RUTHFULLY YOURS

Hispanics got a masterclass in pathetic political pandering during the first round of Democrat presidential debates in Miami.

Split into two groups of ten because of the vast size of the 2020 Democratic field, each of the candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination only had a few brief opportunities to win us over.

As a result, viewers were subjected to a barrage of contrived soundbites from candidates seeking to make the most out of what could very well be their only opportunity to set themselves apart from the crowded, far-left field.

Since Florida has a large Hispanic population, the Democrats naturally went out of their way to deliver several of those sound bites in Spanish.

Despite the wishes of the Associated Press, though, not one of the candidates who occupied either stage is a “native speaker” of Spanish —not even extreme long-shot Julian Castro. Unlike Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, the Irishman who routinely sprinkles lines of Spanish throughout his speeches, Castro had largely resisted the temptation to “throw a few lines of espanol in there” in his previous remarks. Under the glare of the debate spotlight, though, even Castro couldn’t help joining the other candidates in a shameless display of linguistic pandering.

Despite being the only authentically Hispanic candidate on the stage (as opposed to the affectations of O’Rourke and New York City Mayor Bill “William Wilhelm” De Blasio), Castro used considerably less Spanish than some of his counterparts, merely stating his name and asserting that he is running for president before switching back to English.

That was probably wise, because even the mainstream media ridiculed O’Rourke over his transparently cynical use of broken Spanish to answer a question about tax rates, comparing him to an “embarrassing dad at a Mexican restaurant.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory “Spartacus” Booker, meanwhile, had clearly decided that he would try to impress people with his Spanish-language skills well in advance of the debate, and was none too happy to discover that his opponents had come up with the same idea. When O’Rourke beat him to the punch, Booker shot him a withering glare, as if to say, “That was my idea!”

The second group of candidates seemed to recognize how badly the ploy backfired during the first debate, because they largely stuck to English on the second night. That didn’t stop them from trying out other, equally patronizing strategies for appealing to Hispanic voters, though.

When a moderator asked the candidates to raise their hands if they support government-funded “free” healthcare for illegal immigrants, arms shot up across the debate stage. Every single Democrat enthusiastically supported the idea of making American citizens pay for the healthcare of foreigners who break American laws.

Just like their colleagues’ pathetic efforts at speaking Spanish the night before, however, their pandering backfired.

“All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare,” President Trump tweeted from the G20 summit in Japan. “How about taking care of American Citizens first!? That’s the end of that race!”

The President is absolutely right. While their desperate pandering was obviously targeted at Hispanic voters, the Democrat candidates sent a loud and clear message to the rest of the country, as well: they no longer understand — or no longer care about — the interests and concerns of working Americans.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, has made improving the welfare of working men and women his top priority since taking office, and his pro-growth policies have accomplished exactly that, producing robust wage growth and the lowest unemployment rate in half a century.

Moreover, even though this President doesn’t pander to identity groups the way Democrats do, instead designing his policies to benefit all Americans, he’s even managed to achieve the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate ever recorded.

The Democrats showed during the debates in Miami that they think pandering is the way to attract Hispanic votes. Like everyone else, though, Hispanics care about real results, and President Trump is the only one who has shown that he can deliver those results, making all Americans better off than they were just three years ago.