Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed representatives from Voto Latino and LULAC regarding Robert de Posada on “The Last Word” regarding his conservative-backed campaign aimed at urging Latinos to ‘not vote’.  Watch:

The problem with de Posada is that it is painfully obvious that through the specific use of imagery and the tagline “Don’t Vote” used in the ad that his marketing team put together, it is clear that he not only means “don’t vote for Democrats” but that he also means “don’t vote at all“.  In communications, it not only what is stated explicitly in the text in print that counts, but also what is implied by the choices of imagery and sounds in an ad because those other non-textual queues send their own messages as well.  In its totality, it is crystal clear that the message de Posada is sending is that he is aiding and abetting something that the Latino community has been battling for many years now: voter suppression of our community, which has been an election fraud tactic that’s been used in the past against Latinos.  Most disturbingly, is that his message of “Don’t Vote” really only helps anti-immigrant candidates like Republican Sharron Angle in Nevada that are backed by supporters of Arizona’s neo-nazi SB-1070 law like Sarah Palin because if the Latino vote stays home and not vote, people like Angle get elected and the Latino community suffers.  How could de Posada even start to defend his group’s work that would really only end up choking the Latino community’s voice?      

Well, he certainly tried.  Here’s O’Donnell’s original interview of Robert de Posada:

Yes, there has been frustration with Democrats’ progress on immigration reform but guess what de Posada?  It was Republicans that blocked recent attempts to have progress at least on a down payment on comprehensive immigration reform by killing the push to move forward the DREAM Act.  Now why do you conveniently leave that out of the ad if you claim to be “independent”?  Frankly, a tagline of “don’t vote for Democrats” or even “vote for Republicans” would have been more accetable than hiding behind your misleading “Don’t Vote” slogan when in reality you meant ‘don’t vote at all‘.  Lastly, why do you bring up the Hermandad Mexicana as an organization that would be friendly to your attempts to stifle the voice of the Latino vote?  Where is the statement from Hermandad praising your ads? 

Sadly, by putting such an irresponsible ad on the air, you’re now the one that is taking the Latino vote for granted above all the politicians you claim to be against, Mr. de Posada, because Latinos can see right through you and through whoever recruited you to be the face of this sad attempt to stop us from exercising our power at the ballot box.