Texas Democratic Chair Says Trump Is ‘100 Times Worse’ Than Nixon
June 3, 2020 - Austin
Le grand bleu. “We are more organized today than we have ever been in the history of the Texas Democratic Party,” said TDP Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa on Monday, shortly before kicking off the first ever virtual Texas Democratic Convention. Screenshot: Facebook.
By Jade Esteban Estrada - Political Columnist, San Antonio Sentinel
On Monday, before kicking off the 2020 Texas Democratic Convention, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa took a moment to reflect upon the divisive atmosphere currently hovering over the United States. At the party’s executive meeting, he recalled four major events that had an impact on him as a civically engaged young man: the back-to-back assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the anti-Vietnam war protests, and the subsequent election of Republican President Richard Nixon, who would later prolong the overseas conflict for political gain.
“People were angry,” he said to executive committee officers, some of whom were born years after these events took place. “People were upset. People were grieving. People believed that things were falling apart in our country.” These deaths, coupled with the violent clash between the anti-Vietnam war protesters and the police at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, would have dire consequences for the nation.
Looking back, Hinojosa believes that the division within the Democratic Party was a contributing factor to Nixon’s triumph over Hubert Humphrey, the 1968 Democratic presidential nominee.
The nation and his party, he explained, are facing a similar circumstance under the current commander in chief, though he sees one major difference: “The man that sits in that office today is one hundred times worse,” he said, referring, of course, to President Donald J. Trump. “[He] has not only done some terrible things as a president, [but he] has acted as a terrible human being during the time that he’s been [in office].”
Hinojosa, who was elected to his seat in 2012, also directed blame toward the GOP itself for not only turning a blind eye to Trump’s executive-branch actions, which he believes have been mean-spirited, but for also adopting the president’s “callous” attitude towards marginalized communities and anyone with the strength of character to publicly oppose his point of view. “He really exemplifies the worst of our country,” Hinojosa said.
The elder statesman also touched upon the president’s “lack of leadership” in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now claimed the lives of over 100,000 Americans, and the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. “We are grieving, but a lot of us knew that as long as this man was the president of the United States and the people that are behind him continue to be in power, [that we] were going to see a lot of that in the future,” he said.
Not only does Hinojosa feel Trump’s performance has little chance of improving, he predicts that it will get progressively worse if he wins a second term.
And this Republican-win scenario seems to be the party’s greatest motivating factor on the first day of their digitized convention. The party head said that the organization’s staffers have been working 14-hour days in preparation for the week-long event “because they know that we cannot lose this election.”
“This is, as Chairman [Tom] Perez says, ‘This is literally the ‘Where were you?’ moment for us as Americans,’” Hinojosa said, echoing the Democratic National Committee head. “Where were you when all of this disaster and horrible things were happening all across America? Where were you when this president was destroying our democracy? When the right wing of this country was gaining power? When they were coming out of their hiding and openly displaying the racism and their white supremacy all across America. Where were you when the Republican Party decided to become an arm of this right-wing, horrible, mean, evil president of the United States? Did you step up or did you grieve and fight and get angry and do all the things that you would normally do when much more was expected of you?”
One of the party’s biggest challenges will be the ongoing vote-by-mail debate, which could result in a record-low turnout at the polls due to the coronavirus crisis. Despite this uphill battle, Hinojosa seemed optimistic.
“We are more organized today than we have ever been in the history of the Texas Democratic Party - by far,” he said. “We are probably more organized in Texas than any other state party in the country.”
“As much as we are in shock, as much as we are upset, I think the way we have to approach this - I think we all agree - is we have to make a decision that as hard as we had decided to work for this election in November we have to work even harder,” he said.
Though Hinojosa believes that his party can win the presidential election in November, perhaps remembering Humphrey’s unsuccessful campaign, he warned that this could only take place if the time, energy and commitment is thoroughly applied.
“I believe that the people that are part of this organization are up to it,” he said in conclusion. “This is a call to arms...a call to action for us as a party and I know that everyone is up to it.”
Jade Esteban Estrada is a political columnist at the San Antonio Sentinel. He can be reached at jade@sasentinel.com.