Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Herman Cain cook up new ways to alienate Latinos. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
Doing his best to imitate Mitt Romney, pizza mogul Herman Cain can't decide whether killing brown people is a joke or a serious policy proposal.
Yesterday, it was a joke. Today, it's a serious proposal.
After first apologizing for suggesting an electric fence along the border, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told reporters here Monday that he still thinks it's a good idea for controlling illegal immigration.
"I'm not walking away from that," he said.
Of course, he was sucking up to racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona, making sure his share of the Latino vote will be all of zero, so, you know, he had to talk tough. But at least we've got the truth out in the open—Cain wasn't "joking" and his audience wasn't laughing—it was cheering at the thought of dead immigrants.
Given that it's harder to be outright racist and even homophobic these days (as Marcus Bachmann can tell you), Republicans are clinging to their Latino bashing with a death grip. You take that out of their toolbox, and they lose their ability to win their share of the 99 percenters vote. That's why immigration is such a top-level topic for Republican candidates. It's the last safe haven for bigotry.
Strip away the divisiveness and hatred, and all that's left is Wall Street Republicans. And that crowd won't be winning any elections on their own, ever.