It's bad enough U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., keeps getting elected to Congress, embarrassing our state with his outrageously ignorant and racist comments, but the thought of Tancredo as president, or even as the Republican nominee, is truly terrifying.
Tancredo announced his presidential bid this morning on a radio talk show in Des Moines, Iowa. His candidacy will focus almost entirely on immigration issues. But what else would we expect from "Tancrazy?" His hatred for immigrants permeates every political move he makes.
Tancredo is the number one anti-illegal immigration crusader in Congress. He is the promoter of some of the most irrational immigration policy measures and the author of some of the most asinine comments ever heard on the subject.
Tancredo vehemently opposes any immigration reform plan that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented workers currently residing in the U.S. He strongly supports building a 2,000-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, despite plenty of research indicating tighter border security only encourages permanent settlement in the U.S. by immigrants who would otherwise opt to return home to Mexico. This is a perfect example of how shallow Tancredo's understanding is of the only issue he concerns himself with.
Let's take a moment to recall some of Tancredo's most shining public statements. There was the time he suggested bombing the Muslim holy city of Mecca in response to terrorist attacks. Oh, and the time he compared Miami to a Third World country, prompting outrage among citizens and admonishment from Governor Jeb Bush. And no one can forget Tancredo's criticism of the memorial plans for flight 93, which crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, in Pennsylvania. Tancredo balked at the Interior Department's plan to create a memorial in the shape of a crescent.
"The appropriateness of the design has been questioned by many people because of the crescent’s prominent use as a symbol in Islam...It has raised questions in some circles about whether the design, if constructed, will in fact make the memorial a tribute to the hijackers rather than the victims..." Tancredo wrote in a letter to the Department of Interior. (Read the whole letter here).
Thankfully, in a pool of well-rounded Republican candidates, Tancredo probably doesn't have a snowball's chance of securing the nomination. Thank goodness, for he would surely be the worst president ever; his legacy would be to replace our tolerance with bigotry, and our hope with fear and suspicion.
