I was disgusted -- but not surprised -- when Donald Trump kicked Jorge Ramos out of a press conference, telling him to "go back to Univision." It's important that we speak out against his abhorrent rhetoric and tactics. But we can't let Donald Trump distract us into believing that other candidates like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker are any less dangerous or extreme than he is. All the Republican candidates are pushing extreme agendas at odds with our community -- and in important ways, some candidates are pushing policy ideas that are more radical than what Trump himself is proposing.
Look at Social Security and Medicare, essential programs that ensure that the seniors in our community don't have to choose between paying for their medicine and paying their electricity bills. Jeb Bush supports his brother's plan to privatize Social Security. If the last President Bush had succeeded in enacting that plan into law, stock market crashes would have left seniors with nothing. The volatility of the market over the last few days shows why privatizing Social Security is a crazy idea, but that's not all. Jeb Bush also wants to raise the retirement age for Social Security, even though this would disproportionately hurt Latinos. Scott Walker agrees, and believes that cutting back Medicare and Social Security "has to be done." Marco Rubio went so far as to say that Social Security has "weakened us as people." Trump, for his part, hasn't been willing to sign on to such extreme positions.
It's not just entitlement programs where other GOP candidates outdo Trump in their extremism. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker have all attacked the need for a federal minimum wage. Bush believes we should get rid of the federal minimum wage entirely. Marco Rubio sees the minimum wage as a "waste of time." Scott Walker called it just a "lame idea." Even The Donald recognizes the importance of the minimum wage -- although he's said he's against raising it.
And on a wide range of issues, Trump and his less flamboyant competitors all share virtually identical positions. All of the leading presidential candidates ignore climate science and refuse to protect the environment. They all support tax plans that benefit the wealthy at the expense of working families. And they'd all appoint conservative Supreme Court justices who would favor big corporations over the needs of everyone else. Each of those positions is dangerous for Americans in general and potentially devastating for Latinos in particular.
There's no question that Donald Trump is pushing an extreme agenda that would be devastating for Latino families -- but his ugly rhetoric shouldn't make us think that other GOP candidates are any better.