Kobach Wonders If Hispanic Majority Would Conduct 'Ethnic Cleansing' In U.S

[big_dog]

Source: Right Wing Watch

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a leader in the anti-immigrant movement, said during his radio program that it’s possible that a Hispanic majority in the U.S. could conduct an “ethnic cleansing.” Kobach made his remarks in response to a caller who asked, “What happens, if you know your history, when one culture or one race or one religion overwhelms another culture or race?”

Claiming that immigrant rights groups are “calling for the return of the Spanish territory, which could be almost half of the United States,” the caller warned, “When one race or culture overwhelms another culture, they run them out or they kill them. And it’s a bigger issue than just being Democrats. And they know in numbers, once the numbers are so bad, they can pretty much do whatever they want to do.”

“What protects us in America from any kind of ethnic cleansing is the rule of law, of course,” Kobach responded. “And the rule of law used to be unassailable, used to be taken for granted in America. And now, of course, we have a president who disregards the law when it suits his interests. So, while I normally would answer that by saying, ‘Steve, of course we have the rule of law, that could never happen in America,’ I wonder what could happen. I still don’t think it’s going to happen in America, but I have to admit, things are strange and they are happening.”

Earlier in the program, Kobach used a more subtle form of racial dog-whistle by accusing Democrats of “replacing American voters” with "socialist" Hispanic voters. While reading polls about political attitudes broken out by race, Kobach said that “if you look at it through an ethnic lense,” Democrats want to create a “a locked-in vote for socialism” by “replacing American voters with newly legalized aliens.”


Read more: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/kobach-ethnic-cleansing-possible-if-hispanics-become-us-majority

[hughee99]

1. Return of Spanish territory? Return to whom?

Even their straw men are stupid.

[Jack Rabbit]

17. In addition to being a racist demagogue, Kobach is an imperialist

He still thinks Mexico and most of the rest of Latin America rightly belong to Spain. Perhaps he even believes Ukraine rightly belongs to Russia, but he would weasel his way out of that if he believes that would be against the interests of (white) Americans. His is a world view in which Iraq definitely belongs to the US. After all, Bush the Frat Boy conquered it.

When I say that Kobach is a racist demagogue, it doesn't mean he has any racial animus to Hispanic Americans. In fact, I doubt he really believes that crap he says in OP. His mission is to frighten white people into voting for the party that will suppress Hispanics and other minorities. It's still racist because it feeds racism in the cynical hope that it will keep poor middle class whites who are slipping into poverty into voting for Republicans, who really don't care about any person that's made out of flesh and blood rather than a corporate charter.

[hughee99]

21. Is he in favor of giving the east coast back to the english or the midwest back to the French too?

I guess there's really no arguing with "stupid".

[Jack Rabbit]

26. Of course not

God ordained America to rule the world. Therefore, the British were prevented by God from keeping their colonies in North America. Napoleon got God's message loud and clear, so he sold Louisiana Territory to the US cheap. Santa Anna was stubborn and paid for it in blood.

You need to catch up on this stuff. It's in all the new history books approved by the Texas state board of education.

[Dont call me Shirley]

45. Is KKk in favor of returning America to the original inhabitants?

And there is absolutely no Reasoning with the stupid.

[noiretextatique]

32. i believe this guy is the real deal

a real, live racist asshole.

[Rozlee]

39. A lot of those right-wing anti-immigration groups accuse most Mexican-Americans of being in the

Reconquista Movement. That is, the fringe movement that believes the Southwestern states annexed from Mexico should be returned to it. They believe Hispanics support immigration because it'll swell our numbers to the point where we'll be able to take over and fulfill the promise of Reconquista. These guys can't sneeze without believing there was a conspiracy involved in it.

[davidpdx]

42. My guess is it must be a small number of people that belong to it

I looked it up and couldn't find any estimates though.

