By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...They keep coming. Dark-skinned Americans fully believing the Republican Party welcomes them as equals to its ever-dominant white membership. This is the tradition of bygone White House hopefuls Alan Keyes, Herman Cain, Bobby Jindal, and Ben Carson as well as recent presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.
Talk about a pipedream.
None of those named above got anywhere near the GOP's presidential nomination, and, yes, Haley is still in it. But the odds of winning she faces are of astral proportions. Still, they go for it, arriving with their own endless stash of red, white and blue banners.
The Republican Party currently headed by oft-indicted Donald Trump is a White Peoples party. See it as anything else and, boys, you're only fooling yourself. Use of Browns and Blacks by the White Republican leadership always has been a game. They will smile you in the door, slap you on the back, say you're special and all that jazz before reality sets in and you find yourself being nothing more than a handy socio-political valet for their bigger dream.
A Brown or Black Republican president?
Not happening, Baby. Not in your lifetime. You're just dog food for the Real Republicans.
Candidate Ramaswamy ultimately learned that on the campaign trail. Weeks and months of lugging his thoughts across Iowa told him one thing: He wasn't needed or wanted. Vivek, shown in photo at right, dropped out and quickly endorsed the party's cultish kingpin Trump - endorsed him as if to not do it would be to be kicked out of the whiteboy party.
So, what keeps Blacks and Browns lapping up to people who really hate them?
It's a study in the making. Some will tell you they switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP after the Democratic Party "left them." Others will say their "conservative" values took them there, racism and bigotry aside. Racism and bigotry to be tolerated and endured.
It's a mirage, of course.
What Black or Brown holds high office in the Republican Party, at the state or national level? Can you name one? Two? Three? Walk to your washroom mirror and answer that to yourself.
Lately, I've noticed that the only anti-anti-racism, a pillar of right-wing politics, is often most voiced by people of color courting GOP voters. A sort of tradition in the GOP, it is, however, a good way to get attention. Not one of these candidates, meanwhile, has been able to go the distance and get that so-called prize at the end of the rainbow - the presidential nomination.
Why is that, Jose?
Why is that, Willie?
You know the answer to that question. I know you do...
-30-