House Democrat Puts Guatemala First | The American Spectator

“I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, told attendees at the opening ceremony at the Panamerican Congress. 

Democrats call the slogan America First “racist” and “code.” What does that make Guatemala First? 

It seems a laudatory commitment for a Guatemalan. For one born in the United States who repeatedly insists on her Americanism, it seems like a self-rebuttal. 

How might the leftists who gathered in Mexico City react if an elected Guatemalan leader pledged at their meeting to put America before Guatemala? One surmises they would immediately realize the perverseness of that politician’s priorities. 

Some in her party insist something got lost in translation. But instead of denying the gist of the translation, Ramirez doubled down on what she said. Hopefully, she says she did not mean to say that or maybe that she really said something else but the translation or her Spanish garbled her meaning. Remarkably, days after her speech, she hasn’t said anything like that.  

Democrats, to include Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Jesús Gilberto García of Illinois, and any others who traveled to Mexico City for the gathering, cannot seem to grasp how or why Ramirez and other such America-bashing politicians drag their party in the United States. 

The insulation of districts where Republican sightings occur as often as ones of D. B. Cooper and Amelia Earhart allows for consequence-free anti-Americans. If Ramirez feels no consequences inside of her district, Democrats outside of her district, whether they admit it or not, usually do. 

Ramirez described the United States to those gathered in Mexico City as “addicted to war.” She said the country prioritizes “imperialism, militarization, conquest, control, competition in its attempt at domination.”

The second-term representative, whose parents came to the United States illegally and who is married to an illegal alien, delivered the ugliest part of her remarks in Spanish. 

Befuddled Democrats, in a stupor since Nov. 5, wonder why they lost last year’s elections. 

The fact that Democrats do not see one of their own delivering a speech partly in Spanish in Mexico City in which she bashes the United States as a symptom of their party’s problems, but rather continue to lash out at external concerns such as Donald Trump and the people America chose over them last November, indicates why the party struggles so mightily. They are incapable of any self-corrective action, which requires introspection and admissions of errors — to include policy and ideological errors and not merely ones of style or communication. 

The Trump administration, which sometimes violates Napoleon’s counsel never to interfere with an enemy in the process of self-destruction, provided the right touch, the light touch, here. 

The Department of Homeland Security tweeted, over video of a clip of Ramirez speaking, portions of a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, who said: “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism…. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.” 

In response to such criticism, Ramirez later reacted: “Only those who believe America should not include the children of immigrants or be diverse would attack me — and Americans like me — for honoring my roots.” 

How does one say “dodge” in Spanish?