[FrodosPet]

46. But it is big enough that Absolut Vodka markets to them

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2008/04/mexico-reconque.html

From 2008:

The billboard and press campaign, created by advertising agency Teran\TBWA and now running in Mexico, is a colorful map depicting what the Americas might look like in an "Absolut" -- i.e., perfect -- world.

The U.S.-Mexico border lies where it was before the Mexican-American war of 1848 when California, as we now know it, was Mexican territory and known as Alta California.

~ snip ~

The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans, according to Favio Ucedo, creative director of leading Latino advertising agency Grupo Gallegos in the U.S., which was not involved in the Absolut campaign.

Ucedo, who is from Argentina, said: “Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It’s very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea.”

~ snip ~

[Rozlee]

54. Mexicans are bitter over the loss of their most productive regions.

Mexico would be a wealthier place if it still owned Texas and California. But, the Reconquista movement among Mexican-Americans is strictly a fringe movement. I've never encountered anyone who's a part of it and neither have my children. I've mostly heard about it in anti-immigration right wing blogs and I'm very skeptical about some of their accounts. In one, the guy says he encountered a group in the Reconquista Movement who called him a 'gringo' and told him English would be his second language soon. Seriously? Gringo? Were they a group of 80 years old thugs on a retreat? The last time I heard the term 'gringo' used as a slur was in a Spaghetti western. It's as out-dated as 'honky' among African-Americans.

[LanternWaste]

55. One may believe that Geico Insurance attempted to break into the Australopithecus demographic...

Conflating the commercial marketing to and branding of, national pride with a fringe movement is, at best, absurd (unless of course, one believes that Geico Insurance attempted to break into the "big enough" Australopithecus demographic...)

[tclambert]

48. Spain, of course. But if Catalan independence succeeds, which Spain?

[upaloopa]

2. Well a least that kind of talk will increase gun sales.

The NRA should love Obama for giving them a new call to arms.

[Anansi1171]

3. Latinos are as kind and benevolent a people as any.

This is called projection.

[staggerleem]

57. EXACTLY!

Only an individual who's already thinking about conducting some "ethnic cleansing" of his own would believe that it's also somebody else's goal.

[deurbano]

4. Just the kinda guy you want running elections.

[tk2kewl]

5. Project much?

[annabanana]

59. What YOU said ^^^

What they would do to "those people" if they could, they assume would be done unto them.

[Live and Learn]

67. +1 That was my thought as well. nt

[geomon666]

6. We will Kobach. *puts on Dracula voice*

All of us, latino, hispanic, spanish (yes there's a difference Kris) are looking forward to eating all of you. With some rice and beans, plantains, perhaps some dulce de leche on the side. We're going to fatten ourselves up on you pigs.

No but seriously Kris, you're a fuck head. It's a shame your middle name starts with a W instead of a K. Your racist bubble is slowly closing in around you and you're freaking out, much like Robertson and gay marriage. Try to handle the hispanic dystopian future with some class.

[KingCharlemagne]

8. Pinche Kobach! :) - nt

[AverageJoe90]

7. No, they wouldn't, Mr. Kobach.

You may not understand this, Kobach, but most Latinos are, in fact, decent people just like every other group out there.....why that is so hard for you to get, I'll probably never fully understand; even racism doesn't fully explain it.

Thanks, big_dog. Sad that we still have to hear this, in 2014 of all years.

[big_dog]

12. the scariest part is that people still voted for this loon in a statewide election

hopefully he is too extreme ever to be a Senator or Governor

[MuseRider]

9. I wish I could say don't listen to him

and let him just sit in his corner and spew nonsense but here in the great state of Kansas he managed to win another term. Now he certainly stopped a lot of people here from voting, I can't say for certain that he would have lost if they had voted but it was pretty close.

I am sorry, his being re-elected means we all have to suffer through more of his bullshit. He never has figured out that most of what he accuses others of is exactly what he is doing. Sadly almost all elected figures here are the very same.

