Romney better off as a Latino?
(CNN)
-- Sometimes a story comes along that is so utterly ridiculous that, as
a commentator, your first instinct is to deal with it tongue-in-cheek.
And
so it is with Mitt Romney's videotaped remarks to a roomful of donors
at a fundraiser in May in Boca Raton, Florida. The GOP presidential
candidate appears to say that he wishes he were Latino because he thinks
it would be "helpful" to his quest and give him a "better shot" at the
presidency.
Referring to his father, George, Romney told the audience:
"My
dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the
head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico ... and had he been
born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning this. But he
was unfortunately born to Americans
living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say
that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino."
I'm
tempted to respond with this: "Mitt Romney thinks it would be helpful
if he were Latino. Well, Mitt, I'm Latino. And I think it would be
helpful to me if I were worth $250 million. Wanna switch?"
Or,
given President Barack Obama's heavy-handed immigration policies, with
this: "What Mitt Romney doesn't realize is that if he were Mexican,
there's a 94.6% chance that he would've already been deported by his
opponent."
Romney's
comments are clearly absurd, and so it's hard to take them seriously.
Did the rich white guy really claim to want to be Latino because he
thought it would help him win the presidency?
That's strange. Being Latino didn't seem to help Bill Richardson.
The
former New Mexico governor ran for president in 2008, and he didn't get
beyond the New Hampshire primary. Also, by Romney's logic, you would
think that we've had a whole slew of Latinos elected president; there
hasn't been a single one -- if you don't count Jimmy Smits playing
President-elect Matt Santos on the final season of "The West Wing."
Romney
should quit while he's ahead. Statistically, he has the golden ticket.
He's a rich white male, and they're overrepresented in the exclusive
club of the 44 individuals to ever serve as president. Barack Obama is
an exception, and even he satisfies two of three characteristics: rich
and male.
But,
if Mitt really wants to get in touch with his inner Mexican, I think
he'll find that it's not all churros and chocolate or pinatas and pan
dulce. You see -- and you might find this hard to believe, Mitt -- but
there is still a lot of discrimination in this country against Latinos
as whites hunker down and try to hold on to what they have in the face
of changing demographics.
For
instance, Romney has two Harvard degrees, and so do I. But I'll go out
on a limb here and guess that he never had anyone suggest that he was
only admitted to that prestigious university because of affirmative
action. Or that he is frequently told, as I am, to "go back to Mexico"
-- which is ironic, given that, since I'm the grandson of a Mexican
immigrant and Romney is the son of a Mexican immigrant, the GOP
presidential candidate is one generation closer to the motherland than I
am.
Yet, as difficult as it is, we must take Romney's comments seriously. There are three reasons that they're troubling.
First,
judging from the videotape, when Romney suggested that his path to the
White House would have been covered in rose petals if only he had been
born Mexican, the crowd loved it. What are they thinking?
Are
these the kind of people who tell themselves that their sons and
daughters would have gotten into Yale or Princeton if some black kid
hadn't taken their spot? Do they really believe that racial and ethnic
minorities have it easy in this country? And if so, what country are
they living in?
Second,
if you look at the rest of Romney's remarks -- about the 47% of
Americans who pay no taxes and "who are dependent upon government, who
believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a
responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to
health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it" -- he makes a good
point. Many Americans do have an entitlement mentality, and it's a real
problem.
Where
Romney went wrong is that the sense of entitlement isn't limited to
those on government aid. It includes the kind of fat cat donors who were
in the audience. They get tax breaks and corporate subsidies. They
raise their kids to think they're entitled to not do the jobs that
immigrants wind up doing. Romney scolded those who think they're
entitled, and then he seemed to wink at the audience and tell them:
"present company excluded."
Lastly,
it's hard to come up with a better example of an American who sees
himself as a victim with a sense of entitlement than Mitt Romney. Think
about what he said. This was no joke.
Romney
sounds frustrated. By suggesting that he'd have a better chance at
winning this election if he were Latino, Romney is playing the victim.
Poor me, I had the misfortune to be born a white male. It's clear that
he thinks he was entitled to a much smoother path to the White House.
Is Romney able to fix what's broken with America? Or are people like Mitt Romney what's broken with America?
Ruben
Navarrette is a CNN contributor and a nationally syndicated columnist
with the Washington Post Writers Group. Follow him on Twitter:
@rubennavarrette
