Back during the whole Birther thing, liberals tried, unsuccessfully, to make this a thing. Unfortunately, Romney has now sort of reclaimed it and made it his own, and it’s just as out of touch as you’d expect. This is like that thing people do where they preface something racist by telling you they have a black friend.
You see, back in the 1880’s a few Mormon groups fled the United States because the government wasn’t so hot on that polygamy thing. They did pretty well for themselves, even proselytizing a bunch, but then in 1912 they had to evacuate back to the US because the Mexican revolution wasn’t always so hot on Americans. Most of the colonists stayed North of the border after that, but some returned. Mitt’s dad was born in 1907 in one such colony.
Again, this news isn’t totally new, but it’s getting a whole bunch of traction now as the race heats up. Our question: so what? This doesn’t make Mitt Romney more Latino, it doesn’t make up for his ideas on immigration, it doesn’t mean he or his dad and granddad sympathize with the emerging majority. His dad came to the states and, as a privileged white guy, no one really bothered him, and he went on to became spectacularly rich.
What it does mean is that the media is pretty sure Latinos are idiots. They say, “He’s eligible for Mexican citizenship!” and they expect us to think something besides, “Those laws are pretty lax, then, huh?”
It also means that Mitt is descended from illegal immigrants that fled the US because they were flouting the law and threatening the traditional institution of marriage.
So. Yeah.
UPDATE: Thanks to Latino Rebels for pointing us in the direction of this video that introduces us to Mitt Romney’s Mexican family, shown speaking Spanish to prove they can. I don’t think they’re disingenuous for their love of their home; I just think it has no bearing whatsoever on Mitt Romney’s stances.
UPDATE 2: Now Mexican Mitt has a Twitter.