LatinaLista — If Latino Republican politicians thought they were safe from the extremists within their own party by adopting the party line of speaking out against the DREAM Act, wanting to see all 12 million of the undocumented deported, favoring a double fence at the border, wanting an Alabama immigration law passed throughout the nation and requiring English be declared the official language, they are sadly mistaken.
Marco Rubio, considered the poster boy of the Latino GOP, is discovering that he can’t even please people whom he politically sides with.
It seems The Birthers — those pesky “show-me-your-birth-certificate-and-I-still-won’t-believe-you-were-born-here” people, championed by NY millionaire Donald Trump, have turned their doubting rhetoric on Marco Rubio.
They don’t believe that Marco Rubio was born in the US because his parents are Cuban exiles. Not even after the Washington Post revealed today that Rubio “embellished” his claims of when his parents arrived — they arrived a full two years before Castro had even figured out how to take over the island.
Their arrival before Castro took power means they were here in plenty of time for Rubio to have been born in the US. Yet, for the Birthers it’s a lot easier to make a lot of noise about a person’s citizenship, especially if that citizen has family ties to another country.
It will be interesting to see what clear-headed Republican will shoot down this latest crap before it gets to ridiculous levels like it did with Obama. However, if some Republicans do come out in Rubio’s defense, it would underscore the hypocrisy and the disgusting party line of wanting to see Obama a one-term president rather than see the country prevail in these hard economic times.
There are some signs that other Latino Republicans are getting fed up with the wrong turn in the GOP.
The Texas director of the nation’s largest Latino Republican organization abandoned his party this week.
Lauro Garza remains a staunch conservative, but says he’s fed up with what he calls a hostile “Tea Party nativism” toward which the GOP has been tilting in recent years – at the expense of immigrants and Latinos.
“The party has left us behind. Our credibility among Latinos is strained because we identify with the Republican Party. Saying it’s strained is putting it mildly.”
News of Garza’s departure and Rubio’s insult have drawn no noticeable reaction from the GOP — a sad reflection of a party that says it wants more outreach with Latino voters but stands silent as it loses Latino party leaders or bears witness to their insults.
