Excellent call by James Kirkpatrick in comparing Rep. Dan Crenshaw to former Rep. Bob Dornan in his recent article. Crenshaw is usually compared to Sen. John McCain. But Dornan is a much better comparison.
McCain was a typical establishment politician and only seemed to really care about a few pet issues. He even led the charge for amnesty.
Like Crenshaw, Dornan was a pretty conservative guy across the board. The one time I met him was at a Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) party after the 1995 CPAC conference. He spoke in a private hotel suite along with Joe Sobran and Howard Phillips. I remember that Dornan was the only speaker to criticize affirmative action.
Also like Crenshaw, Dornan was tone deaf—or at least pretended to be—to the racial concerns of his voters. The greatest example of this was the following statement in 1996:
“I want to see America stay a nation of immigrants. And if we lose our Northern European stock—your coloring and mine, blue eyes and fair hair—tough!”
This was around the same time his blue eyed, fair haired voters were desperately passing Propositions 187 and 209 to stop illegal immigration and affirmative action and perhaps save what was left of their beloved Golden State. Dornan would go on to lose the next election in his demographically changing Orange County district to a woman named Loretta Sanchez.
I see the same thing in Crenshaw and it might be even more tragic than with Dornan. As Kirkpatrick notes, Crenshaw is a capable debater and has a very admirable military record. I might add that he has an A- grade from Numbers USA. Dornan came across as a Hollywood stereotype of a conservative.
Crenshaw’s comments about birthright citizenship not being much of a problem and “people who speak English” not wanting construction jobs are as bad as Dornan’s comments in 1996. And will likely come back to haunt him in the same manner.
The district he represents in northwest Houston (TX-2) is demographically changing similar to Orange County in the 1990s. Whites are down to 49 percent of the population with Hispanics at 31 percent. In 2018, Crenshaw was elected to Congress by a seven-point margin (52%-45%). But his Republican predecessor, Ted Poe, had run up a 24-point victory in 2016.
Crenshaw will need all the votes he can get in 2020. Insulting his base is a recipe for disaster.
Kirkpatrick ends his piece by noting that American nationalists will have to get rid of politicians such as Crenshaw. But voters in his increasingly post-American district may well accomplish this task before we do.
