Latino Leader: Trump Exposing Truths About the Republican Party

Donald Trump continues to be proving toxic to the Republican Party's effort to pretend to be inclusive and a "big tent."  The fact that Trump is polling so well (in relative terms) is because, as previously noted, his racism is gospel among much of the GOP base.  As Trump seeks to exploit this thinly veiled racism and anti-minority bigotry he is exposing the real GOP, if you will.  And people are taking note, especially in minority communities, but Hispanics most of all. One such person is Arturo Carmona, the executive director of Latino advocacy group Presente Action, who believes that it is a good thing that Trump is exposing the real nature of the Republican Party.  Think Progress looks at this acknowledgement.  Here are highlights:

Real estate mogul and presidential candidate Donald Trump touted his business and dealmaking expertise in his campaign launch speech last month, saying, “I did a lot of great deals and I did them early and young, and now I’m building all over the world.” But remarks he made in that same speech are threatening his business empire as companies move to distance themselves from the candidate who said that undocumented immigrants from Mexico “killers and rapists.” On Monday, NBC cut ties with Trump and on Wednesday, Macy’s announced it would stop carrying merchandise from his brand. 

Trump responded on Wednesday, saying it was his decision to terminate his relationship with Macy’s and NBC because the corporations clearly “support illegal immigration, which is totally detrimental to the fabric of our once great country.”

One group that hasn’t yet cut ties with the real estate mogul is the Republican Party. While NBC, Univision and Macy’s have publicly denounced his beliefs, members of the Republican party have remained silent or have expressed their support for his anti-immigrant sentiment.  

“Donald Trump’s remarks are very racially charged and should have no place in the American political dialogue of today,” Arturo Carmona, the executive director of Latino advocacy group Presente Action, told ThinkProgress. “In a way, it’s good that we have somebody that’s actually speaking the truth like Donald Trump about what’s really motivating many of these [anti-immigrant] policies. I’d rather have somebody like Trump be honest about what the motivations are than have the GOP and Congress hiding behind political rhetoric, but at the same time, passing policies that are criminalizing immigrants and trying to take away executive action protections.” 

While some members of the Republican party will attempt to distance themselves from Trump and his remarks to appeal to a wider swath of voters, Carmona said it won’t be so easy.

“[Trump’s remarks] show powerful racist undercurrents that are connected with very important sectors of the GOP and the Republican party,” he said. “Now many of its leaders try to distance themselves from that, but very often, as we’ve seen with Trump and many other right-wing leaders, we see that they often pop their head out and the GOP quickly wants to hide them and throw them under the carpet. Well they can’t do that anymore with Donald Trump running for president and it’s going to have a very important impact in showcasing the true colors of the Republican Party.”  

“The fact that Donald Trump is polling so high in some of these early voting states is because there is still a significant share of the population — a minority but a very influencial portion of the Republican Party — that is still anti-immigrant and anti-Latino and I would venture to say anti-communities of color,” Carmona said. “But they’re a minority and they drive an agenda based on fear, based on division and based on the superiority of one group. And I think that’s something that this country is quickly running away from. The electorate is rapidly changing and any candidate that is associated with that platform, as most of the GOPers are, is destined to lose.”  

Personally, I hope Trump remains in the race long enough to fully expose the ugliness of the GOP base's agenda and to taint all of the other GOP presidential nomination candidates.