A group pushing conservative principles in Hispanic communities plans to run an ad in South Florida against the earwax eating Democratic Florida Rep. Joe Garcia to make light of his recent remark that “we’ve proved that communism works.”
The group LIBRE Initiative is launching the Spanish-language television and digital ad in Florida’s 26th Congressional District race this week. The ad was shared first with The Daily Caller ahead of its release on Wednesday.
It encourages viewers to call Garcia and tell him that “communism does not work.”
“This really strikes at the core of what we’re about, which is free-markets and capitalism,” Daniel Garza, the executive director of LIBRE Initiative, said in an interview with The Daily Caller. “And this comment is an embarrassment to the Hispanic community, coming from a Hispanic congressman.”
Added Garza: “We want to resist this kind of rhetoric and attack it immediately so that there’s no tolerance for it.”
Garcia’s “communism works” remark — made during a Google hangout on immigration reform — went viral two-weeks ago. Defenders of the congressman, however, say the context indicates that it was a tongue-in-cheek comment.
Garza’s response to that defense? “Well, if it is tongue and cheek, it is insensitive. It’s absolutely insensitive. And we can have no tolerance for it. People have suffered because of communism. Especially here in Miami.”
During the Google hangout, Garcia criticized the Republican policy of spending more on border security. “We’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime. But that isn’t what we should be doing on the border. The kind of money we’ve poured into it, and we’re having diminishing returns.”
At one point, the ad’s narrator says: “Tell him to put his lunch aside and listen to the peoples’ voice.” This is in reference to Garcia being caught on TV last month picking something out of his ear and then eating it. The ad includes footage of this.
The LIBRE Initiative has ties to the libertarian Koch Brothers donor network. Its ad campaign on Garcia will last about three weeks in Florida.
There is a contested Republican primary in Florida to take on Garcia for the seat in November.
Here is the ad with English subtitles:
Here is the ad, translated in English:
Congressman Joe Garcia says that communism works.
“We’ve proved that communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”
But communism doesn’t work.
Garcia has voted for laws that put us more in debt and create fewer jobs.
Garcia’s votes in Congress stifle our small businesses and reduce our job opportunities.
Call Congressman Joe Garcia.
Tell him to put his lunch aside and listen to the peoples’ voice.
Communism does not work.