These are not my words but a reflection of how the chairman of the Texas Republican National Hispanic Assembly feels about the GOP:
At a Mexican restaurant in the East End, Reggie Gonzales explains all the ways in which the Republican Party irks him these days: the “holier than thou” attitudes of some leaders, the second-class status he says it assigns to Hispanic members, and most of all, the harsh, xenophobic rhetoric frothing from the mouths of some party members discussing immigration.
It must be hard to associate yourself with people that don’t want you:
“People around here, they ask me all the time, ‘You’re an American of Mexican descent. Why do you deal with them fools?’ ” he says. Lately, he’s really beginning to wonder.
I have always asked myself the same question: Why do some Hispanics deal with them fools?
Fortunately, more and more Hispanics are discovering the truth
Yet, the 60-year-old [Gonzales] says he no longer feels welcome in a party that seems to view Hispanics as political currency, rather than equals worthy of leadership. “They only want the Mexican vote. They take us down from the shelf. They give us a bath, give us a suit and say ‘OK, you’re part of the party,’” Gonzales says. “As state chairman, I’m encouraging all of my county chairmen to vote independently, you know, vote their consciences. … I think, maybe if we start doing that, then maybe they’ll start noticing us. And if they don’t want to notice us, then maybe we’ll start our own party.”
No need to start your own party Reggie, you can be an Independent and find a home among progressive Hispanics, or perhaps even ease your way into a Democratic party that has much more in common with you than you have ever imagined.
