Americans' rush to avoid competition
July 16 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Say what you want about the messenger, Americans had better heed the message.
Maybe former Sen. Phil Gramm isn't the best person to make the case that much of America's economic gloom is self-inflicted. He's a Republican and, as far as many people are concerned, the GOP cares only about the rich. Since leaving the Senate, Gramm has served as vice chairman of the Swiss investment bank UBS. Also, Gramm doesn't exactly exude sympathy for the have-nots, coming across as the antithesis of the “compassionate conservative.”
July 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
A Hispanic hate group that isn't: Janet Murguía, the National Council of La Raza's president, says she has little use for those who pit groups against each other.
July 9 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Afraid of anything but English: The language wars flare up whenever insecure Americans worry that English is becoming passe.
July 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
McCain is unclear on immigration: Presidential candidates who seem to change positions as they change audiences should avoid accusing others of flip-flopping. It makes them look silly.
July 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Is ObamaAmerican enough?: Barack Obama celebrated the week of the Fourth of July trying to address critics who say he is insufficiently patriotic. In the process, Obama almost hit another home run. He sent one into the stands a few months ago with his speech on race. But this time, speaking from Independence, Mo., Obama came up short.
June 29 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Young people can slow immigration: When you grab hold of the thorny topic of immigration, sometimes you can't tell what part of the discussion will prick your finger.
June 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Getting along with our neighbors: TIJUANA – Mexico and the United States have a twisted relationship. Dysfunctional: Each country likes to blame the other for its problems, and neither is eager to accept responsibility. Making matters worse, history comes with hard feelings; the United States claimed it was “manifest destiny” to conquer half of Mexico in 1848.
June 18 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
A fond memory of 'the common man': Washington is mourning the death of Tim Russert, but the loss resonates far beyond the Potomac.
June 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Representing minorities in the military: The gloves are off. A short-fused septuagenarian with a decorated past is tangling with a brash young African-American who, while less accomplished, can take a punch and give one back. I'm speaking of – what else? – the rhetorical slugfest between filmmakers Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee.
June 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
The benefit of not being Mexican: Let me say a few words in defense of deporting illegal immigrants. I wouldn't have thought such a defense would be necessary, since being in the United States without proper documents is a crime and the penalty is deportation.
June 8 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Appealing to Latino voters: Some suggest that Barack Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate because she can help him do something he has trouble doing on his own: winning Latino votes.
June 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Obama sells out to politics: Say it ain't so. Barack Obama has worked hard over the last 18 months to convince Americans that he is the untraditional politician – immune to special interests, loyal to his faith, close to the people, guided by principle.
June 1 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Those who will provide the answers: MERCED A commencement address should be uplifting and enlightening. Leave it to me to deliver one that was also inadvertently controversial because it touched upon a subject that some people don't feel comfortable discussing: gay marriage.
May 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Stirring up anti-Latino sentiment: Some of those who rail against illegal immigration can dish it out, but they can't take it. Since most illegal immigrants come from Mexico or other parts of Latin America, critics sometimes say the sort of crude things that give the debate its anti-Latino flavor. But let someone call them on it and do they ever get defensive.
May 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Obama is wrong on the economy: With soaring gas prices, a shaky job market and a surge in home foreclosures, many Americans say their No. 1 issue is the economy.
May 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
When they get drawn into the American dream: Many Americans look down their noses at recent immigrants even while looking back nostalgically at their own immigrant forebears. Some thread that needle by maintaining that recent immigrants, most of whom come from Asia and Latin America, don't measure up to previous waves that came mostly from European countries.
May 18 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Looking at the Obama generation: Well, at least Barack Obama got the support of one white Southerner last week. John Edwards' endorsement came one day after Obama got pounded in West Virginia. Maybe Edwards, a North Carolinian, saw something in this contest that made him queasy?
May 14 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Can McCain appeal to Hispanic voters maintain?: For many conservatives, John McCain is not their favorite Republican. They think he's built a career at their expense, painting them as fools and bigots. They resent his holier-than-thou attitude. And they're not inclined to trust anyone who has been so fawned over by the national media.
May 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Democrats, Obama and black voters: In 2002, the Texas Democratic Party ran a “dream ticket” – a Latino for governor, an African-American for the U.S. Senate, and an Anglo for lieutenant governor.
May 7 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
What Obama's candidacy tells us about America: NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In journalism, people of color are still a minority. And, among journalists of color, those who are opinion writers are a minority within a minority.
May 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Immigrants take to the streets: A lot of Americans can't get their head around the concept of illegal immigrants demanding civil rights from a country whose laws they've broken. After all, these are people who have – by virtue of not following the rules to get here, live here, work here – chosen to live outside our system.
April 30 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Learning from the Rev. Wright: Just who does the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. think he is, anyway? And how dare he try to tell us who he isn't – especially when many of us have made up our minds about him and the political damage he has done to Barack Obama.
April 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
France's immigration problem: The United States does a better job with immigration than any other country in the world. That's right, even with its broken border, missed messages, recurring xenophobia and all the shouting on talk shows, other nations – particularly in Europe – are far worse in their treatment of immigrants.
April 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
This was a case of prosecutorial failure: Any prosecutor can convict a guilty person. It takes real skill to convict the innocent. I've decided that San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis makes a strong argument – for appointing district attorneys rather than electing them. There are counties in America that do it that way.
April 23 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
It isn't just about illegal immigration: U.S.-born Latinos in America are fed up. They're tired of the ugliness in the immigration debate, and they're not buying the argument that it does not concern them.
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| Ruben Navarrette Jr. |
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Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group. His twice weekly column appears in more than 175 newspapers. The second-generation Mexican-American is one of fewer than 10 Latino syndicated columnists in the United States, and one of the country's youngest syndicated columnists overall.
The two-time Harvard graduate is also an editorial writer and board member for The San Diego Union-Tribune. A former radio talk show host in three markets (Los Angeles, Phoenix and Fresno), he writes and records commentaries for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." On television he is often called upon to discuss current affairs on CNN and on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS. He has also appeared on "Now with Bill Moyers," "The Chris Matthews Show" and "The O'Reilly Factor."
Navarrette's first book, "A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano," was published to favorable reviews by Bantam Books in 1993, when the author was just 26 years old. In 2000, his essay, "Vindication" (about the difficulties encountered in attempting to launch his writing career) was selected from over 5,000 entries as one of the 101 contributions to "Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul," an installment of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.
Navarrette is a native of California's San Joaquin Valley.
He can be reached via e-mail at ruben.navarrette@
uniontrib.com.
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