Romney's Run From the Border

When I think of Mitt Romney, I think of a man desperate to please his peers and assume the values of the Republican Party, believing, truly believing that he can convince people he is a genuine conservative. Being a Mormon, he takes special aims to present himself as anything but an eccentric. He is very calculated and has done anything and everything to prove that he is a Wasp, that famous Jewish acronym meant to denote the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and its domination of mainstream politics.

Despite the fact that he has continuously thrown immigrants under the campaign bus to prove his Wasp-ness, Mitt Romney is tan Mexicano como nopales!!! Mexican like mariachis, like sombreros and charro pants. Well, not really, but sort of though, in like a corporate Taco Bell supreme nacho sort of way. Mild hot sauce notwithstanding, Mitt Romney is the son of his Mexican-born father George Romney who was born in Colonia Dublan, a small colony in Northern Mexico. Apparently, Mitt’s great grandfather Miles Park Romney led an expedition of Mormon believers there to escape prosecution for polygamy back in the States.

Though the original migration South was out of necessity, I imagine Mexico was all too romantic and alluring for this refugee missionary camp of Romneys way back in the pre-border-fence days of the 1880s. Like the Spanish friars before them, they found a land full of docent peasants who could easily be allured to the doctrines of their Church. Still more romantic was the fact that Mexico was home to the Mesoamerican divinity Quetzalcoatl, a Pre-Columbian deity whose curious resemblance to the light-skinned Jesus Christ predated European contact.

The story of Quetzalcoatl would be of especially unique interest to the Romney refugee camp because according to the Book of Mormon, the Americas were populated by the Bible’s “lost tribe,” the Lamanites. Moreover, after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Old World, it is written in Mormon scriptures that Jesus appeared before the Lamanites in the New World. To get to the point, there are those within the church that believe Quetzalcoatl was Jesus and Mexico a special, magical world of not only enchiladas but American-bred spirituality.

As far as I know, the “land of Lamanites” was not converted to Mormonism, and the Mormon clan of Romneys was also not persecuted for their very different beliefs. Their immigration into Mexico was by and large a success. When Romney’s father George was 5, however, his immediate family again made a run for the border, not simply to the wrapped goodness of Taco Bell but far away from Mexico and the carnage of the Mexican Revolution. Before it was officially “illegal,” they had once again immigrated, this time back into the United States for good.

Mitt Romney, who 2 percent of the American population believes is really named Mittens, continues to argue with fellow Republican nominees over whose electric fence will have more voltage, who would make a better Arizona Sheriff for the country. Instead of advancing a true reform package that acknowledges the necessity of crafting policy that reflects reality and prevents the immoral splitting of hard-working families, Romney continues to vilify any opponent who has a shred of perceived leniency on immigration. He also believes that people who complain about the inequalities of our nation and world are merely “envious” and should keep those conversations within the private confines of their home.

Once upon a time, Mitt Romney’s family left the United States faster than Road Runner and then Mexico faster than Speedy Gonzalez. For a man who comes from a mobile and persecuted people, you would think that he would spend less time demonizing people seeking to make better lives for their selves in a globalized world. You would think that he would personally appreciate the desperation involved in making the choice to migrate.

Romney’s calculated drive to be a Wasp acceptable to the sliced turkey and mayonnaise sandwich-eating universe has caused him to assume highly hostile stances against immigrants as he has scapegoated them for sucking off the system and breaking the law, never truly giving any insight into the failures of our world economy and the vast income inequality that has given rise to record corporate profits, mass migration and the bi-national Drug War raging for the last six years. A CEO coy to the benefits that multinational corporations are provided by NAFTA, Romney rarely explores these issues in depth.

Here in the Pajaro Valley, it’s very simple—immigrant labor equals food in people’s mouths. American immigrants are a very proud people who weren’t born Americans but chose to be Americans. Not only does Mittens have a convenient sense of amnesia when it comes to his non-conformist heritage but his “enviable” capitalist doctrines are anything but Jesus or Quetzalcoatl-like.