We have been discussing the increasing intolerance on the left for conservative and controversial speech. A case in point comes out of Topeka, Kansas where Adrienne Foster, the director of the Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission, is facing calls to resign for simply supporting Donald Trump in comments made to the Kansas City Star.
Three Democrat lawmakers, Louis Ruiz of Kansas City, John Alcala of Topeka and Ponka-We Victors of Wichita, sent a letter to Governor Sam Brownback objecting to the support shown for Trump, whose comments are described as “inaccurate and highly inflammatory and discriminatory.” They insisted:
“Donald Trump has described Latin American immigrants as being killers, criminals, drug dealers and rapists, has called for the building of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and has even praised the beating of a Latin American man by his supporters,” wrote the Representatives.
Ruiz wrote that Foster has “diminished her position” in the organization and called on Brownback to request her resignation.
I can well understand such feelings but it is shocking to see lawmakers seeking to punish someone for her political views. People can disagree about Trump, even with the hispanic community. I do not believe that different political views diminish an organization but rather shows its strength and diversity. I cannot imagine that these legislators would want such a political litmus test applied to them in participating in commissions or groups.
Foster would seem someone whose success should be celebrated in the Hispanic community. Her bio states:
Adrienne was the first to attend college after obtaining her high school diploma from Bishop Ward High School. After receiving a LULAC scholarship to Washburn University, Adrienne graduated with a Bachelor’s in Public Administration and an Associate in Art. Later, Adrienne obtained her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City along with her Fundraising Certificate. Adrienne was elected to the Roeland Park City Council during a Special Election in June 2005. She became very active with the National League of Cities and two of their constituent groups; Women in Municipal Government (WIMG) and Hispanic Elected & Local Officials (HELO). Adrienne currently serves as the President of WIMG and First Vice-President of HELO. After serving on the City Council for four years, Adrienne ran for Mayor of Roeland Park and was elected in April 2009. Adrienne volunteers with her Church, Kansas Children’s Service League and the Shawnee Indian Mission Historic site. She has been married for 17 years to her husband Stephen, and has five boys.
The fact that such a position is now considered reasonable is itself chilling. These legislators do not seem at all concerned about punishing people for political views. They are not saying that a director cannot make such comments but that Foster simply took the wrong side in praising Trump. I could understand if there is a ban on staff making political statements in their role as a Commission representative. However, the letter seems to object to Trump’s view — suggesting that it would not be a problem is Foster praised the ideas of Clinton or Sanders. Unless there is a contractual or legal bar on such statements, Foster appears to be the subject of attacks because she is viewed as having the “wrong” views on politics.
I am still trying to find a copy of the letter to see if the legislators are citing any legal authority for their demand.
Of course, she has the right to express who she politically supports IF she said it as a private citizen.
But what she said in her capacity of Director of Latino Affairs shows enormous lack of sensitivity toward current Latino affairs and concerns. She seems to not understand, realize, or at least vaguely know, all the pain and suffering Trump will cause to both legal and illegal immigrants should he become President. Why does Kansas have such an ignorant and insensitive person in that position?
She has shown no true understanding of the Latin culture in the U.S. She’s supposed to be advocating for Latinos; instead, she throwing them under the bus.
She built her career around Latino connections and using Latino resources. She should reimburse tuition money to LULAC and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
If she manages to keep her current position, she’ll find it hard or impossible to liaise with the Latino community who no longer wants anything to do with her — they’ll slam doors on her face!
MGMatus – she has the right to support Trump in her official capacity. We have already had several people on here claiming to be Latino who also are backing Trump.
I’m an immigrant and I 100% support Trump! Without him we will have an Islamist ruining the country in the near future !
Sorry Karen, but while I appreciate your concern, facts still matter.
Flint was put under emergency management by Republican governor Rick Snyder. All the appointments from the review team to the multiple emergency managers were all his appointments, every one.
Second, the last time there was a fire on the Flint River was in the 1930’s.You might be thinking of the Cuyahoga River which caught fire in 1969.
The Flint River has been poisoned for over 100 years by local industries. And there is plenty of blame to go around for both political parties, which sold their souls to their corporate overlords.
But this one is solidly on Snyder and the Republicans. We can throw some blame to the EPA whose excuses for not getting involved sooner sound way to much like “not my job description”. But somehow Snyder’s people were sending bottled water to state workers in Flint a year or more before anyone “knew” there was a problem.
Heads should roll, and I’m not just talking about civil penalties or show resignations. Someone should do time.
@Tnash
LOL! You know most people aren’t going to get those references, don’t you? Ok, let me spill the beans.
The “vasty deeps” was the wine/liquor cellar in speakeasys. To get extra booze up from down below, the club manager would call out to his barkeep, “Get me some spirits from the vasty deeps!” At which time the barkeep would go below, because the bottles of King Henry VIII Scotch or Glendower Pure Malt Scotch Whiskey weren’t going to walk themselves up the steps.
Most people have little or no idea about how speakeasys worked. Thankfully, I am more literate!
You’re welcome!
Squeeky Frommk
Girl Reporter
“I can call spirits from the vasty deeps.”
“Aye, so can I or any man. But will they come when you call them?”
Ignorable.
Sorry…should be Glendower.
Squeeky……I started out as an English Lit. major, then switch to Poli. Sci.
I recognized it as Shakespeare, but had to google it to find which play it was in.
