Texas Democrat Spanish-Language Ad Calls Tea Partiers 'Radical Terrorists'

The Bexar County Democratic Party is on the record, likening the Tea Party to terrorists in a Spanish-language ad that is running on Univision, according to Gilbert Garcia in the San Antonio Express-News.

Manuel Medina understands this, too. That’s why the Bexar County Democratic Party chairman launched a new Spanish-language ad last Thursday on Univision, implying that tea party Republicans rank up there with ISIS as the organization most likely to behead us in our sleep.

The Univision airtime was bankrolled (to the tune of $25,000) by personal-injury attorney Thomas J. Henry, who has also made a big splash in the Bexar County district attorney race by donating more than $1.2 million to Democratic candidate Nico LaHood.

The Univision ad begins by showing the United States and Mexican flags waving next to each other, with a narrator saying, “These two flags represent friendship, liberty, opportunity and justice.”

That image is quickly replaced by the tea party’s “Don’t Tread on Me” banner.

This flag, the narrator warns us, is “muy peligrosa” (very dangerous).

“It’s the flag of the tea party Republicans. They are radical terrorists and they want to take matters into their own hands, affecting our children and families with violence and firearms on the border and in our cities.”

That accusation is accompanied by photos of Texas militia members in camouflage uniforms and a worried woman holding tight to her child.

The Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans has posted the full ad with a translation here. They also condemned the ad in a statement.

“So the Democrats want to call Tea Party friends of ours “Radical Terrorists.” Here is our response, which party in Texas has been aiding the cartels? Democrat elected officials are no different than the corrupt mayor in Guerrero, Mexico who collaborated with the cartel to kidnap and murder 43 students. These Democrats conspire and benefit from border insecurity and crime.”

It was a Democrat county sheriff in Hidalgo County whose son worked with the drug cartels, and engaged in home invasions against local citizens. Sheriff Trevino himself pleaded guilty to laundering cartel money and is going to federal prison. The Democrat corruption in that one county endangered the lives of many.

Medina, and therefore the Bexar County Democratic Party, defends the ad. The Bexar County GOP says that it goes “way over the line,” which is true. It’s close to slander.

Whatever one thinks of the militias, the fact is they would not be on the border if the federal government was doing its job to secure that border. The lack of security impacts all communities in Texas, including the many Hispanic communities that are on the front lines.

The story highlights a problem that the Tea Party and other conservative groups will have to solve going forward. Over the past few years, Democrats have saved some of their most outrageous accusations for ads in Spanish-language media. The right has mostly not responded, at least not where it would matter — in the same media space, in Spanish.