(Editor’s Note: This blog played a key role in defeating Hoekstra in his 2010 Gubernatorial bid, and we hope to play such a role this year in his run for U.S. Senate. If you would be interested in guest posting on PeteHoekstra.com, please contact us.)
While virtually every Republican candidate these days seems to invoke the legacy of Ronald Reagan, don’t kid yourself: Ronald Reagan was not a 2012-era Republican. Reagan was an optimist who spoke of America in glowing terms. He referred to us as “a shining city” and beacon of hope for the rest of the world. He made us feel good.
We started this anti-Pete Hoekstra blog several years ago, in some part because Hoekstra is your classic hypocritical politician who wraps himself in the American flag while running campaigns and fund-raising on fear, intolerance and xenophobia.
When given the opportunity to lead, Patriotic Pete chooses to play to some of our worst instincts. Rather than educate and inspire, he goes deeply negative, and often times goes over the line.
Take the television advertisement he’s running called “Debbie Spend-it-Now” during the Super Bowl today. As Politico reports, the ad is “racially charged … complete with an Asian actress speaking in broken English.”
The ad, produced in California, features an Asian woman riding a bike through a rice paddy field. The woman says, “Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. … Debbie spend so much American money. … You borrow more and more, from us… we take your jobs. Thank you Debbie ‘Spend-it-now.’”
Tomorrow, February 6, would have been Reagan’s 101st birthday. It’s a shame that only a couple of decades since he left office, it’s openly acceptable in his party to run racially-insensitive advertising like this, or to make public statements, either explicitly or talking in code, or pursue legislation that is discriminatory in nature. You can be openly anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic, anti-gay rights, etc., and it’s completely acceptable. This site, PeteHoekstra.com, stands against this unfortunate trend.
Pete Hoekstra is on the wrong side of history.
Michigan, and the United States, can do so much better.
I re-posted part of your blog on mine. Good luck getting rid of this scumbag.
What makes it more offensive and funny is the spot is shot in California, the actor probably is not even Chinese, and China is not mentioned once. So who is “us” the actress refers to? Possibly the fifth column of all Asian Americans who look like her? What’s sure is Californian rice paddies are not what is making the Chinese economy strong.
This ad is despicable. I can’t believe anyone would vote for or support Pete Hoekstra in any way.
GOOD FOR YOU!!!! JUST KEEP TELLING THE TRUTH AND KEEP ON TRUCKING. I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING THE RACE CARD EVERY DAY. THE ADD SIMPLY IS TELLING THE TRUTH! WE ARE SENDING JOBS TO CHINA AND BORROWING OUR CHILDRENS MONEY AND OUR GRANDCHILDRENS MONEY. THE NEWS MEDIA SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES AND FOR A RARE OCCASION BECOME OBJECTIVE JOURNALIST!
Do you hear that? It’s the sound of Asian American wallets everywhere opening wide to donate to Stabenow. A prosperous minority is waking up to the fact that, even if their families have been here for a century, they are somehow less “American” than a white immigrant like Hoekstra.