Way back when, during his first debate appearance, Gov. Rick Perry said something to the effect that you would have to be heartless to discriminate against a kid who was applying to enter the Texas university system just because their parents brought them into the country illegally. This created an instant “not-hating-Latinos-for-Jesus-enough” problem for Perry, and his poll numbers dropped like a stone. So far, aided by actual debate gaffes, his numbers have not recovered. So, how about a bold move that says fuck-you to the Latino community louder than anything else could?
Three weeks ago, the Justice Department released the results of its three-year investigation into Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office, finding rampant lawbreaking and massive civil rights violations against Latinos. In addition, it was recently revealed that the Arizona sheriff failed to investigate over 400 sex crimes during his tenure, including multiple instances of child molestation, leading Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to say he was “outraged” by Arpaio’s negligence. Apparently untroubled by the allegations, Rick Perry today announced that Arpaio will serve as his presidential campaign’s Arizona state chairman.
Rick Perry’s campaign will have probably folded its tents before he ever gets to Arizona, so this is more of a signal to the voters of South Carolina and Florida. It’s becoming clear that most of the Republican candidates believe that they will benefit by saying and doing racially insensitive things. I don’t remember this really being the case in recent presidential elections. And even when I have noticed racial language being used inappropriately, it’s been surrogates doing the talking. Suffice to say that Rick Perry has obliterated one of the two things he’s done during this campaign that made me like him. The other was his defense of inoculating girls against HPV.
In the modern GOP, decency isn’t tolerated. If you accidentally show some decency, you have to go racing as fast as you can in the other direction to prove that you have no decency whatsoever.
What does that tell you?
