The RNC’s State Director of Florida Hispanic Outreach Pablo Pantoja has officially switched parties and is now a registered Democrat.
Why? Because of Jason Richwine and the Heritage Foundation.
A researcher included as part of a past dissertation his theory that “the totality of the evidence suggests a genetic component to group differences in IQ.” The researcher reinforces these views by saying “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.”
Although the organization distanced themselves from those assertions, other immigration-related research is still padded with the same racist and eugenics-based innuendo. Some Republican leaders have blandly (if at all) denied and distanced themselves from this but it doesn’t take away from the culture within the ranks of intolerance. The pseudo-apologies appear to be a quick fix to deep-rooted issues in the Republican Party in hopes that it will soon pass and be forgotten.
The complete disregard of those who are in disadvantage is also palpable. We are not looking at an isolated incident of rhetoric or research. Others subscribe to motivating people to action by stating, “In California, a majority of all Hispanic births are illegitimate. That’s a lot of Democratic voters coming.” The discourse that moves the Republican Party is filled with this anti-immigrant movement and overall radicalization that is far removed from reality. Another quick example beyond the immigration debate happened during CPAC this year when a supporter shouted ““For giving him shelter and food for all those years?” while a moderator explained how Frederick Douglass had written a letter to his slave master saying that he forgave him for “all the things you did to me.” I think you get the idea.
I applaud this nuanced and righteous decision made by Pablo Pantoja not just because I have a vested interest in the continued suffering of the Republican party and the resulting schadenfreude which I’m experiencing at this very moment, but also because he’s absolutely right to state that this is not “an isolated incident of rhetoric or research.”
Just this morning House Republicans, led by Louie Gohmert and Steve King, held a short press conference denouncing immigration reform and even went so far as to say that they’d ‘rather have Obamacare.’
The rantings of Jason Richwine are deeply-held views among conservative politicians and the only reason he left the Heritage Foundation in disgrace is because he said them out loud rather than in a “quiet room.”
Pablo Pantoja knows this to be true.