August 30, 2012 by Ben Crystal
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa isn’t a particularly noteworthy fellow in his own right. Despite serving as the mayor of the Nation’s second-largest city, Villaraigosa is a virtual unknown outside Democratic Party flacks and pro-illegal alien hate groups. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Democrats deployed him to take an ugly race-baiting poke at the Republicans during the latter party’s convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday.
“You can’t just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate,” Villaraigosa said.
Actually, Villaraigosa’s words are entirely accurate. Unfortunately, his intent is less so. While it ought to be true that race isn’t a factor in politics, the Democrats have turned it into the single most defining issue of the American political climate. Of course, if I had their track record on jobs, immigration or basic economics, I’d be talking about anything else, as well. If I had to run on the Democrats’ recent performance, I’d campaign on forcing the NCAA to further revamp the BCS.
The real irony — which is typically lost on the left — lies with Villaraigosa himself. Liberals love to accuse conservatives of racism. Indeed, since President Barack Obama began his occupation of the Oval Office, they’ve swatted at their enemies with that rhetorical rapier in response to any criticism of their beloved Barry. So why fly a mid-level party functionary all the way across the country just to repeat the same old slander? Why not simply let their corporate media sycophants handle it? Surely, David Gregory or Anderson Cooper could fill the bill, and even Cooper’s Q rating is higher than Villaraigosa’s. To borrow Villaraigosa’s own logic, you can’t just trot out a brown face or Spanish surname and expect people are going to take you seriously. Yet that’s precisely the reason the event was staged. In suggesting Hispanic Republicans are merely hood ornaments, the liberals brought a Hispanic Democrat 3,000 miles and used him like a hood ornament.
During the course of the same press conference, Villaraigosa expanded on his party’s point: “People are going to vote just like Anglos do, just like African-Americans do, and virtually every demographic group.”
Republican speakers at the Republican National Convention include: Mayor Mia Love of Saratoga Springs, Utah, who is black; Senatorial candidate Ted Cruz of Texas, who is part Cuban; and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who is of Mexican descent. As much as it pains the Democrats, Artur Davis (a black former Democratic Congressman who recently became a Republican) is on the roster, as well. But they’re part of a much larger group of speakers who will address the convention; and they’ll be treated with the same deference as the rest. Indeed, it’s likely that the light pink-hued Representative Ron Paul of Texas will be the most controversial guy in the room. Much like the upcoming Democratic National Convention, most of the speakers, most of the attendees and most of the politicians will be white.
In specifically pointing out the racial backgrounds of certain Republicans, Villaraigosa was specifically refuting his party’s entire strategy. He also painted his own party as very specifically presuming that members of minority groups will vote only as a racial bloc, meaning he made two contradictory arguments in the same breath — both concluding with Villaraigosa and the Democrats being bigots.
There’s no reason to think the Democrats will ease up on their “Republicans are racist” rhetoric. Their rank and file are well-trained and lack the introspection necessary to recognize the essential hypocrisy at the center of their leaders’ behavior. To be honest, I almost feel pity for Villaraigosa. He has allowed himself to be deployed as a shiny ethnic decoration for a party consumed by hatred. In an effort to downplay conservative minority voting, the Democrats turned a liberal minority voter into a hood ornament, a token, a “a brown face or a Spanish surname.”
–Ben Crystal
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