He could not be more full of shit, yet he sure knows how to hit the high points for those who already agree with him.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Mr Kobach, a person who has earned the right to vote is not a newly legalized alien but a newly

made Citizen of the United States of America. Good God this is some insanity.

[irisblue]

11. whatta-dumbass you are Kobach.

"ethnic cleansing?" Black people got more the right to more concern about that then you do.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. There is a deep seated fear amongst many white people that they are going to pay for their past.

[atreides1]

20. You're probably right.

The fear would appear to have coincided with this and other articles showing that whites will no longer be 50% of the population.

So perhaps the whole "voter ID" panic was also based on this coming to pass...conservative whites are frightened and for the moment they still hold the cards.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/whites-will-soon-be-a-minority-of-the-u-s-population/

[Spitfire of ATJ]

33. The message of the Republicans is "Vote for us or it's the end of White America"...

Which is pictured by many as dad in a lounge chair with his pipe and slippers (fetched by the family pooch) with the wife in the kitchen and the obedient kids doing their homework.

Because, you know, Dems want to destroy ALL of that,....or take it away from the white guy and give it to the Mexicans.

[stillwaiting]

60. You'd think those people would stop being assholes then.

For, those that have this fear are from the same group that are indeed assholes to minorities of any stripe (racial/sexual/religious).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

62. I've heard these guys claim it's not fair for them to get blamed....

As if anyone was blaming them in particular.

See, they're tiny brains can only see "us vs THEM" so a white cops does something to a black guy and it's a race war in their minds. That's ALL black people versus ALL white people and they have a right to defend themselves. Any white people taking "their" side is a traitor to their race in the race war in their head.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. This guy must be trolling to be put in charge of US/Mexico relations.

[hobbit709]

15. Whenever a repuke says something like that they're projecting

[muntrv]

16. 2 questions for Kobach: Klan regalia or Nazi brownshirt? Which one does Kobach like?

[big_dog]

18. Kobach was Mitt Romney's advisor on voter supression, arguing cases before SCOTUS

he'll probably end up at a right wing thinktank getting paid

[geardaddy]

24. I'm guessing brownshirt

with a name like that.

[meow2u3]

19. Projection, anyone?

It seems to me as if Kobach is trying to justify ethnic cleansing of Hispanics by accusing them of his own genocidal racism.

[geardaddy]

22. He must think this is a real ad.

[Anansi1171]

27. OMG...get me a Depends!-nt

[freshwest]

35. LOL! The only reason I miss having cable television...

[d_b]

23. I hope they start with his cracker ass

[SoapBox]

25. OMG!

This, is a prime example, of the "FEAR" that crazy white folks believe.

Or at least scum assholes like this promote, to instill "FEAR" into the stoopid.

Boo!

[demosincebirth]

28. I think he doesn't know his own American History. Most of the west was part of Mexico and was

taken from them by us, by war of convenience. I guess he forgot that part.

[Ryano42]

29. To quote president Bartlett: "This is how we beat them!"

At least until the next midterms!

The stupid will pile up into a big stinky mountain and finally tick people off enough to act and vote!

[HereSince1628]

30. Calling a national front organization an immigrants rights group is rich.

Immigration isn't the path to Reconquista

[tanyev]

31. Even worse, Kris.

There'll be so much intermarriage and baby-making going on that you won't be able to tell whites and Hispanics apart. That's the stuff real right wing nightmares are made of, amiright Kris?

[ebbie15644]

34. Shovel + Hole meet the Republican Party

[valerief]

36. You mean they'd run out the assholes? Go for it! Take the moron ammosexuals, too! nt

[Odin2005]

37. Nice projection there, Kris.

[QED]

38. Fear mongering is all they've got.

No substance, just "fear the brown people." Unfortunately, low information voters eat it up.

[Boomer]

40. Paybacks are a bitch, gringo!

I suspect a bit of projection in his fears. He's afraid of being treated the way he treats others.

[El Shaman]

41. Clensing:

only a boiling hot, soapy enema for you Mr. Kobach!

