Jorge Ramos
Jorge Ramos is to the Latino community today what Walter Cronkite used to be in U.S. media. And he has
a message to Republicans:
Es muy desconcertante y desafortunado que Bohener, en una comunicado, haya llamado "equivocada" y "apurada" la propuesta migratoria del senado. Parece estar desconectado de lo que quiere la mayoría del país, según las encuestas, después de casi tres décadas de espera. ¿De verdad Bohener quiere ser el nuevo villano de la comunidad hispana reemplazando al odiado sheriff Joe Arpaio? ¿En serio quiere ser parte del tristemente célebre grupo antiinmigrante conformado por Pete Wilson, Tom Tancredo, Jan Brewer y Ted Cruz? Ya lo veremos [...]
En el 2016 los Republicanos tienen la oportunidad histórica de compartir el crédito con los demócratas en el tema de la reforma migratoria y dejar atrás una maldición de años. Diez y seis millones de votantes latinos decidirán esa elección.
Pero si, a pesar de todo, los Republicanos apelan a los instintos antiinmigrantes de los más extremistas, perderán la Casa Blanca en el 2016 y se tardarán muchos años más en conseguir el perdón de los latinos. Como dice un sabio dicho mexicano: sobre advertencia no hay engaño.
Below the fold, I'll translate that for you:
It's disturbing and disappointing that Boehner, in a statement, called the Senate's immigration bill "a mistake" and "hurried". He seems to be disconnected from what the American majority wants, according to the polls, after almost three decades of delay. Does Boehner really want to be the new villain of the Hispanic community, replacing Sheriff Joe Arpaio? Does he really want to be part of the sad anti-immigrant contingent including Pete Wilson, Tom Tancredo, Jan Brewer and Ted Cruz? We'll see.
Republicans have an opportunity in 2016 to share credit with Democrats on immigration reform, leaving behind years of ill-will. Sixteen million Latino voters will decide that election.
But if after everything Republicans side with the most extremist anti-immigrants, they'll lose the White House in 2016 and will have to wait many years to earn the forgiveness of Latinos. Like the wise Mexican adage says, fair warning leaves no room for surprises.
Calling Boehner the new Joe Arpaio is beyond brutal, perhaps the biggest insult a politician can suffer within the Latino community. Greg Sargent
talked to Ramos, further expanding on the theme:
“Like it or not, the Hispanic media perceives that approving or rejecting immigration reform is in the hands of John Boehner. When you listen to local radio stations and even national media, most of us are concentrated on John Boehner. We don’t even have a problem pronouncing his name.” [...]
“In the end, you just have to follow Hispanic media,” Ramos says. “The question is, who is responsible for failure? So far, the answer is Republicans.”
Republicans have spent more time trying to
come up with excuses for failure than in trying to pass actual reform. Their excuses read like the sort of nonsense that would be taken seriously on the Sunday morning talk shows but will never fly in the Latino community because, quite frankly, they aren't as stupid as the people on those Sunday shows.
This is all on Boehner, who has promised his merry band of psychopaths allegiance to the Hastert Rule—no immigration bill will come to the floor of the House for a vote unless it has the support of a majority of the Republican caucus.
The Senate bill could pass the House today if Boehner allowed an up-or-down vote, but he's more afraid of his own Republican colleagues than he is of the electoral ramifications of failure. The problem for him is that everyone knows the call is his, and his alone.