By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...There is no rhyme or reason, from what I can see. Support for convicted felon Donald J, Trump is understandable from certain quarters, but from Latinos? Uh, no. They know not what they do, Lord.
The man hates them, won't sit with them, won't eat with them.
Yet, there they are, fawning over the racist candidate for president, asking to be among the first he would go after, damage and deport. Citizenship is not a given under fascism. They can only hope.
Surveys may indicate that Latinos are rallying behind the flawed Republican, but I also suspect that those numbers are skewed. A certain sector of insecure Hispanics is aboard his campaign, like local District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz and District 34 candidate Mayra Flores.
Would both give an arm and leg to help do Trump's ugly bidding?
But they are not alone in the ever-fad-happy Rio Grande Valley, a shank of land so far from Washington, D.C. and so much closer to Mexico City that it is neighboring country's culture that brings what we call life for locals.
Pass the salsa and keep the Grey Poupon.
Flores and De la Cruz, shown above, at right posing with Trump, have nothing in common with Trump and his crowd. What - claim to a party allegiance? Puh-leeeese. The Republican Party's use of non-White voters is a strategy for winning the most votes. Inclusion? Obscenity!
Trump never looks to Latinos for any sort of leadership standing. He had none - not one - in his Cabinet while in The White House. There was no such thing as the highest-ranking Hispanic in his administration. Even that other weird Republican, George W. Bush, had one - Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.
Trump makes it very plain to see, yet Latinos do fawn over him. In Congress, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio support Trump wholeheartedly these days. They've come around. Once, Trump said Cruz's wife, Heidi, was ugly, and he labeled Rubio "Little Marco."
No, the myriads of clues are there, and it is more than just a foot-tall mound.
Flores, shown in photo at left, and De La Cruz, I say, exhibit nothing that tells me they are intelligent enough to see beyond the glitz of an inclusion that is simply a fake, one-way relationship. Meat on the hoof to be used and discarded after the election.
Latinos are a recognized force in our elections these days.
That political power is something that can benefit our people, our role in this ever-segmented country.
Smiling for Trump only makes Latinos look dumb, weak, futile and lost...
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