegally “should go to the back of the line” and “should be given no special pathway to citizenship or permanent residency merely because they came here illegally”. Do you remember the very uncomfortable Brett Baier interview? (source).

#3 – Romney shows a blatant disrespect or lack of interest for the Latino community.

In September of 2011 – Mitt Romney said THIS:

“They or their ancestors did not come here for a handout. If they came for a handout – they’d be voting for Democrats. In regards to illegal immigration – of course we build a fence and of course we don’t give in state tuition credits to people who’ve come here illegally. This is the party that believes in supporting the law. We’re going to enforce the law. We’re a party of opportunity, but we’re also a party of legal, law abiding citizens.”

But Mitt Romney apparently did have a problem HIRING these “illegal immigrants” to prune his hedges and mow his lawn. (source)

During the primary – Mitt Romney cared so much about the immigration issue that when a voter asks him what his position is … he just ignores them, smiles and walks away. Like HERE and HERE.

In May of 2012 – a reporter asked the Republican National Committee what their position is on immigration and her response was CLASSIC. She said and I quote, “I think as a candidate, to my understanding, that he’s still deciding what his position on immigration is.” (source)

#4 – President Obama decided to take unilateral action and gave an executive order not to deport those illegal immigrants who were brought to America as children and have only really known this country to their home (source). And the result is beautiful – you can see the first day of these younger illegals looking to sign the necessary documentation in order to avoid deportation HERE.

The Romney campaign would not answer whether or not they supported President Obama’s actions and still have not to this day. Bob Schieffer interviewed Mitt Romney shortly after the President’s executive order and he had to ask Romney FIVE TIMES whether or not he supported the action. He would not respond. Watch it for yourself. More on that HERE.

Reuters reports on a conference call the Romney campaign cut off because reporters asked questions about immigration and the Romney campaign would not answer those questions HERE:

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign fended off questions on immigration policy on Wednesday as the Republican challenger scrambled for a response five days after President Barack Obama’s relaxation of immigration policy drew accolades from Hispanic voters.

Questions on the Republican challenger’s position on immigration dominated a campaign conference call Wednesday that was supposed to be about the economy. The call was cut off early after what a Romney staffer said were “off-topic” questions.

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) then said Congress should look into impeaching the President over his executive order despite previously attacking the President for failing to lead (source).

#5 – The Republican party is constantly saying bad things about Latinos. As I have said HERE:

After years and years of anti-latino laws and scapegoating with hyperbolic talk…Republicans have aggressively supported the following things:

Building a fence along the entire 3,000 mile border with Mexico (but not with Canada)

Rounding up and deporting latinos

Accusing the latino community of intentionally having “anchorbabies” so they could have citizenship in America

Changing the Constitution so that being born on American soil no longer constituted “American citizenship”

These quotes are all courtesy of Politico HERE:

“We have put a man on the moon, we can build a fence! Now, my fence might be part Great Wall and part electrical technology…. It will be a 20-foot wall, barbed wire, electrified on the top, and on this side of the fence, I’ll have that moat that President Obama talked about. And I would put those alligators in that moat!”
~Herman Cain, describing his plan to secure the Mexican border, Jun. 8, 2011

“You want a good bird dog? You want one that’s going to be aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest … not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner.”
~Rep. Steve King, on picking good immigrants from bad ones, May 22, 2012

“I don’t care if Mexicans pile up against that fence … just run a couple of taco trucks up and down the line.”
~Talk radio host Neal Boortz, Jun. 18, 2007

“[Mexico] has been overtaken by lawbreakers from the bottom to the top. And now, what you’re protesting for is to have lawbreakers come here.”
~Glenn Beck, Mar. 27, 2006

“I talked to a retired FBI agent who said that one of the things they were looking at were terrorist cells overseas who had figured out how to game our system. And it appeared they would have young women, who became pregnant, would get them into the United States to have a baby… And then they would turn back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists.”
~Rep. Louie Gohmert, June 24, 2010

[I]f American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.”
~Former Rep. Virgil Goode, on right, on the election of the first Muslim congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Dec. 20, 2006

“The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans.”
~former CNN host Lou Dobbs, connecting immigration to leprosy, Apr. 14, 2005

“[T]hey are not assimilated into America. Many Hispanics, as a matter of fact, you know what culture they are assimilating to? The rap culture, the crime culture, anti-cops, all the rest of it.”
~Pat Buchanan, Aug. 23, 2006

“An immigration agent chased him for the last 10 miles.”
~Rush Limbaugh, on why a Mexican national won the New York marathon, Jan. 26, 1992