Geraldo: Latinos who vote for an anti-amnesty candidate are “Uncle Toms”

Noteworthy, not because this is the first time he’s said something this vile but because it’s not. He floated it to our favorite liberal in February during an interview on Fox News radio (and, sad to say, wasn’t called on it) and thought so highly of his bon mot that he recycled it for his new book. Either no one’s taken him aside to explain how disgusting it is or someone has taken him aside but he thinks it’s so important and righteous that he’s going to keep deploying it anyway. I don’t know which is worse. Bear in mind, though, that even demagogues on the order of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton tend to shy away from rhetoric in this vein when applied to simple voting preferences. He’s actually out-race-baiting professional race-baiters.

I have previously written in His Panic, Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. that, “any Latino who votes for a Republican or a Democrat who opposes rational immigration reform is an Uncle Tom.” In view of the pending Puerto Rico Democratic primary and the island commonwealth’s rare opportunity to explain itself and amplify the growing importance in the larger nation’s future of the Latino vote; it is time to say to all three candidates that our votes will go to the presidential aspirant who has the courage to defy the mob and call for an immediate cessation of ICE’s draconian workplace campaign. Leaving a trail of broken hearts and disrupted communities is not the way to fix America’s broken immigration system.

Note the casual reference to “our” votes; I’ve said my piece before about his crude, one-dimensional approach to this issue but it’s nice to know, a year later, that nothing’s changed. Read the whole post, too, as his alternative to raids on illegal immigrant workplaces is handing out summonses giving the recipient a time and place to appear for a deportation hearing. Michelle addressed that subject in an interview once upon a time with Neil Cavuto, but if you can’t be bothered with the clip, read Heather MacDonald’s essay on criminal illegal aliens (which might help Geraldo understand why ICE is armed) and look for the paragraph on “run letters.” Quote: “[I]n 2001, 87 percent of deportable aliens who received run letters disappeared, a number that was even higher—94 percent—if they were from terror-sponsoring countries.” Exit question: In which chapter of that Media Matters report on fear and loathing in immigration rhetoric, do you suppose, will we find Geraldo’s “Uncle Tom” comment featured?

• DOJ IG report rips former U.S. Attorney for leak designed to smear Fast and Furious whistleblower; Update: Two more Fox News reporters’ e-mails obtained by DOJ
• Is Scandalmania making amnesty more likely?
• Pew: GOP now tied with or ahead of Obama on economy, immigration — and gun control

Blowback