[lunasun]

43. I thoughht Kenyans were suppose to take over the White House and paint it black?? Can't keep up with

the "feary" tales....
....they never come true!

[sinkingfeeling]

44. Gotta keep up the fear factor. Ebola is kinda fading and ISIS isn't close enough.

[Arkana]

47. Ever notice how the only assholes who talk about minorities performing "ethnic cleansing"

are the racist, degenerate fucks who have wet dreams about killing minorities all the time?

[tclambert]

49. Republicans need another round of minority outreach seminars.

Clearly, the last round didn't take.

[leftyladyfrommo]

50. I know a lot of hispanics

and they seem to be pretty normal people. They guys I know are really nice. I kind of don't think they would be very interested in ethnic cleansing. But they do follow baseball pretty closely.

[stone space]

51. This is what ethnic cleansing looks like

Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History: A Personal Account
Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D.
Florida International University

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/14/opinion/14ed-camayd.pdf

I arrived late that Monday night and missed the 8pm interpreters briefing. I was instructed by phone to meet at 7am in the hotel lobby and carpool to the National Cattle Congress (NCC) where we would begin our work. We arrived at the heavily guarded compound, went through security, and gathered inside the retro “Electric Park Ballroom” where a makeshift court had been set up. The Clerk of Court, who coordinated the interpreters, said: “Have you seen the news? There was an immigration raid yesterday at 10am. They have some 400 detainees here. We’ll be working late conducting initial appearances for the next few days.” He then gave us a cursory tour of the compound. The NCC is a 60-acre cattle fairground that had been transformed into a sort of concentration camp or detention center. Fenced in behind the ballroom/courtroom were 23 trailers from federal authorities, including two set up as sentencing courts; various Homeland Security buses and an “incident response” truck; scores of ICE agents and U.S. Marshals; and in the background two large buildings: a pavilion where agents and prosecutors had established a command center; and a gymnasium filled with tight rows of cots where some 300 male detainees were kept, the women being housed in county jails. Later the NCC board complained to the local newspaper that they had been “misled” by the government when they leased the grounds purportedly for Homeland Security training.

Echoing what I think was the general feeling, one of my fellow interpreters would later exclaim: “When I saw what it was really about, my heart sank…” Then began the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see, because cameras were not allowed past the perimeter of the compound (only a few journalists came to court the following days, notepad in hand). Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10. They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some being relatives (various Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí…), some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously. It dawned on me that, aside from their Guatemalan or Mexican nationality, which was imposed on their people after Independence, they too were Native Americans, in shackles. They stood out in stark racial contrast with the rest of us as they started their slow penguin march across the makeshift court. “Sad spectacle” I heard a colleague say, reading my mind. They had all waived their right to be indicted by a grand jury and accepted instead an information or simple charging document by the U.S. Attorney, hoping to be quickly deported since they had families to support back home. But it was not to be. They were criminally charged with “aggravated identity theft” and “Social Security fraud” —charges they did not understand… and, frankly, neither could I. Everyone wondered how it would all play out.

This was the immediate collateral damage. Postville, Iowa (pop. 2,273), where nearly half the people worked at Agriprocessors, had lost 1/3 of its population by Tuesday morning. Businesses were empty, amid looming concerns that if the plant closed it would become a ghost town. Beside those arrested, many had fled the town in fear. Several families had taken refuge at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, terrified, sleeping on pews and refusing to leave for days. Volunteers from the community served food and organized activities for the children. At the local high school, only three of the 15 Latino students came back on Tuesday, while at the elementary and middle school, 120 of the 363 children were absent. In the following days the principal went around town on the school bus and gathered 70 students after convincing the parents to let them come back to school; 50 remained unaccounted for. Some American parents complained that their children were traumatized by the sudden disappearance of so many of their school friends. The principal reported the same reaction in the classrooms, saying that for the children it was as if ten of their classmates had suddenly died. Counselors were brought in. American children were having nightmares that their parents too were being taken away. The superintendant said the school district’s future was unclear: “This literally blew our town away.” In some cases both parents were picked up and small children were left behind for up to 72 hours. Typically, the mother would be released “on humanitarian grounds” with an ankle GPS monitor, pending prosecution and deportation, while the husband took first turn in serving his prison sentence. Meanwhile the mother would have no income and could not work to provide for her children. Some of the children were born in the U.S. and are American citizens. Sometimes one parent was a deportable alien while the other was not. “Hundreds of families were torn apart by this raid,” said a Catholic nun. “The humanitarian impact of this raid is obvious to anyone in Postville. The economic impact will soon be evident.”

