[OPINION ★★]
DONALD TRUMP IS DESTROYING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AMONG LATINO VOTERS
(P1) Donald Trump paid the city of Laredo a DRIVE-BY visit Thursday, spending just enough time off his plane to say he’d been to the U.S.-Mexico border.
(P2) Trump, a New Yorker, who lives in a city with a much higher crime rate than Laredo, said he had put himself at “great danger” coming to the southern border. Yet another example of EXAGGERATING the truth.
(P3) Trump’s LITANY of INCENDIARY characterizations against Mexican immigrants who have crossed the border attempts to transform LATINOS into the new American BOOGEYMAN. Trump is FANNING THE FLAMES of XENOPHOBIA in an older generation of American voters who fear DEMOGRAPHIC changes that put them in a less powerful status.
(P4) Trump’s impossible vision would TURN BACK THE CLOCK and lead Americans back to white dominance. But it is not going to happen.
(P5) 90% of Laredo’s population is Mexican-American. Mexican-Americans are mostly multigenerational Americans who are the BACKBONE of the American Southwest; they are not the CULPRITS Trump says they are.
(P6) Trump’s suggestion that rapists, criminals, and murderers enter the U.S. from Mexico is RESONATING with a key segment of older, white, male voters in the Republican Party. Trump’s rise in the POLLS confirms this. But Trump’s message is also REINFORCING a perception among Latino-Americans that the Republican Party is anti-Latino.
(P7) The Republican Party remains PARALYZED, unable to SHOUT DOWN Trump and kick the SCHOOLYARD BULLY off the campaign stage. FELLOW candidates Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry, and Marco Rubio have attempted to DUKE IT OUT with Trump on certain points, but have not done well.
(P8) How does this political TELENOVELA end?
(P9) Every day on social media, Latinos are REPUDIATING Trump and the Republican Party.
(P10) Soon it may be impossible for Republicans to UNDO the DAMAGE. Following this trend, less than 27% of the Latino community, the percentage Mitt Romney got in 2012, will vote for the Republican presidential candidate in 2016. The choice for the Republican National Committee is either to SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER and DISOWN Trump now, or accept a loss of future power.
WORDS: 346
SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/24/opinions/sanchez-trump-border/index.html
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
If you found the passage difficult to read or had problems understanding specific words or idiomatic expressions, please discuss them with your tutor. The following discussion questions should be answered in your own words and with your own arguments.
- Briefly summarize the content of the article in your own words.
- What has been the reaction to Donald Trump in your country?
- American political elections are full of personal attacks and NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING. What is the political style in your country?
- Do you vote always, sometimes, or never?
- Who do you think will be the next President of the United States? Is the result of the election important for your country?
EXPRESSIONS TO PRACTICE:
What do the following expressions mean? Practice using each expression in a sentence; extra points if you can use it in conversation.
- Drive-by
- Fan the flames
- Turn back the clock
- Shout down
- Schoolyard bully
- Duke it out
- Speak truth to power
- Negative campaigning
