OxBlog

# Posted 9:05 PM by Ariel David Adesnik

PAUL STREITZ FOR US SENATE! On the one hand, you have to give a longshot candidate credit for reaching out to bloggers just before announcing his run. On the other hand, maybe Streitz is long-shot because OxBlog is the last blog one should target with a xenophobic, protectionist message.

So, is it really appropriate to throw around a word like 'xenophobic'? Well, take a look at the graphic up above, taken from the front page of the Streitz for Senate website, and tell me what you think. The man is actually serious when he says that Mexicans are trying to take back the land they lost in the 1840s.

So now you may be asking whether Paul Steitz is a real candidate or whether he is just a virtual satire, in the spirit of the Landover Baptist Church. Sadly, Steitz is real. His candidacy is being covered by both the Stamford Advocate and the Journal-Inquirer.

You can also find a sympathetic interview with Steitz over at Connectictut Conservative. I sure hope the interviewer was just being polite, since Steitz is an embarrassment to everything conservative and everything American.

Not surprisingly, one poster at the cleverly-tited My Left Nutmeg just says "This guy is a wingnut." (FYI Connecticut is the Nutmeg State.)

But in spite of all of this, maybe I should endorse Steitz. After all, there is no better way to ensure that Joe Lieberman gets re-elected.

(15) opinions -- Add your opinion

Comments:

Unfortunately there are those in the Mexican-American community that want to recover the land lost in the war with Mexico. Increasing immigration from Mexico, whether legal or not, serves their purpose. How widespread is their support? Who knows? But 500,000 people demonstrating for open borders yesterday don't do much to make one believe they don't have a fair amount of support. If and when we start to actively secure our southern border, then we will see how much support they have and if their methods of achieving that result will change.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:48 PM

David, come down here to Texas some time and find out if he's really all that paranoid. (Houston's new soccer team, after all, was just renamed from "1836" (Houston's founding year) because it was offensive to Mexicans to be reminded of the year Texas won independence from Mexico.) There's quite a few of my students -- and coworkers -- who are sympathetic to the Aztlan movement... not just LA mayoral candidates.

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:00 PM

If we play our cards right we could end up with not one, but two clashes of civilizations. One with Muslims and one with Latinos. Add China and it would be crazy. The hell with Wilsonianism and Hamiltonianism, Jose Cuervoism.

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:40 PM

Adrianne, that '1836' incident sounds like a small-bore excess of political correctness to me. Paranoia really is the only word for a candidate who sees concerted, conspiratorial aggression behind a flow of desperate economic migrants.

PS I love Texas. Spent five weeks in New Braunfels waiting tables to make some cash before I went off to grad school. Was no good as a waiter, but Texans are great.

# posted by

Ariel David Adesnik : 1:10 AM

I'm confused, isn't the "la Raza" movement very real.

I don't know how significant Mexican-American supremacists are, but I'm pretty sure they are no more representative of the overall Mexican-American population than are white supremacists of the white population. However, I'm also sure that Mexican-American supremacists, as well as the "aztlan" movement are very real.

Yet I must say that it does appear to me that Mr. Steitz over-represents the significance of the chicano nationalist movement.

Here is an article that appeared in the NY Times by the Mexican-American author and immigration rights advocate Raoul Lowery Contreras regarding the Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante controversy in the 2003 California Gubernatorial race. This article touches on the aztlan movment and its relationship with American politics and the broader Mexican-American community.

http://www.calnews.com/archives/contreras164.htm

In response to David Adesnik, in his post above, the aztlan movement has little to do with "desperate economic migrants" Rather, it is a movement that is manifest in Mexican-American populist politics as well as among a small minority of Mexican-American colllege students.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:14 AM

Yes, I'll second what Confused said -- the immigrants (both among students/coworkers and in the general H-town population) are generally very happy to be in America. It's those who have been born here and have a higher standard of living and are most definitely not "desperate" who have the luxury to go into activism and get very worked up over the non-Mexican-ness of Texas. As one (Hispanic) coworker put it -- just ask people what they call themselves. If they call themselves Hispanic, Mexican-American, or Latino, they generally like America and the way things are going; if they call themselves Chicano or just plain Mexican, they're likely to sympathize with those who were stomping around downtown threatening violence if the "1836" name wasn't changed (not just an overkill of pc-ness).

Eh, my "non-Chicano Hispanic" coworkers are scared of the growing support for the Aztlan movement in Texas, and of increasing threats against those who have names like "Garza" but won't sympathize; if they, who live and move among those who support it, are scared, should I really dismiss it as paranoia?

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:23 AM

I would agree that his message will not get him elected in the North East. However, I would suggest you need to do a little more research on the subject before being critical of his message. There ae people now in power in california who openly talk about the return of California to Mexico.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:32 AM

I'd be a little more sympathetic to the "Aztlan" movement if Mexico had it's house in order. I wonder if they would still want California back if it was an economic backwater. Here's an idea - get Baja California up to snuff, and then maybe we can talk about giving New Mexico back. Baby steps. :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:06 AM

Years ago, in a story about the Chiapas unrest, P.J. O'Rourke quotes what he says is a well known joke among Mexicans. Not only did we take half their country, but we took the half with the paved roads.

Steitz may well be a demogogue on this issue, but it's a real issue. Many want those paved roads back.

# posted by

tim maguire : 12:00 PM

I agree with the posters above. A group called MechA are the ones behind the movement to take back Aztlan, the area taken during the Mexican-American War. Google them and you will see how many chapters they have at major univesities, colleges and to my surprise, high schools. This potentially is a serious internal threat. Not something to be laughed off. Something I have read says their motto is "For the Race everything, for those outside the Race-nothing". Also there is an anti-semetic element within their movement.

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:37 PM

There are Germans who want to recover Silesia and East Prussia, Greeks who want Smyrna back and even Russians trying to reclaim Alaska, so I don't see why the Mexicans wouldn't try to get the Aztlan back. Frontiers change all the time.

However, instead of guarding their frontier, Americans would be better advised to have more children. Ultimately, the most crucial wars among nations are demographic ones. Catholics are winning one in Northern Ireland and Palestinians might well win the Middle Eastern one as well...

# posted by

sonia : 5:18 PM

I think, right now, I'd rather support Lieberman than Streitz.

# posted by

Sean : 7:12 PM

Face the facts: the time for the fight against immigration is coming. The American people aren't going to take it much longer. Mr. Streitz's candidacy is only the beginning. We already have the Minute Men in place. They will slowly gain power and prominence as the years go on.

The assault from Mexicans on American liberties is one far more serious and devious than the Mohammedan could ever hope to be. The threat is more slowly acted upon and far more subtle, and it will take time for the average citizen to understand the danger.

# posted by

Allen : 9:08 PM

Behold! The Unassimilated Hispanic Menace!

# posted by

Jacob : 2:11 AM

It's been fifteen years since I was last in a government office in Mexico, but in the 1980's I was in quite a few of them. The offical maps on the wall all showed the borders that Mexico claimed before the Mexican War.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:53 AM