OUR NON-WHITES VS. THEIR NON-WHITES

You may have seen this at Think Progress:

...Tuesday in New Mexico, the strains of racism and ethnocentrism that exist in the Tea Party movement emerged again. As Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) prepared to tour a nonprofit organization in Farmington, he was met by a dozen Tea Party protesters, one of whom asserted that Lujan was not an American. The Farmington Daily Times reports:

Darrel Clark of Farmington said he came for "a chance to see the elusive representative."

"He needs to get out of politics and make room for an American," Clark said....

...Lujan, however, was born in Santa Fe, has lived in the U.S. all his life, and is the son of a public school administrator and the speaker of New Mexico's state House of Representatives....

The Farmington Daily Times story adds:

Farmington, as a conservative bastion in a mostly liberal district, is tough country for Lujan. San Juan County voters favored his opponent, Farmington Republican Tom Mullins, by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio in 2010.

Simple racism, right? But if you look at San Juan County's election results for 2010 (PDF), you see that the Hispanic gubernatorial candidate of the GOP, Susana Martinez, beat the Anglo Democrat, Diane Denish, by more than a 2-1 margin (Martinez 24,857, Denish 10,777).

Of course, the political views of Governor Martinez are rather appealing to folks who ordinarily question whether Hispanics are Americans:

Martinez, 51, a county prosecutor, makes no bones about her opposition to illegal immigration and to any measures that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship or remain in the United States without punishment. Like [Marco] Rubio in Florida and other Hispanic Republican candidates, she ran on an anti-illegal immigration platform, promised to secure the border and opposed allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses in New Mexico.

Born in El Paso, Texas, of Mexican-American parents, Martinez was accused during the campaign of betraying Mexicans and Mexican-Americans for her support of tough anti-illegal immigration measures.

... She and her husband are pro-life, believe in small government, and oppose welfare and handouts. In other words, she fits the conservative Republican mold. She had no trouble getting tea party support.

It's the same pattern we see with Clarence Thomas and Allen West and Herman Cain: conservative whites have racist feelings, but make exceptions for "their" non-whites, because "their" non-whites agree with them on the issues, especially issues of ethnicity. That's why Marco Rubio is going to be on the GOP ticket this year.