Ana Navarro, conservative strategist and political commentator, absolutely stole the show at the 2017 AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing conference. Her Tuesday morning session, “Multiculturalism and Today’s Media: The 2016 Election and What It All Means,” was the highlight of the entire event. The jokes she made about “The Wall” and her story of what she said to Paul Ryan at the Romney retreat was worth the price of admission all by itself.
She was part of a panel that included the woman in that AWFUL Tronc video Anne Vasquez, and Juan Carlos Lopez, anchor of CNN en Español.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/874708539633262592
These are very difficult times for all of us in this wonderful country of ours, but it’s even harder for people like Navarro, because she is a life-long Republican wanting to see a GOP led government succeed. Of course, President Donald Trump is no true, traditional Republican, but only a politician with the R next to to his name.
He is, as Ana Navarro calls him, #PresidentLoco or the #TwittererInChief
There is a genuine concern, both inside and outside the beltway, about Trump not being being mentally and psychologically fit to serve as President.
“When somebody is acting crazy, you should be able to call him out,” said the regular contributor to CNN, ABC and Telemundo.
“When Trump is having temporary sanity, you can work with him, and you should. Most people have temporary insanity, he has temporary sanity.”
Ana Navarro is one pundit who certainly can call Trump out because as she said during the panel session, “I’m not a journalist, I’m a commentator. I can say whatever the hell I want.”
Of course, what you really should do is listen to the full panel session below, take it all in and then make up your own mind.
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/ana-navarro-anne-vazquez-juan-lopez-at-2017-ahaa
Navarro pointed out how unfortunate it is now that actual hate has been given a platform and mainstreamed. The 2016 election drive that point home.
“I think racism has been legitimated,” she said.
“You used to lose your job, when you were revealed as a racist. You would lose your friends. It used to be embarrassing, it used to be shameful. Now it’s not. That’s how folks feel, they came out from under their rocks, and now they feel empowered.”
“Now they are harassing our people and people who look different than them, or sound different than them, and that is now ok, because they see that a guy who campaigned on this is now sitting in the Oval Office, so then (they think) ‘it is ok for me’ to do it.”
It’s rather depressing when one thinks about just how true her statements really are. So what can be done to change things? Stop giving a platform to those who spread hate and engage in fear-mongering.
Since media outlets continue to give platforms to people like Sean Hannity (even while he went on his temporary insanity regarding Seth Rich) and Alex Jones who believes the Sandy Hook massacre was staged, and is a 9/11 truther, it’s up to the sponsors.
“If conscious won’t move networks, then money will move networks, and we move the money,” she said citing all the sponsors who pulled out of Bill O’Reilly’s program as the sexual harassment lawsuits piled up and ended his show.
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And it goes without saying that real change can only come through political action, and that means getting and staying engaged in the election cycles. Not just every four years, but all the time.
“Let me tell you if four years of the Donald Trump’s administration doesn’t get Latinos to register and to vote, nothing will,” she said.
That was the biggest applause line Ana Navarro had for the entire session.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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