Last week, Donald Trump committed what can be considered one of the most monumental errors of his short campaign for president of the United States, attacking Jorge Ramos, one of the most influential Latino reporters in the U.S. with programs on Univision and Fusion. Ramos was in a press conference with Trump and had the audacity to urge the Republican billionaire to answer a question concerning how he planned to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Trump then insulted Ramos, telling him to “go back to Univision,” kicked him out and then, knowing he had made a grave mistake, allowed Ramos to reenter, upon which they held a dialogue about Trump’s improbable and unsustainable immigration plan.
That episode took place after a lengthy and sustained summer season wherein Trump dished out many other insults against Latinos. The week before this debacle was focused on “anchor babies” and on repealing the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to revoke the citizenship of children born in the United States to undocumented parents.
This type of behavior toward our community cannot be tolerated any longer; from Donald Trump but also from the other Republican candidates who have joined Trump and his extremist, anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-progress policies.
The hatred reflected in the Republican rhetoric was deployed during the GOP debate earlier this month, when – after Trump insulted an entire country and the 54 million Latinos living in the U.S. by saying “Mexico only sends its criminals and rapists to the United States” – Trump continued with insults to women who breastfeed their babies, calling them “disgusting.” It seems that there is no end to the sneers, of which Trump and his Republican counterparts have all proved capable of delivering.
And we mustn’t forget about the other candidates. Jeb Bush already gave us an example of what he really thinks about important investments in women’s healthcare. He said recently that he doesn’t know why $500 million for women’s health issues is even needed. He told us he had rescinded funding for the clinics for women, Planned Parenthood, in Florida when he was governor. This resulted in the loss of access to healthcare and preventative and prenatal services, denying hundreds of thousands of women.
Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, said during the first GOP debate that he wanted to eliminate a woman’s right to abortion, even in situations of rape or in acts of incest.
But the drastic policies go far beyond women’s health issues. In terms of increasing the minimum wage, an equitable pay for women, and strengthening payment programs to workers for medical and familial leave, all of the Republican candidates oppose such stances.
Trump may be getting all of the attention, the anger and the disgust of voters who want to see our country progress and offer the same, equal opportunities from which he himself has benefitted. But we must not look promisingly to the other Republican candidates who offer us false promises and policies that only hurt us.
That is not a leader. Our community deserves so much more.
This article originally appeared in Spanish in the Washington Hispanic.
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