by Juhem Navarro-Rivera
In a recent survey, 51% of Republicans said they didn’t think Barack Obama was born in the United States. Since Obama became president in 2009, birtherism, the conspiracy theory that claims President Obama was not born in the U.S., has become prevalent among Republicans. That such a high percentage of GOP voters think the President wasn’t born in the U.S. is appalling. What is worse is that so many GOP politicians are pandering to their constituents with birther jokes.
In the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), several GOP politicians, most prominently presidential hopefuls Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney (former governors of Minnesota and Michigan, respectively), peppered the audience with birther jokes. But it was Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), one of the Latino Republicans who rode the Tea Party wave in 2010, who got the party started. In a party lacking diversity, Labrador has become an important figure among Republicans wanting to show they are inclusive and diverse. In this role, Labrador was a featured speaker at CPAC. He started his speech saying, “I was fortunate enough to be an American citizen by birth and I have the birth certificate to prove it,” which his audience rewarded by bursting into laughter.
Labrador was probably looking for a cheap laugh and some pandering, but this is no laughing matter. As Latinos, we are always being asked about our “real” origins, even when some of us may have those origins in this land even before the arrival of the Mayflower. Labrador was born in Puerto Rico and our own birth certificates have been under the microscope recently due to authenticity issues. He’s been a victim of stereotyping himself, as he was smeared by his opponent for his work as an immigration attorney—though it seems he didn’t learn the lesson and is aiding in the dispersion of false beliefs. The Tea Party has a nativist streak in them, and he should be careful of what he says before his own birth certificate becomes an issue.
To learn more about Juhem Navarro-Rivera, visit The LatiNone.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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About Being Latino Contributors
Great post. The paradox of the Tea Party perplexes me. And to see a PR born politician aligning himself with it is strange. Doesn’t he know that to many haters he is just another illegal immigrant? LOL
Thanks Julio, I think you may be right. I just think is ironic.
Interesting article, and I am proud of you for writing it, but I respectfully disagree with your position that Latinos need to feel like hypocrites when they take stances on that other Latinos may disagree with, no matter how absurd they may be. You’re just falling into the trap of generalizations when you argue that because someone is “X” they can’t believe in “Q.” When you argue in this manner, the racists win. Why not hammer at the flaws of Mr. Labradors argument?
Eric,
Thanks for your comments. Though I don’t think that my position is that. I get a lot of grief for defending Latino conservatives. In fact, when Labrador won I was fighting in several forums with people calling him “Tio Tomas” and “vendio.” I understand the fact that he’s running for a congressional seat in friggin’ Idaho and actually in some ways I commend him because it probably wasn’t easy. People don’t appreciate politicians too much, they should. But seriously, birtherism is just as crazy and cranky as it was in the 50s when conservative Republicans accused Dwight Eisenhower of being a communist agent. There are many other ways of pandering to your audience that do not include spreading misinformation. But in that decision-making should weight two things: first that his own citizenship (is sort of but not really) suspicious and could be exploited by a primary challenger. Second, he just endured a tough campaign against an incumbent who used the “foreigner” misinformation against him.
To all the “Chicken Littles” or should I say “Chicken Hawks” that keep saying that the sky is falling, and the Unites States will fail, never bet against the United States of America, we are coming back and you and the rest of you phonies are wrong!
The Birthers just HATE and can’t debate, where is there proof you might asked? Up where the sun don’t shine, HA, HA, show some proof birthers or people will continue to see you as dumb, stupid or racist, maybe all three. Can you blame them?
Nice article. I disagree with Eric; I didn’t read your stance as claiming that Labrador is hypocritical for having a stance that doesn’t align with that of other Latinos. I understood your argument to simply be that Labrador is treading dangerous waters to fling “jokes” that, unfortunately, could one day be flung at him.