Scattershooting and web-surfing and came across a website with these commands of action.

Mantengamos la esperanza! Mantengamos la unidad! Estamos unidos!

Holy Tom Tancredo, Batman, are these words of inspiration from a lefty organization expressing pride in Latino culture, or maybe from a farm worker’s organization expressing solidarity, or maybe some ethnic-based group that gives right wingers the creeps because maybe they’re out to return to the Southwest to Mexico?

No, boys and girls, those words of action are to be found on the following website: http://espanol.johnmccain.com.

Yep, the Republican Party’s nominee for president has gone Spanish. We’re shocked! Absolutely shocked! I wonder. What gives Repubican far righties the creeps more: John McCain talking about global warming or John McCain going Spanish? I’d say the later, for the simple reason that while most far righties think global warm is a hoax hatched up by Al Gore and other like-minded idiots, at least it’s relatively harmless. I mean, a global warming hoax isn’t subverting our national culture or identity, or filling up our emergency rooms and classrooms.

Also, you can’t sick a police officer on a depleting ozone, but boy howdy, you sure can send a black-and-white to pull over a Mexican-looking driver and ask him if he’s an `Merican. McCain obviously knows how much the right-wing talk radio nation hates for him to like Hispanics, but heck, he’s going to do it anyway, what with over 30 million of `em in the U.S. and it being an election year and all.

Also, a bunch of `em live in some criticial swing states that could decide the `08 election. We’re talking Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and McCain thinks he has a shot at California with Gov. Arnold helping him out. McCain isn’t faking it either. As an Arizona senator, he has historically had a good feel for the Latino community and demonstrated sincere respect and interest in America’s fastest growing demographic.

You might also recall that comprehensive immigration bill McCain sponsored a few years back, the one that called for tougher law enforcement on the border as well as a path to legalization for many undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. The talk show crowd and southern Republicans in the Senate went nuts over that one, with some calling the Arizona senator “Juan McCain,” for his support of the bill.

Such creative and intelligent name calling is being summoned again now that McCain has gone Spanish. Good manners and civility dictate that I not report some of the most unkind things some good Americans are saying about McCain’s Hispanic strategy, but here’s a boiled-down translation: What part of illegal don’t you understand? Oh sorry, got off the track there. That’s about something else.

To add insult to right-wing misery, McCain launched his official Spanish-language website on Cinco de Mayo. Just great, go Spanish on a major Mexican holiday and then brag about the link, which is what McCain incredibly did. And he didn’t stop there.

“I am confident that I will do very well,” McCain said of seeking Hispanic support for the general election. “I know their patriotism. I know the respect for the family, the advocacy for pro-life. I know the small business aspect of our Hispanic voters.”

McCain has some work to do on the account of Republicans going anti-Hispanic in recent years. A recent Pew Hispanic Center study found that just 23 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. considered themselves Republicans. That’s a huge drop from the roughly 40 percent of Hispanics voters in 2006 who supported President W. McCain does have an election opening. He has a generally good image among Latinos, his views on immigration aren’t to the right of a Fox News talk show host, and he has this bad habit of always saying that immigrants are God’s children, too.

Still, it’s great to get my news fix fed by the “En Las Noticias” bit on McCain’s espanol.com website. And if I want anaylsis and commentary, I can go to “Discursos, Temas y Analisis,” and I get everything I need.

You go Juan!

- By Joaquin C. Tijerina, Official Chisme Blogger Y Columnista

  

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.