But this was only the surface damage. Alongside the many courageous actions and expressions of humanitarian concern in the true American spirit, the news blogs were filled with snide remarks of racial prejudice and bigotry, poorly disguised beneath an empty rhetoric of misguided patriotism, not to mention the insults to anyone who publicly showed compassion, safely hurled from behind a cowardly online nickname. One could feel the moral fabric of society coming apart beneath it all.

[freshwest]

63. Thanks for posting that. I just googled about this 2008 raid and found there is a lot at Wikiepedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postville_Raid&printable=yes

Then I looked to see who in the management of the company did time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sholom_Rubashkin&printable=yes

The first entry shows that Bush wanted to make this into a 'model' for dealing with immigration. I wonder what a McCain/Palin administration would have done.

Or a Romney/Ryan administratrion. Ryan has organized his followers on the issue of immigration as he wanted to repeal the 14th Amendment. He laid out a plan in a video posted here that I reposted, but it's since been removed.

That video was made in Wisconsin. The people there were particularly hostile to hispanics and the idea of repealing Birthright Citizenship was their way of preventing them from being full citizens.

I've many times written about the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, how they came about, and what the loss of them would be. The 14th not only has Birthright Citizenship, used to increase the rights of freed slaves, but also Due Process and Equal Treatment Under the Law. Take those out of Constiutional law, and every case since then decided for the rights of the individual, such as Roe v. Wade have no Constitutional basis.

Because the 4th Amendment, loudly touted by Paul supporters, did not end slavery. It failed in the Dred Scott decision, upon which Scott based his rights, when the USSC ruled that 'African Americans had no claim to freedom or citizenship. Since they were not citizens, they did not possess the legal standing to bring suit in a federal court... The ruling of the court helped catalyze sentiment for Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the three constitutional amendments ratified shortly after the Civil War: the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, abolishing slavery, granting former slaves citizenship, and conferring citizenship to anyone born in the United States (excluding those subject to a foreign power such as children of foreign ambassadors). It took a war to make that happen, and some still don't accept it.

The leaders of the Confederacy said that 'a black person had no rights that a white person was required to grant.' Also that the Founders' ideals of Equality were the fatal flaw in their way of thinking, that they were mentally unsound, as God had ordained that only white males were fit to rule, not women or POC.

While the 4th was about an invasion of rights, that was for a certain class, race and sex of people. Roe v Wader and other issues were decided on the basis of the 14th as an extension of the 4th and other cases.

Imagine an America without the right of citizenship for all born here. That leads to what the 14th was meant to stop, slavery. Imagine an America without the right to Due Process enshrined in law, whether is it not always adhered to, like many parts of our legal framework. That is the road to being in fief to the richest persons in the neighborhood. And we don't even want to 'go there' with the effects of eliminating Equal Treatment Under the Law. Our modern society is built upon these things.

Ryan said that what they want is to have a Constitutional Convention to eliminate the 14th. He promised his supporters that it would be as soon as they get enough states 'red' in their legislatures, to call for one to be convened. Every single thing that Ryan and the rest of the GOP do are on the Koch agenda since Charles' failed presidential campaign in the 1980. .If nothing else, these fanatics do know the law and don't take it for granted as if it is written in stone, because it isn't.

