More on the MECHA Smear

Posted on September 3, 2003 in Gray Davis Recall Immigration

I thought I’d follow up on my MECHA views with a few links to thoughtful blogs on the subject:

• Colorado Luis: “I just want to point out that in a significant way, white Democrats are the target audience for these attacks. Not necessarily just to make them think twice about voting for Bustamante on the recall, but in the longer term, to promote the fear that when Democrats run minority candidates, they will lose.”
  
• Orcinus: “The chief accusation revolves around Bustamante’s supposed connections to La Voz de Aztlan, a publication produced in Los Angeles that is openly racist (that is, it favors Latino racial supremacy) and is viciously anti-Semitic. A quick perusal of its site contents may leave you reeling….there is simply no evidence that at the time Bustamante participated in MEChA that it espoused the kind of naked racism and virulent anti-Semitism as can be found in La Voz. Nor is there a smidgen of evidence that Bustamante ever held such views or endorsed them.”
  
• Nathan Newman: “As conservative imperialists conquer other countries today, it might be worthwhile for everyone to remember the racism involved in our earlier conquests in the southwest.”
  
• Matthew Yglesias: “But just in case I’m wrong, and the nation is threatened by a rising tide of Latino fascism, does anyone know if being one quarter Cuban qualifies me for membership in the new master race?”

The danger of the delusion being entertained by the right was driven home to me by a California Latino professor, Vietnam veteran, and former mechaista who shared a few tidbits of the hate mail he has received for attempting to set the record straight on MECHA. The veiled threats, the foul language, the paranoia, all suggest unmedicated psychosis to me. (National health care could help them.) “How many steps is it from abusive language to violence against Latinos and Liberals?” is what they want us to ask ourselves. I say “Show us your guns” and when they are fool enough to do so, lock them up as terrorists.

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A search on MECHA at hatewatch.org produced no results.

The logic of conservatives is that because MECHA includes the word “Aztlan” in its acronym, it must be affiliated with the racist La Voz de Aztlan which operates out of Whittier. By this same logic we must conclude that any California organization containing the word Jewish, Islam, America, European, Alliance, World, Church, Blood, or California must be racist, too.

There is only one reason to pick out this otherwise obscure group: Arnold’s in trouble and they want to tear Bustamante down down down lest he win — with a majority!

Of course, there’s another way for conservatives to avoid seeing Bustamante elected: they could vote no on the recall.