Abbott Ad Shows Republicans Continue Efforts to Pander to Latinos

Its hard to watch television during this time of year and avoid political ads. They are everywhere these days.

The other night I caught one featuring Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott's suegra.

For some reason Republicans think that communicating with the Latino community involves a feeble attempt at Spanish or an obligatory brown face in front of a camera.

George P. Bush is an example of both.

So in an attempt show that they somehow understand the needs of our community they will give them a script that will pepper in a Spanish word here and there. They usually mispronounce the words and make everyone uncomfortable. Like when the Castro brothers do the same.

But my favorite part is when they shovel their one Latino relative in front of a camera.

Its pandering and it does nothing to convince Latinos that you understand our needs or even really care about earning our vote. But for some reason, white Republicans think putting brown faces in front of us will do the trick.

Now I know what you're thinking, you saying "but Jaime, you just said that Wendy Davis should bring in Eva Longoria".

Indeed I did. But thats because she's a celebrity and well known in the Latino community for political activism. Abbott using his suegra is just his way of saying "my wife is brown".

As long as you have policies that are anti-immigrant and often come off more like anti-Latino, you will not be able to "speak our language". Especially with that crazy anti-immigrant running mate of Abbott's.