When I saw a tweet come through indicating that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio would be speaking at the Republican convention I just shook my head. This comes on the heels of Missouri's Republican Representative Todd Akins' offensive comments about "legitimate rape."
What would possess you to invite Sheriff Joe to speak at the Republican convention? Especially knowing he's currently a lightning rod for civil rights lawsuits and fed intervention. Keep in mind that there are serious allegations of racial profiling against Arpaio and MCSO. Is this how the GOP attracts minorities to the party?
So what kind of message is the Republican party trying to send? Are they banking on voters having so much pent up anger and hatred for President Obama that they can openly attack minorities, women, children, the elderly, the poor, even the middle class. They've bet it all on a platform of fear and racism. They have actually convinced many blue collar workers to go against what's best for them. They use code words and phrases like "the welfare president", "socialist", "European style governing", "the Kenyan", and the most common phrase, "I want my America back."
As the rhetoric ramps up and only a week away from the Republican convention and 78 days from the 2012 elections, one can only wonder what it is that Republicans expect they will accomplish by ramping up the attack on the middle class and women.
The list of speakers for the Republican convention to be held in Tampa Florida is replete with Republicans who have led the attack against the American public. Chris Christie the New Jersey Governor insults voters and Republicans cheer, he calls reporters idiots and describes them as stupid and it instantly becomes fodder for the conservatives, Pam Bondi the Florida Attorney General is hell bent on voter suppression and has been working diligently with another speaker Florida Governor Rick Scott to maintain a secret voter purge list, ex Florida Governor Jeb Bush famous for having supervised the theft of an election in 2000, Rafael Cruz the Cuban-American Tea Party backed extremist who thinks George Soros has a secret agenda to rid us of golf courses, you might know him by "Ted" Cruz, Arthur Genestre Davis, the African American ex "Democratic" congressman from Alabama and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Governor in the 2010 elections who has sold out to the republican party and changed party affiliation, yet another token for the party of white old men, Mary Fallin Governor of Oklahoma who led the attack against the poor and while running for Governor said "I don't know about you, but I've never been offered a job by a poor person", Puerto Rico's governor Luis Fortuño who in 2008 stumped for John McCain and did a bang up job of trashing candidate Obama to the Latino community, stating, "Obama needs to go away for 10-15 years and then come back and try for the presidency", Nimrata Randhawa Haley, many of you know her as Nikki Haley the Governor of South Carolina, daughter of Sikh immigrants and well known for her offensive SB20 immigration bill that has an actual police force that can easily be compared to the gestapo, designed to hunt down undocumented immigrants while wearing special uniforms and special emblems on their cars, Mike Huckabee the former governor of Arkansas and radio talk show host who today allowed Todd Akin on his show to grovel and beg forgiveness for his offensive comments about women and rape, Huckabee is well known for his offensive comments as well, John Kasich the Governor of Ohio who has most recently been a surrogate for Romney and who during a speech before some Republicans in 2009 talked about the need to "break the back of organized labor in the schools", Susana Martinez the sitting Governor of New Mexico who is as anti-Immigrant as they come and who ran on a platform of taking away the drivers licenses of undocumented Immigrants in her state. Martinez also complained about the U.S. born children of undocumented Immigrants and later admitted that her Grandfather entered the U.S. illegally, Rand Paul the Senator from Kentucky who unequivocally stated that he was not in agreement with certain provisions within the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The list continues to grow! One thing you can be assured of, whomever is added to the list will excite the Republican base. The Republicans have hand selected these speakers to represent the equivalence to a bowl of granola, "fruits, nuts & flakes."
This is your modern day Republican party folks. A hybrid between, a racist, xenophobe, nativist, nationalist and gun toting, woman hating, immigrant detesting, wealthy loving, hypocritically fiscal conservative U.S. born Anglo, sprinkled in with a few colored folk to deter any notion of what they stand for.
Every time I see a Republican I'm reminded of Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote. As soon as they start with their rhetoric, I say, "please, no need to open your mouth," "who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying.

Carlos E. Galindo is a radio talk show host & political analyst conducting radio shows in both English and Spanish on four radio stations in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is a weekly contributor to KPFK 98.7 FM Los Angeles and W60 AM Radio, Los Angeles, San Diego and has appeared on CNN, Univision and Telemundo as a political analyst. Mr. Galindo is also an Op-Ed columnist on Prensa Hispana and the Tucson Citizen in Arizona. Carlos Galindo is President and founder of the Immigrant Advocacy Foundation, Inc.
http://www.carlosgalindo.com
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