( Just for laughs, google,Eddie Murphy in BOWFINGER, either KKK or “shake a spear” with keywords. The Constitution Law classes and seminars were my favorite classes.
The ink was barely dry on our new Constitution when I studied it WAY back when.
Good to see Mr. Benson is rigidly staying on topic.
Lots of factual errors in this thread.
Lots of non-specific criticism from one source, too.
Every now and then, somebody who has contributed nothing to any topics on these threads likes to jump in at the end with vague, non-specific, snotty, superior-attitude remarks.
You are the latest example, Henry.
Don’t forget the uniformly Democrat run city of Flint, MI, where they poisoned the population with toxic water from the Flint River, which was known to catch on fire at times from all the pollution. Although MI has a Republican governor, the city of Flint was run entirely by Democrats.
It just goes to show that government cannot solve all your problems, whether it’s run by Republicans or Democrats. Sometimes government needs to be reminded that it IS answerable to the people (by sending government employees to jail as need be). Politicians promise to solve all your problems, vote for us and you’ll live in Nirvana, but none of those promises ever come to pass. Generation after generation they keep blaming the same scapegoats, Republicans and white guys, but if you’ll vote for me I’ll make it all better. And yet these Democratically run cities are NOT better. They are decaying worse than ever with jobs drying up and employers fleeing.
There really is no “holier than thou” in the Duopoly, and the Democratic Party does not corner the market on compassion. It’s a schtick for votes, nothing more.
I am a fiscal conservative, and I am outraged at what happened to the people of Flint. Pregnant women consumed water so toxic, they were exposed to diseases as well as lead. Those babies have a life sentence of learning disabilities, best case scenario. The damage is done. Democrats say they care more than Republicans, but look what this Democratic stronghold did to its people. Unaccountable politicians do not care about you when they are above the law, I don’t care what party they belong to.
Squeeky
Some day when you get a heart, be careful. They are fragile things and break easily. They will heal, but the pain of the world never really goes away. I know it will be a new thing for you, feeling empathy or compassion, but don’t be afraid, it’s part of being human.
@PhillyT
I am sooo happy to see that you are concerned with states being run into the dirt, and hope that your concern applies to cities, too! Knowing that you are a fair-minded, non partisan type individual, (cough, gag, spit out my spleen, recover) here is you a list of cities that have been run into the dirt! I hope you will join in condemning their leadership! Here are 10 of the most dangerous cities in the country:
The cities with populations over 200,000 ranked as the most dangerous are:
Detroit, MI – Mayor Mike Duggan – DEMOCRAT
Oakland, CA – Mayor Jean Quan – DEMOCRAT
Memphis, TN – Mayor A C Wharton – DEMOCRAT
St. Louis, MO – Mayor Francis G. Slay – DEMOCRAT
Cleveland, OH – Mayor Frank G. Jackson – DEMOCRAT
Baltimore, MD – Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake – DEMOCRAT
Milwaukee, WI – Mayor Tom Barrett – DEMOCRAT
Birmingham, AL – Mayor William A. Bell – DEMOCRAT
Newark, NJ – Mayor Ras Baraka – DEMOCRAT
Kansas City, MO – Mayor Sly James – Independent (but probably a DEMOCRAT)
Please join me in condemning the people running these cities! It’s for the children!
🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Pure politics. Nothing more.
They are free to “insist” on her dismissal, and Gov. Brownback is free to ignore them, as I’m sure he will. He’s not done running Kansas completely into the dirt.
I do not support either Trump nor Bernie. Yet both deserve a fair shot. As well, it is crucial to defend our First Amendment rights.
Paul,
Let’s not forget the black man that was a protester at Trump’s rally. He tried to grab the podium and he assaulted a Trump supporter.
He is an employee of the city of Chicago. I’ll bet my life’s savings, not a thing was done to him. Funny how the Hatch act only applies to a certain group of people.
Think if he’d been a white guy, doing that at an Obama rally, he would’ve been fired from his job and publicly excoriated and charged with assault.
Trump, means war on political correctness, war on hypocrites, war on anarchist, war on ISIS, war on illegal immigration, war on being made fools of by Iran, Japan, China, North Korea and those are reason enough for me to vote for him. He will best Hillary. He knows things about her, nobody knows.
They only seem to use the Hatch Act when they are out to get someone they don’t like.
Regarding the Hatch Act. Many states have their own version of the Hatch Act, a so-called “little Hatch Act.” However, when the Feds examined the workplaces of the IRS workers involved in the Tea Party mess, they found plenty of examples of violations of the Hatch Act and did nothing about it. There were Obama stickers on computers in clear violation of the Act.
@Roland
You said, “She’s a state employee, so it’s unclear if this [Hatch Act] applies to her, but if it does (and I think it does), then there is no “chilling effect”… Took me 10 seconds to find this law. IANAL.”
Uh, if she is a STATE employee the act which, “The Hatch Act of 1939, officially An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law whose main provision prohibits employees in the executive branch of the federal government. . .”
Sooo, she doesn’t work for the Federal govt. I suggest:
1) Spend more than 10 seconds on legal research;
2) The “IANAL” was probably unnecessary in this case.
🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
And if the Communist Manifesto Provision No. 6 isn’t good enough, then I suggest that the circumstances here require the application of the SCOTUS decision, GARCETTI ET AL. v. CEBALLOS (2006), wherein the Scoyus ruled that:
“When public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, they are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline.”
The Power of the Government compels Adrienne Foster to comply with the dictates of her leftist masters.