by Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo
Rather than subject himself to scrutiny from a Spanish-speaking audience in Florida last month or an embarrassing renunciation by that state’s voters in its Jan. 29 Republican presidential primary, Tom Tancredo has turned tail and run away.
Of course, the spin-meister from the U.S. House of Representatives had an excuse to cut short his White House fantasy and avoid the debate event sponsored by Univisión television network and moderated by Spanish-speaking journalists. It was “anti-American,” he said, to have to communicate with voters who speak a language other than English when running for the office of President of the United States.
The discredited Mr. Tancredo slunk back into the obscurity of a backbencher in Congress, whence he had come.
I think common sense makes us all reluctant to accept a politician’s excuses, especially when they are self-serving. So let us be generous and grant Mr. Tancredo the benefit of the doubt he has never provided to Latinos and Latinas. But let us also hold him to his word.
From now on, in all publications he should not be referred to as “the representative from Colorado.” Rather, he represents the state of “Colored.” (While I’ll admit the English translation of “colorado” is usually “red,” it leaves nothing to the imagination to say that Mr. Tancredo is from “a red state.”) If he had gone to Miami, he would have been in the state of Flowered (Florida).
Moreover, he will not be missed in the primary in the state of Snowfall (Nevada). And if he remained a candidate, would he have accepted votes from people in the northern state of Mountain (Montana)? Or if wealthy donors in King Mountain, California, had offered him campaign funds, would he have changed his principles to go to Monterey to pick up the check?
Of course, his opposition to Spanish is based on his exclusive devotion to English, so presumably he would also refuse to visit states with Native American names like Iowa, Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, Massachusetts and Oregon – just to name a few.
Perhaps he is also against Latin. That would make him avoid Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and both of the Carolinas. His campaign itinerary would instead have to list the states of George’s Land, Virgin’s Claim, Louis’ Space, Penn’s Woods and Charles’ Soil, North and South.
All of this sounds like a lot of foolishness — because it is. However, Mr. Tancredo is a master of the hateful gesture intended to gain him notoriety. I am sure that the congressman is intentionally being provocative with his dismissal of Spanish and all other languages. He would like nothing more than to provoke responses that call him a racist, Hispanophobe, fascist, etc.
However, he is too unimportant for such epithets. While the danger of such Latino-baiting is real and increasingly menacing, Mr. Tancredo never had any chance of getting into the White House to implement his shrunken vision of the United States. Simply put, his anti-immigrant stance has made him both un-American and unappealing.
The best remedy to such tactics of fear-mongering, blind nationalism and hatred is to maintain a healthy sense of balance. Save the bullets for the real battle in November, when the GOP candidate (whoever he is) will borrow on these themes.
For now, have a good laugh. The Tancredo rejection of the Univisión debate, like his candidacy and his politics, deserves to be called what it always was: silly. Hispanic Link.
