Markos Moulitsas: Racism Trumps reform

Back in 2011, newly minted Speaker John Boehner was meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny when he was asked about the prospects of immigration reform in Congress. In Boehner’s own telling, he responded, “What the hell do you care about immigration reform?” 

The Ohio Republican was clearly perplexed that a white European would care about the issue, but Kenny responded, “Oh John, John. You don’t reali[z]e … about 50,000 of my fellow Irishmen came to the U.S. and never quite made it back across the pond. You know their cousins have got to hold up the cellphone at their parents’ funeral so their kids in Chicago or Detroit or wherever can listen to the funeral.”

{mosads}Four years later, the Irish Times reports Boehner is back in Ireland, promising to overcome Republican resistance to immigration reform. 

Really? Do you suppose he’ll say that to his Republican colleagues’ faces here at home? 

No, he won’t. Boehner and virtually the entire Republican Party have sat mute while Donald Trump has systematically shredded any hope they had of winning Latino votes, by calling Mexican immigrants rapists, murderers and drug dealers (even as his Signature Collection line of menswear is made in Mexico). As the presidential hopeful’s blatant bigotry resounds with Republican primary voters, it’s poisoning the GOP brand for a generation. 

Latinos like me love Donald Trump. The honesty is refreshing! This isn’t your old Republican Party, executing its entire Southern strategy with cleverly coded racial appeals. Conservatives today want nothing short of full-throated overt racism. And, bless him, Trump is delivering, fully exposing his party for what it is. The silence from his colleagues (and even some encouragement) speaks volumes, as does the fact that he is climbing in primary polls. 

Still, while his racist shtick may play well with base conservatives, it’s abhorrent to the fast-growing and increasingly influential Latino community. That’s why Univision, the single largest Spanish-language broadcast media outlet in the United States and one that holds a near monopoly with Latino viewers, declared all-out war on Trump. That’s why videos mocking Trump are instant viral hits — not just among Latinos in the U.S. but throughout Latin America. 

But the best news to come out of the Trump meltdown is that his racism is anathema to the broader mainstream. Consumer-minded American brands like NBC and Macy’s have moved quickly to distance themselves from the real estate mogul, dealing a blow to his business interests. “[T]his is certainly not good. I lose customers, I lose people,” he lamented on Fox. 

And he’s underperforming other potential Republican nominees in general election tests. One Daily Kos Elections analysis found Trump running 26 points behind Mitt Romney’s 2012 performance, which would net him just five states against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton: Idaho, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. 

True to form, Trump is responding to the blowback by threatening lawsuits and petulantly prohibiting Univision employees from using a golf course near their headquarters. Is that presidential behavior? Trump’s primary polling shows conservatives don’t care, as long as their racist id is satisfied.

So is this the environment in which Boehner is going to really plumb up his party on immigration reform? That’s laughable. Whatever he might’ve told the Irish prime minister, the Speaker won’t get anything done now — not when Donald Trump’s overt racism is the toast of the Republican base. 

Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.