July 31, 2009
Last week, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy spoke out against critics of Sonia Sotomayor as playing "racial politics." According to Leahy,
"You have one leader of the Republican party call her the equivalent of the head of the Ku Klux Klan… That's what comes across. It comes across that if you belong to a group that tries to help Hispanics... somehow you're suspicious."
Usually confirmation hearings are supposed to be about getting specifics about the nominee. But Leahy chose to make vague accusations against unnamed critics of the nominee while defending an unnamed organization. It was apparent to DC insiders that the "group that tries to help" Hispanics is the National Council for La Raza (The Race) and the "Republican Leader" is me.
It isn't surprising that he didn't want to use our names. After all it's difficult to defend someone belonging to a group called "The Race" by accusing her opponents of playing racial politics. The last thing the Democrats want is for the American people to know about the National Council of La Raza, their radical agenda, and Sotomayor's association with the group.
Sotomayor was a member of La Raza and her comments about "Wise Latinas" being superior to white men appeared in the La Raza Law Journal. [A Latina Judge's Voice, 13 Berkeley La Raza L.J. 87 (2002).]The National Council of La Raza bills itself as "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States" who works through "its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations."
Among these affiliates are several chapters of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán) who La Raza helps fund. Aztlán is what radical "Mechistas"—as they refer to themselves on La Raza's website—call the American Southwest, which they claim still belongs to Mexico. Their slogan is "Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada" meaning "For The Race everything, outside the Race nothing." One chapter says on La Raza's site that their mission is "empowerment of our gente and the liberation of Aztlán."
La Raza receives tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to set up charter schools like the Aztlán Academy of Tucson where they fly the Mexican Flag, but not the American Flag and teach students "Aztec Math."
In 1994, La Raza gave their "Chicano of the Year" Award to Jose Angel Gutierrez who once said, "We have got to eliminate the Gringo, and what I mean by that is that if the worse comes to the worst, we have got to kill him" and that "our devil has pale skin and blue eyes."
Of special importance when considering a Supreme Court nominee is La Raza's position on a variety of policy and legal issues. They support driver's licenses, in state tuition, and amnesty for illegal aliens. They say that virtually all enforcement of our immigration laws on the state level is unconstitutional. They filed amicus briefs in favor of racial preferences, and in favor of benefits for illegal aliens. They led the legal attack against Hazleton, PA for their Official English and anti-illegal alien measures.
At the very least, Sotomayor should explain where she stands on these issues.
While questioning her connections to radical left wing groups is off limits, attacking conservatives for belonging to mainstream organizations like the Federalist Society is fair game for the Democrats.
When Larry Thompson was up for Deputy Attorney General in 2001, Leahy questioned his role with the organization. Sen. Richard Durbin denounced the group as a "far right" group who he implied might want to bring back the Dred Scott decision upholding slavery.
The Federalist Society is nothing but a debating and social organization for conservative and libertarian law students and attorneys. In contrast to La Raza, it takes no position on legal cases or policy.
If membership in the Federalist Society is a problem for the Democrats, imagine how they would react if Samuel Alito or John Roberts belonged to a group called "The National Council of the White Race" who honored a man who once said "We have got to eliminate Latinos, and what I mean by that is that if the worse comes to the worst, we have got to kill him," as "white man of the year."
They wouldn't pass the bar, much less become Supreme Court justices. But when a Hispanic or Black holds these views, we need to celebrate it for its diversity.
The Democrats support of Sotomayor and La Raza shows us what Obama's "post racial" America really looks like. Designated minority victim groups are free to promote their anti-white racist agenda, while any whites who fight back are playing "racial politics."
Former Congressman Tom Tancredo represented Colorado's 6th Congressional District from 1999 to 2009 where he founded and chaired the 100+ member bipartisan Immigration Reform Caucus. In 2008 he sought the Republican nomination for president. He currently serves as chairman of Team America PAC and honorary chairman of Youth for Western Civilization and president of the Rocky Mountain Foundation.
