Democrats Launch One of Nastiest Campaigns Ever in California’s Central Valley

by Bob Quasius

For some reason, liberals and Democrats reserve their worst venom for minority and women conservatives. Remember when Sarah Palin became John McCain’s VP running mate? I’m not a huge Sarah Palin fan but vividly recall the disgusting smears directed at her and even members of her family! There’s no excuse for that. Conservatives also can’t help but remember the smears and insults directed at Michael Steele, like throwing Oreo Cookies at him during a speech (black on outside, white no inside), and referring to Condi Rice as “Aunt Jemimah”!

Conservative Latinos aren’t immune either. Remember Presente’s “No Somos Rubios” (we’re not blonds) campaign against Marco Rubio? We took Presente to task over this ridiculous campaign. They later quietly dropped their juvenile campaign making fun of Rubio’s last name, which means “blonde” in Spanish, but have never apologized.

Now there’s Pedro Rios, Republican candidate for California’s 32nd General Assembly district. We like Pedro and have endorsed him. Pedro immigrated illegally to the United States as a nine year old boy, later receiving amnesty in 1986 under President Reagan, 26 years ago. Liberals love to put minorities and women into ideological buckets, then excoriate any who don’t conform to their idea of how women or minorities should think and express themselves. This is a form of racism/sexism because women and minorities are held to different expectations than white males. In other words, their race, ethnicity, or gender are a factor, and ‘straying from the plantation’ will get you criticized.

Pedro’s cardinal sin is to oppose Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Pedro thinks DACA is a ‘band aid’ approach to a problem that needs a more comprehensive solution, such as comprehensive immigration reform. We agree and said so when DACA was announced. What’s worse is that deferred action for low priority unauthorized immigrants has been DHS policy since 2000, available from the day Obama took office. This policy was rolled out again in 2011 as “new” policy (Morton memo), and of 411,000 deportation cases reviewed over a year, just 2% were closed. Just because Obama rolls out a program with criteria doesn’t mean those prosecutorial discretion will be exercised. The word “discretion” means optional. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to oppose DACA, especially if you prefer a long term solution, but if you’re Hispanic and oppose DACA you’re an ideological heretic and traitor to your race in the mind of many liberals.

Pedro is being excoriated as a “hypocrite” for daring to disagree with Obama’s DACA ‘band aid’ and though he says there should be a way for those brought her illegally as children to obtain citizenship, nevertheless he’s being accused of opposing the DREAM Act. He’s quite clear that he prefers comprehensive immigration reform. That’s not an unreasonable position either!

Another cardinal sin is not to immediately volunteer the fact he came here illegally at the age of nine, as if he’s supposed to define himself by his immigration status 32 years ago as a boy! He’s not a federal candidate and won’t be voting on many bills related to immigration. Few candidates volunteer negative information in their campaign literature or web sites, though if asked directly are expected to answer truthfully, which Pedro did. He’s never lied about his previous status, nor has he ever called for mass deportations, but that hasn’t kept Democrats from smearing Pedro. Pedro wants unauthorized immigrants to receive the same consideration he received as a teenager, but somehow insisting on that rather than a ‘band aid’ approach is hypocrisy!

Pedro has one minor sin in his background. When he was working to put himself through school, he worked in a convenience store. Police were having a crackdown on liquor sales to minors and Pedro, along with numerous other clerks, fell prey to the sting by not checking ID of someone who appeared to be over age 21. Pedro accepted responsibility, and paid a fine. He later finished school and became a school teacher. Incredibly, the Democrats ran an extremely misleading ad portraying Pedro as a teacher who provided liquor to his students and lost his teacher’s certificate, vastly at variance with the truth.

The Clay and Marty Show in Bakersfield, CA recently interviewed Pedro Rios, putting many of his opponent’s smears to shame. In my opinion, Pedro shows himself to be authentic and sincere. Enjoy!