Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

It seems to happen every Arizona election: a Democrat wins office somewhere and then comes the allegation that illegal aliens voted. That’s got to be it, because my guy can’t have lost fair and square.

In 2010, the allegation came from people around Jesse Kelly and Ruth McClung. There were people being bussed in illegally from Mexico and given food if they voted for Gabrielle Giffords and Raúl Grijalva, the story said. Little evidence was given for this tale, but that didn’t stop the local Republican party from using it as evidence for possible fraud if the city went to an all mail election last year.

(One thing that bugged me about that one: if illegal aliens could vote by mail, why did anyone need to put them on a bus?)

You expect stupidity like this from someone posting to the Star’s message boards or calling in to talk radio (“I saw two Messicans in line to vote! They must be here all illegal like!”), but we should expect something less unhinged from our leaders.

Maybe I’m expecting too much. This from la Cervecera:

Now they’ll have all the illegals and they can all do whatever they want and register to vote. Although it’s illegal if you’re not a citizen to register. But they’re not enforcing the law so what is going to happen to them? He’s looking for votes.

Um, yeah. Barack Obama did this all to get the massive illegal alien vote.

Okay, let’s talk about this for a second. First off, Obama has deported more undocumented persons than any previous president, which aren’t the actions of a guy courting their votes. Secondly, let’s say you are here illegally, trying to stay under the radar, is your impulse to put your name on a government list?

The stories of the undocumented voting have been debunked time and time again, but it doesn’t matter. Here is a woman who used to be the top election official so presumably knows better and still she perpetrates this nonsense.

It’s safe to say that Obama, or any other candidate, will get pretty close to no votes from non-citizens, and that’s probably a vast over estimation. What he will get, however, is a pretty hefty chunk of the Latino vote. The trouble is too many people still, despite a Hispanic presence in this region dating back to well before the Mayflower, see brown eyes, hair and skin and think of someone that doesn’t really belong here, an invader even. It becomes too easy to substitute the words “illegal aliens” when talking about our Hispanic neighbors no matter what their status is.

Apparently, it’s easy even when you are Governor and ought to know better.