Is Bill Richardson the Latino Sovereign?

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

Of course not. Bill Richardson is not a Latino King, Khan or Potentate.

So does Bill Richardson get to decide who is Latino and who isn’t? Not at all.

So why all the buzz over his statement on ABC News, in which he said that Texas Senator Ted Cruz should not be considered “Hispanic.”

That’s because the buzz is about as ridiculous as my headline. It’s also because media loves conflict, it plays well and gets people’s attention. And because now that we’re all media – connected and producing through personal devices – we all get a say as to what stands out in the buzz.

In this sense Bill Richardson is just a guy on TV with an opinion. The fact that he was on ABC means that he’s a pretty well known guy on TV. He also self identifies as Latino, or Hispanic, or whatever word he chooses to use. In that context, and in the political context of immigration reform, he was asked his opinion of Sen. Cruz. Here’s what he said, verbatim:

“I’m not a fan. I know [Ted Cruz is] sort of the Republican latest flavor. He’s articulate. He seems to be charismatic, but I don’t like his politics. I think he introduces a measure of incivility in the political process. Insulting people is not the way to go. But I guess he’s a force in the Republican political system, but I’m not a fan.”

So he was asked his opinion, and he gave it.

Then came this, from the ABC interviewer:

Do you think he represents most Hispanics with his politics?

That’s a very specific solicitation about a very specific issue. So Richardson answered:

“No, no. He’s anti-immigration. Almost every Hispanic in the country wants to see immigration reform. No, I don’t think he should be defined as a Hispanic. He’s a politician from Texas. A conservative state. And I respect Texas’ choice. But what I don’t like is… when you try to get things done, it’s okay to be strong and state your views, your ideology.  But I’ve seen him demean the office, be rude to other senators, not be part of, I think, the civility that is really needed in Washington.”

Here’s the problem with that statement – not having the same political views as the majority of people in a group does not exclude you from the group.

Ted Cruz does not have the same opinion on immigration as the vast majority of Latinos in the U.S. Also, Ted Cruz is a U. S. Senator, so his political opinion matters, in this case, much more than Richardson’s or yours or mine, because he has one of 100 votes in the outcome. So let’s say that Cruz self-identifies as a Latino, and let’s say that in that context he is one of three Latinos in the U.S. Senate. His opinion, then, would carry weight in the Latino community. But if you parse his constituency, you’ll find that he was elected by a majority of non-Latinos in Texas. So his ethnicity, self identified or not, is irrelevant. He wasn’t elected as a Latino, he was elected as a conservative, Tea Party Republican.

Richardson went on to say that he doesn’t like Cruz’s behavior, that he thinks Cruz is rude and demeaning. And I’m sure I could get many Latinos to line-up on Richardson’s side of that argument. So maybe what Richardson was trying to say is that Cruz shouldn’t be defined as representing a majority Hispanic political sentiment. No one could argue with that.

But that’s obvious. And had Richardson said that, in that way, there would have been no buzz and we wouldn’t be talking about it today. Ted Cruz was not elected by Latinos, so he can’t be defined as a Latino politician in the strict constituency sense.

The thing is that  Ted Cruz embodies what we all strive for as Americans: to be able to call ourselves what we want, believe what we want and vote for whoever we want. And in that very same context, Bill Richardson, the guy on TV, was asked his opinion.

We may not like his politics and think he’s rude, but the voters who elected Cruz define him in political terms. Anything else is just louder noise in the buzz.