Figures
DNC Chair Howard Dean is accusing the Republican party of ‘scapegoating’ Hispanics in the debate over immigration form. The House proposal on combatting the problem is one drawn up by “right wing extremists” according to Dean … same ol’ song and dance with the DNC doing the dividing and demagoguing yet accusing the other side of being guilty of it:
OAKLAND, Calif. – Democratic Party chief Howard Dean accused President Bush and the Republican Party on Friday of exploiting the immigration issue for political gain by scapegoating Hispanics.
Dean and Bush agree on the legislation at the heart of the debate. Both support a Senate bill that would expand guest-worker programs for an estimated 400,000 immigrants each year.
However, at a speech in an Oakland union hall, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate sought to tie Bush to a much tougher House bill that would tighten borders and make it a crime to be in the United States illegally or to offer aid to illegal immigrants. Bush does not back the House bill.
“This is a nonsensical proposal put out by far right-wingers in the Republican Party who have been endorsed for re-election by the president of the United States,” Dean said. “The president has a moral obligation to rein in the right-wing extremists in his party and stop this divisive rhetoric about immigrants.”
Dean devoted much of his short speech here to the immigration debate, which has taken center stage in Washington this election year and touched off mass demonstrations elsewhere. More than 500,000 immigration-rights activists marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, largely to protest the House measure.
Bush has spent his political career courting Hispanic voters, the nation’s fastest-growing voting bloc, and he has helped double the GOP’s share of the Hispanic vote since 2000.
Nevertheless, Dean accused Bush and fellow Republicans of demagoguery in the immigration debate, saying it fit with a long-standing pattern. He cited the president’s opposition to the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action program and Bush’s decision to “pick on” homosexuals – an apparent reference to the gay marriage issue in the 2004 election.
“In 2006 it’s immigrants. That’s what their strategy is on the Republican side: divide people, scapegoat them, set them aside, point the finger at them,” Dean said. “Well, that may be good for the Republican Party, but it’s bad for America, and we’re not going to do that.”
Isn’t this just typical? Finally, a real debate is ongoing about what to do regarding the immigration problem and what does Howard Dean do? Demagogues the issue by accusing the Republicans of right wing extremism and ‘divisiveness’.
I wrote this about Dean and the rest of the Democratic party shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit and the discussions about race that came along with it:
The Democrats want to ensure that black Democrats stay Democrats, so they peddle this line about Republican racism ad nauseam to score political points, thereby cementing it in the brains of black Democrats. Republicans fall all over themselves to make something they said that wasn’t wrong to begin with right in order to appease the media, Democrats, and the black community due to their sensitivity on the issue.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t racist Republicans. There are. But by far, as the quotes above show you, the true race baiters in this country are not Republicans, but Democrats, and they do it because they can’t afford to lose black votes. It’s shameless, and as the editors at The Unalienable Right blog also note, it’s despicable as well.
The same rule applies here regarding Hispanics – only Hispanics don’t vote 92% Democrat like the black community does. Democrats still get more Hispanic votes than Republicans, but in 2004 the President Bush did “significantly better” with the Hispanic vote than he did in 2000, according to this Washington Post article and so did the rest of the Republican party.
Rest assured that the Democrats know this, and they are working hard to turn the tide against Bush-endorsed House Republicans running for election or re-election this fall.
This is business as usual for the DNC when it comes to their key voting blocs. They’d rather demagogue racial and cultural issues by falsely accusing their opponents of being ‘divisive and insensitive right wing extremists’ and ‘racists’ instead of offering real solutions. Dems like to call themselves “progressives” but if this type of tactic on their part doesn’t demonstrate regressiveness I don’t know what does.
Related Toldjah So posts: