Senator Marco Rubio’s Past and Future
by President of Somos A. Bustos on Oct. 23, 2011, under Latino Get Out the Vote for 2012, Secure Borders and Reasonable Immigration Solution, Tequila Party Movement
The Tequila Party is growing by leaps and bounds! The ground has been fertile for this movement.
When President Obama was in El Paso, Texas, he asked for political grassroots movement, and the Tequila Party will continue to push hard for a strong Latino Get Out the Vote for 2012 to push for immigrant-friendly politicians who don’t demonize Latinos, Hispanics, and immigrants.
From a National Tequila Party Movement supporter:
Rubio’s Past and Future
By Ramon Ruiz
During the past few days, the carefully crafted image of the West Miami-based junior Senator from Florida has begun to unravel. The Latino darling of the tea party has found himself facing a swelling wave of scrutiny focusing on his fundamental political identity, as the son of political exiles.
As the basis of his core political narrative dissolves, it is quickly becoming clear how intensely engaged and dependent upon the tea party he has been during his meteoric rise to the national stage during the past 12 months. He has been seduced by a rabid wing of the Republican Party that portends to be “America’s” salvation from big government, high taxes, and illegal aliens. This political movement, which claims to be the most important protector of family values, has embraced Rubio in turn, as the great Latino hope for the party.
Rubio has been a man on a mission, and along the way he has been unforgivably disrespectful of immigrant’s rights. His aggressive political posturing for
higher office vis-a-vis the Tea Party has led him to a dark corner of American politics where pandering to extreme fears of isolationists and racists manifests itself in instilling big brother oversight in the workplace and violent measures along the Mexican American border.
His desire to propel himself onto the national stage has led him into questionable alliances that betray the true nature of his immigrant roots. His wholehearted embrace of Senator Chick Grassley’s and Representative Lamar Smith’s E-Verify legislative proposals is tantamount to a mass deportation action and would, in effect, drive 11 million undocumented workers deeper underground – a dark corner of our society where suspicion and fear translates into hate crimes.
Rubio’s strong support of Arizona’s draconian efforts to arbitrarily demand documents of residents simply because of how they appear is an affront to Mexicans and anyone else that may appear Mexican – again, that dark corner of society. His opposition to the Dream Act, a legislative proposal that would, that not only support young immigrants if they serve in our military, or pursue a serious education, but also potentially add more than a trillion dollars to our tax rolls in the coming decades is disgraceful in its shortsightedness.
Senator Rubio needs to come straight about the true nature of his immigrant beginnings. The economic circumstances that drove his parents to cross the border places him in the same family tree as millions of Latino residents in the United States seeking a better life. His religious affiliations, which range from Catholicism to Evangelicalism, demand that he reexamine his commitment to family values and the human rights inherent in those values.
He has had plenty of opportunity to denounce the inhumane language, such as “anchor babies” and “electrified fences with moats filled with alligators” infecting the Republican debates. But he has chosen to remain largely silent. As the Latino darling of right wing extremism, he will inevitably be held accountable for his actions and inaction, by millions of Latinos searching for some sort of hope within the Republican Party.
This election season is proving to be the great inflection point of Latino participation in American politics. There is no turning back. If Marco Rubio wishes to participate in this sea change of national politics, he must immediately begin to recognize his mistakes. Coming to terms with his immigrant past will not be resolved with a simple press release; instead it should consist of stepping back, away from the dark corner of inhumane policies in our society. A place that many undocumented and documented immigrants know too well.
It has been reported that there has been a 50 percent increase in hate crimes against Latinos in California in 2010 and that this increase has been directly tied to the passage of S.B. 1070 immigration law in Arizona. It goes without question that Senator Rubio’s hard working parents must have encountered discrimination during their years working in hotels and restaurants.
Senator Rubio must look to the past and find his way to the future.
