The Ultimatum of Jorge Ramos— "With Us Or Against Us"
01/24/2015
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070212_Jorge_Ramos_31[1]We've been writing about Univision's Jorge Ramos for years, and The New York Times just published a piece playing up the importance of this dual U.S.-Mexican citizen who works openly for the transformation of the United States into a proletarian extension of Latin America. A nation that was serious about its sovereignty (not the U.S., obviously) would have tossed Ramos out of the country years ago. Some excerpts:

Jorge Ramos, the Univision and Fusion television anchor who is often called the Walter Cronkite of Latino America, was in his suburban Miami broadcast studio when he all but pounced on the chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, who was appearing from Washington. The Republicans’ immigration policy is “deportations, deportations, deportations,” Mr. Ramos said. “Why?” Mr. Priebus, who stared out from multiple screens in a control room here looking as if he would rather have been doing anything but talking to Mr. Ramos, insisted it was not so. But Mr. Ramos would not have it. “The message,” he retorted, “is anti-immigrant.”

Amazingly, Ramos is attacking the wimpy Republican Party, which hasn't had a really tough record on immigration in recent years. Anyway, what's wrong with deportations for folks who need to be deported?

 

For years, Mr. Ramos largely aimed his ire at President Obama for breaking his 2008 campaign promise — made directly to Mr. Ramos — that he would propose an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system in his first year in office, and for deporting two million people since. Even after Mr. Obama announced late last year that nearly half of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants could apply to work without fear of deportation, Mr. Ramos confronted him during a Nashville forum for having “destroyed many families” by not acting sooner. But Mr. Ramos’s focus has changed, he said in an interview here: “Now is the turn of Republicans."

Well, if Republicans would just tell ole Blonde Jorge to take a hike, this wouldn't be a problem. It's when they try to please him that they get into trouble.

 

This weekend, the Spanish-language Univision, and Fusion, its English-language venture with ABC News, will cover the first gathering of 2016 Republican presidential aspirants, at a conservative forum in Des Moines on Saturday organized by Representative Steve King of Iowa.....

Why should Republicans care what Jorge Ramos has to say?

The article quotes Republicans who play up the importance of Jorge Ramos' role:

 

“Remember what L.B.J. said, ‘When you lose Walter Cronkite, you’ve lost the war’?” said Matthew Dowd, a campaign adviser to George W. Bush, recalling the oft-cited if disputed story that President Lyndon B. Johnson said he lost “middle America” when Cronkite turned against the Vietnam War. Among Latino voters, Mr. Ramos has the sort of influence and audience that Cronkite had more broadly among Americans in his day.

Mr. Ramos is “not only a journalist, he’s become the voice of the Latino constituency,” Mr. Dowd said. “And that’s where Republicans have to worry — you don’t want to lose Jorge Ramos.”

Earth to Republicans - you can't "lose" Jorge Ramos because you never "had" him.

Another Dubya crony pays court to Jorge Ramos:

 

Republicans “should pay a lot of attention” to Mr. Ramos, said Carlos M. Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush. “When Steve King made that terrible comment about kids with legs the size of cantaloupes, that was on Spanish-language TV the same day,” Mr. Gutierrez recalled.

At least the article included this dissenting voice:

 

But Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican Party, suggested that because Mr. Ramos had become such an activist on immigration policy, “he’s now taken with a grain of salt.” “There’s no question that he’s important and that he has a lot of influence, but I think that people now have sort of recognized that he’s more of an advocate than a journalist,” Mr. Spicer said.

...[Ramos] said that for Latinos, “just like for the rest of America,” the economy and education were the most important issues.“But immigration is personal,” he said. “Immigration is the issue that tells us who is with us and who is against us; there’s no question about it. And it’s very simple to understand why — half of all Latinos over 18 years of age were born outside the United States. It really makes no sense to attack them and criticize them if you want their vote.”

"Immigration is personal"—"tells us who is with us and who is against us". This is rather astounding when you think about it. Immigration is a public policy issue. In a free society, Americans have a right to debate the issue. Ramos is saying that, no, it's "personal" and it's a "with us or against us" issue. These are fighting words.

The article ends with this triumphalist declaration from Jorge Ramos:

 

....Mr. Ramos responded with what has become his mantra. “The new rule in American politics is that no one can make it to the White House without the Hispanic vote,” he said. “So we still expect all candidates from both parties to talk to us.” Jorge Ramos, Voice of Latino Voters on Univision, Sends Shiver Through G.O.P., By Jackie Calmes, New York Times, Jan. 23, 2015

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