Bush Makes Dishonest Play For Latino Vote

JAN 1 - 15, 2003

VOL. 2 ISSUE 1

ELECTIONS 2004:

BUSH MAKES A HARD, MULTI-PRONGED PITCH FOR THE LATINO VOTE

Democrats Caught Asleep Once Again; But Even As Bush Makes These Moves, He Enacts Overtly Anti-Latino Policies That Make It Clear His Pitch To Latinos Is Purely Charade

by Betsy R. Vasquez

JANUARY 3, 2003 – "Viva Castro!" "Viva Pinochet!" "Viva Peron!"

The expression is familiar to us Latinos. It is a bold, positive affirmation and something we are used to seeing plastered all around in support of the leaders of Latin nations - whether good, bad, and flat-out evil.

So, in a smart communications move, the Bush team is out with the "Viva Bush!" bumper stickers and posters early this election. Make no mistake, Bush feels he must do well amongst Latinos to win the election and, more directly, that he must win California.

This is not big news, and yet still a step ahead of the Democrats for the Bush team. But the much less noticeable thing the Republicans are doing, so well orchestrated it is almost invisible to most Americans, just might deliver the President exactly what he is looking for.

California radio station 830AM, until now, has been hard-right talk all the time. KPLS, as its call letters were, featured wonderful commentators like the one who just last week issued the heartening, family-values commentary, "Do you think it was the smart Jews who ended up at Buchenwald and Auschwitz? The stupid Jews are the ones who got culled by the Pogroms. The stupid ones got killed off. The schmucks got killed. Selective breeding."

Yes, this is the sort of talk that goes on 24-hours a day, sponsored by companies like JC Penney, passed off as "Talk From The Right," as the station's motto went, all the while preaching in the other, mainstream media outlets about how Jews and other minorities should and are joining up with the Bush Republicans.

Well, fortunately (it would at first glance seem,) the commentator above is now off the air, as is the entire KPLS station, having been bought out by another owner. I will not name the commentator above, as he is now off the air and there is no point in giving him publicity.

So what could be bad about this station going off the air? Well, if you look at what is replacing it, you realize the Democrats are suddenly in a lot of trouble in California - especially among Latinos.

Replacing KPLS "Talk From The Right" will be a new Hispanic talk radio network. At first hear it sounds like a pretty good improvement, until you take into account who owns the new Latino-oriented station: Stephen Lehman, the founder of the radio network that hosts Rush Limbaugh, Premiere Networks.

Yes, replacing the all propaganda and hate all the time KPLS will be an all right-wing propaganda all the time station aimed directly at California Latinos. While Democrats try to figure how to raise enough money to buy a few thirty second spots here and there, the Republicans have put in place yet another free twenty-four-hour-a-day campaign advertisement, this time directly aimed at Latinos.

To understand what a serious move this is, you must understand some things about traditional Latin culture. Among people from Mexico, Central, and South American nations, TV and radio plays a much more powerful role. Many take what they hear as virtual gospel, and pitches from celebrities are taken the same way.

As one prominent LA area celebrity in the Latin community, who happens to have his own radio talk show, told me, "If I told my listeners that they had to paint their houses with poke-a-dots, you would see thousands of poke-a-dotted houses immediately spring up all over LA."

Now, Lehman will set out to create Limbaugh-like Latino propagandists, and if he succeeds - as his track record indicates he very well might - there may just be a huge swing among California Latinos toward the Republican party. With twenty-four hours a day of unrebutted lies coming directly to the Latino population via one of their most trusted mediums, the radio, the right-wing blame and lie machine can't help but make some inroads among this vital constituency.

However, there is one caveat.

While it will take some time for this radio station to take hold and gain trust, President Bush's recent anti-Latino policy implementation might make it very difficult for him to gain support among Latinos at this time.

In particular, I am talking about a policy that went into effect with the start of this new year. On January 1, 2004, the US Government will undertake to photograph and fingerprint, like criminal suspects, every single person who comes to America from a nation of which visas are required. So to put it simply, the next time my grandmother comes to visit, she will have to suffer the indignantly of being in effect booked like a thief, fingerprinted and her mug shot taken. And the most outrageous and offensive part of this is that the policy is entirely, inescapably racist and anti-Latino.

The excuse President Bush is using to justify inflicting these indignities on all from certain countries who come to America is the War on Terror. This has to be done, he says - as he always does - to keep America safe.

However, this new photographing and fingerprinting program only applies to nations from which a visa is required for entry into America. By no coincidence, this includes virtually all Latin countries and yet basically no European countries. While no terrorist threats have yet to come from the Latino countries of Central or South America and no al-Qaeda terrorists are suspected of being located there, in nations like Great Britain, France, Germany, or Greece, the presence of Arabs with suspected terrorist links is known, and direct threats have come and continue to come from these nations, as witnessed by the recent cancellation of flights from both Britain and France during the recent high terrorist alert. Indeed, many of the September 11 hijackers planned their work in nations like Germany before coming to America to carry them out. None did their planning in Caracas or Rio.

And yet people from Britain, France, Germany or the Turkey-and-Iraq-neighboring nation of Greece will not be required to submit to fingerprinting and photographing when they come to America, since no visas are required of people from these nations to come here. In the meantime, basically any Latino who wishes to enter America will now be given this criminal-like treatment.

There can be no justification for this discrepancy. The threat of terrorism is not a possible explanation, since if that was really what the concern is, the fingerprinting and photographing program would apply first and foremost to these European nations.

The only possible reason for this program is a flat-out racist attempt to discourage Latino and other non-European immigrant groups from coming to America. It is Nazi-like intimidation at its worst, and it is now in effect and being carried out against all Latinos visiting America.

So once again we see the Bush Republican pattern of claiming the high road while taking the low road. With their "Viva Bush!" bumper stickers and their new AM Spanish-language propaganda
radio station, the Bush Republicans are seeking boldly and at great cost to make inroads among Latino votes. While at the same time, they are practicing open racism and degradation of the most base manner against Latinos and our families.

Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: President Bush truly believes Latinos are the stupidest people on the face of the Earth, and that a simple bumper sticker and lying radio host will make people not notice the abuse and racism they and their family members are being subject to.