MSNBC
By Steve Benen
July 2, 2015
In
his presidential announcement speech, Donald Trump wasted no time in
creating controversy. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending
their best,” the Republican
candidate said. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems and
they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re
bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Offered
a variety of opportunities to walk the comments back, Trump has, at
least for now, refused. This week, he insisted his remarks were “totally
accurate.”
As
Rachel noted on the show last night, this has led a variety of
businesses, including NBC/Universal, to end their relationships with the
controversial candidate. But
what remains striking is the degree to which Trump is facing very
little blowback from his own party.
Fox’s
Sean Hannity has defended Trump, as has Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “I
like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific,” the Republican senator said,
“I think he’s brash,
I think he speaks the truth.”
Last
night, Politico published a piece by National Review editor Rich Lowry
on the candidate. The headline read, “Sorry, Donald Trump Has A Point.”
As
for his instantly notorious Mexico comments, they did more to insult
than to illuminate, yet there was a kernel in them that hit on an
important truth that typical
politicians either don’t know or simply fear to speak. “When Mexico
sends its people,” Trump said, “they’re not sending their best.”
This
is obviously correct. We aren’t raiding the top 1 percent of Mexicans
and importing them to this country. Instead, we are getting
representative Mexicans, who – through
no fault of their own, of course – come from a poorly educated country
at a time when education is essential to success in an advanced economy.
As
for Trump’s assumptions about these immigrants being drug-running
rapists, Lowry didn’t dwell on these details while praising the
candidate’s broader immigration argument.
This is not a wise strategy.
Even
if we put aside the fact that Trump’s argument is factually wrong, and
he most certainly does not “have a point,” the truth remains that the
Republican Party has
alienated immigrant communities in recent years, and the latest Trump
fiasco offers the GOP an opportunity to distance itself from offensive,
racially charged rhetoric.
But for many Republicans, it’s an opportunity better left ignored.
In
fairness, Trump has not enjoyed universal praise among conservatives.
Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s Chief Strategist &
Communications Director, conceded
two weeks ago that Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric is “probably something
that is not helpful to the cause.”
Probably.
Look,
I’m not suggesting the onus is on Reince Priebus to pick up one of the
Trump pinatas that have become popular in some circles, and destroy it
on camera, but I am
suggesting leading Republican voices show some courage and denounce
offensive rhetoric from one of their own.
Trump,
obviously, is pushing Latino voters away. But the more voices on the
right defend Trump, and the more Republican voters express their support
for his candidacy,
the broader the damage will be to the party.
Indeed,
as msnbc’s Amanda Sakuma noted yesterday, Trump’s antics raise
“uncomfortable but genuine questions over how Republicans expect to make
inroads with Latino voters
in light of the harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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