Tancredo’s actions speak louder

Tom Tancredo wants the world to know he’s no racist. He’s making the argument in his third bid for governor, so consideration is due.

In a pair of recent columns, I rued his meddling in the gubernatorial race and his association with the VDARE Foundation, which helped organize the deadly white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Va., and with Stephen Bannon, of Breitbart.

One of Tancredo’s motivations for entering the primary, he says, is spinelessness from Colorado Republicans for not standing up for free speech after a VDARE event where he was to speak was canceled.

I didn’t call him a racist in the pieces, but my arguments left the impression, and he understandably took offense. In the resulting back-and-forth, I admitted I couldn’t know his mind.

So, coffee.

Nursing a latte, the former congress-

man talked passionately about traveling to Sudan to try to help Christians forced to flee their homes in the war-torn country. At a make-do worship service in the camp, the refugees’ devotion and passion for following Jesus mesmerized him.

Tancredo told the congregation that he came to Sudan hoping to help, but witnessing the strength of their faith helped him far more than he could ever reciprocate.

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act — sponsored by Tancredo — into law.

The firebrand made trips to the former Soviet Union to help Jews. He worked with anti-mullah Iranian Muslims. He loved the people he helped.

Demonstrable love and action on the behalf of Africans, Jews and Muslims: How could he be racist? Tancredo later reminded me that the late Latino political powerhouse Paul Sandoval, years ago, defended him, saying, “You can say a lot of things about Tom Tancredo. Racist is not one of them.”

So what about VDARE? Tancredo wasn’t just to speak at that canceled event, he was a member of the board.

His answer is that he goofed. Thinking VDARE was simply like-minded on immigration, he agreed to be listed as a member. The position was in name only, he said. He only took part, by phone, in a single board meeting.

Soon after launching his latest gubernatorial run, he severed ties.

That’s a maddeningly unsatisfying answer. Like equating antifa activists to the Ku Klux Klan, like saying Barack Obama should be sent back to Kenya, like calling Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor a racist, like arguing that our nation should bomb the Muslim holy city of Mecca in retaliation for terror attacks, Tancredo’s jabs and hooks create the kind of hurtful distortion and controversy that make for terrible political leadership.

His argument back is that it’s not fair to judge his policies through the lens of race, as he would support blacks for president or Latinas for the Supreme Court whose policies he agrees with, like Clarence Thomas. He argues, reasonably, that serious immigration reform would benefit working American minorities.

But he also loathes the idea of Congressional caucuses organizing to support specific races. Why have a Black Caucus? An Hispanic Caucus? Can you imagine what would happen if anyone tried to organize a White Caucus?

When I pushed back that Congress already was essentially a white caucus, and that it makes perfect sense for traditionally marginalized people to organize within our political system, he brushed off the suggestion, saying why not just have a Civil Rights Caucus?

Even a reasonable-sounding answer like that one sounds to my ears like a dog whistle. It’s a wink and a nod to the worst of our nation’s passions, and he’s rewarded with a reliable core of hardliners as a result of these ploys.

Still, I said I hoped to keep up respectful dialog, and I do. Tancredo really gets what drives supporters of Donald Trump, a group that gets stuck with labels all the time. He is a Trump-supporter whisperer who helps explain their fears and antagonisms, even as he draws his strength from inflaming them.

The firebrand leaned forward to say: “The truth is, we’re both a little wrong about each other.”

Fair enough. But as we shook hands in departure, I knew his next bombshell statement was likely already on its way.