But after repealing the 14th, women's suffrage would be next on the list, along with the amendment granting taxing power to support the federal government as a whole and others by forming the IRS. Another thing the Koches demand be elimimated.

The RWNJs want all of the Amendments after the 10th repealed. Those were all major changes to make this nation more democratic. They want their states rights concept to rule over their population, the argument for the Confederacy. Their "popular sovereignty" movement is what started the Civil War. They want that to happen again, and they intend to win it by pushing all federal law aside. Example would be the Bundy fiasco and the attempt to steal public law across the west, the latest would the take over of a town mentioned here at DU by armed men, and this is not unknown. Exactly what happened before the last Civil War began. This is part of the Tenther and Sovereign Citizen Movements now with a lot of media complicity.

We can either be what we believed ourselves to be about, Equal rights for all, or we will all lose our rights.

[niyad]

52. gee, kris, are you afraid that they will treat whites the way whites treated/are treating them?

[niyad]

53. hmm, any thoughts about the indigenous groups, kris? or do you have any idea of this country's

history? (maybe you should read howard zinn--but the truth would probably make your teeny weeny widdle head explode).

[adieu]

56. No, they won't

but they should

[blkmusclmachine]

58. GOP, thy name is PROJECTION

[IronLionZion]

61. Dude should use what happened to Native Americans as an example

see, this is what they'll do to you!

"They"

[Hekate]

64. It's horrifying how many people in this country WANT a bloody Armageddon

They would be only too happy to have an American version of Rwanda, a new Civil War, or the End Times. It's a sickness. An evil sickness.

[MrScorpio]

65. Really... What the hell is going on in the back of his mind about white people?

When he actually voices a fear that whites risk being ethnically cleansed were they to lose the majority?

How horrible does he think that whites have been to everyone else all of this time?

[nilesobek]

66. He's only saying this because Kobach knows what he would do in the majority.

I can't believe how much hyperbole is involved, and paranoia. Being homeless so long. I traveled America and worked numerous migrant labor jobs from Idaho and Northern Maine to Florida, back to Washington State and California.

Most of my employers were rightwingers. They want to keep the old system to keep wages down. Under this new Obama system, it legalizes the workers and Kobach must hate that.

Never in all my travels did I ever fear my Latino workmates. I was the only white guy in an onion factory and listening to fast Spanish from 500 people was a bit of culture shock I have to admit, I thought it was making me lightheaded.

The GOP is ruling through fear again.

[turbinetree]

68. RIGHT WING HYPOCRITE FASCISTS

This hypocrite and his state are just plain stupid and everyone should boycott this state and remind them that they are stupid everyday, and I mean boycott.
His right wing party under the di**head Brownback and his re-election shows what money can do and will do. I am going to ask my senator to block all federal funds into this hypocrites state, and oh by the way I am a democrat Knobj****b

[heaven05]

69. "what happens...when one culture

overwhelms and dominates the other races". Ask the native -Americans, the black slaves and hispanics that were here before europeans landed on these shores. You'll find your answer.

[HoosierCowboy]

70. Kicking out 11 million people...

...from their established homes and communities isn't Ethnic Cleansing?
Duh!

[VA_Jill]

71. Jeez, Kobach!

But even paranoids have REAL enemies!

[Initech]

72. Ethnic cleansing? Wow that's a bit extreme there.

[douggg]

73. The majority of Hispanics are Catholics

Kobach must have some reason to suspect that Catholics would conduct 'Ethnic Cleansing'.

[C Moon]

74. The GOP is forever looking for a "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" slogan.

[Lamonte]

75. Lands of Mexico

I think there is another possibility. If Texas secedes from the U.S. we can then can provide military aid to Mexico to reclaim that land.

[Blue_Tires]

76. Korbach is onto us!

I'll inform the regional leader of the minority uprising that her troops should probably start at Korbach's home first

[Gothmog]

77. Kris Kobach is an idiot