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If you want to know how President Biden plans to use his new “Disinformation Governance Board,” just look at what is happening here in South Florida. Liberal activists are demanding that the government target Spanish outlets to “protect” Hispanic voters. This is insulting, and it raises serious questions about the future of free speech in our nation. It undoubtedly shows what the Left truly thinks.
There is a major shift happening in our country right now. Between 2016 and 2020, Hispanics’ support for Donald Trump increased by eight points. Now, Hispanics are evenly divided in their support for Democrats and Republicans. In some parts of South Florida, Republicans actually have an advantage.
The driving force behind this shift is obvious: liberals are embracing the same radical ideas and tactics that pushed many Hispanics to flee their homelands. The Democratic Party is no longer the party of progressive taxation and welfare expansion. Today’s Democrats demand people talk, act, and believe the same nonsense they do about schools, immigration, gender, and more. It disturbs most Americans, but especially those who fled Marxist regimes with eerie similarities to the modern Left.
However, liberal activists refuse to accept the obvious explanation of the facts — nor do they accept the actual testimony of Hispanic Republicans. Instead, they claim voters are the victims of “disinformation.” It’s a twisted lesson in how identity politics enables racism. For woke ideologues, people are little more than the sum of their skin color and ethnicity. They can’t imagine that immigrants — especially Hispanic immigrants — wouldn’t support their self-proclaimed champions on the Left. Their “disloyalty” must indicate foul play.
The truth is that Hispanics in this country don’t spend every second of their lives thinking about their ethnicity. They are more concerned about the quality of life of their families; their responsibilities as spouses, parents, neighbors, and teachers; and their communities and small business. Radical Democrat policies are making it harder for all working Americans to improve their quality of life and fulfill those responsibilities. That’s why more Hispanics are voting Republican. To accuse them of being manipulated is shamefully demeaning.
There’s more cause for concern here, though. Fearful of Hispanics’ shift to the Right, liberal activists are calling for the federal government to take action against conservative radio shows in my home state. Current regulations forbid the violation of free speech except in cases where information is causing “substantial public harm” or immediate private harm. Activists say that “is not enough” and are demanding the Biden Administration be more assertive.
President Biden, meanwhile, just appointed someone who “shudders at the thought of…free speech absolutists” to lead his new “Disinformation Governance Board.” The possibility that his administration will begin heeding calls to censor conservative media, under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is unfortunately very real, and a threat to our free speech.
This is the America we now live in. Democrats’ policy failures are pushing more Hispanic voters into the Republican fold, but rather than reform their own policy agenda, liberals want the government to crack down on voices who disagree. All Americans, regardless of their ethnicity, should stand firm against this push for political censorship — and remind the woke ideologues that we are more than the color of our skin and a last name that ends in a vowel.
Marco Rubio serves as a Republican senator from Florida / Marco Rubio es senador republicano por Florida