Jorge Ramos played the race card in an Iowa press conference.

Donald Trump would have none of it. Bravo.

So as the scene unfolded on CNN, there is Donald Trump in Iowa, holding a press conference.

And from off screen comes this insistent voice — barely heard as there was no microphone for the unidentified speaker. But even barely heard it was clear whoever it was had a cause to promote — an agenda. Trump, the anti-Hillary who repeatedly talks to reporters of all stripes, all networks, all publications, was clearly in the process of calling on another reporter. The speaker was having none of this. He demanded attention from Trump — right NOW! 

As it came clear that Trump — no Bernie Sanders he — was not going to be bullied by whomever and would actually run his own press conference — the cameras pulled back to reveal the rude guy.

It was Jorge Ramos of Univision. Ahhhh. The agenda comes clear. Univision — the company that broke its contract with Trump and dumped the Trump-owned Miss Universe when Trump noted that yes, in fact, there were illegals coming across the U.S. border and committing crimes. Trump promptly answered Univision back with a $500 million lawsuit. So Ramos was there in Iowa to score a blow for race card playing. And as he continued his rant — Trump promptly had him removed. Eventually, he gave the OK for Ramos to return, welcomed him back, and had a completely civil exchange on immigration. The incident was perfect metaphor for the illegal immigration issue. Ramos jumped the press conference rules and was sent back — only welcomed back inside when he agreed to live by the same rules as the rest of the press corps in the room.

Is Jorge Ramos a journalist? A professional? He pretends to the role. But he is in fact something else — a left-wing illegal immigration activist disguised as a journalist. Ramos was not acting in the role of a journalist at the press conference, he was acting as the left-wing activist he in fact is on this issue. Refusing to follow the basic press conference etiquette that every other reporter in the room was following, fulfilling every stereotype of the smarty-pants rude media type that millions of Americans have come to loathe. Trump responded in way that reminded of that famous moment in the 1980 GOP New Hampshire debate where a similarly disdainful journalist demanded that Ronald Reagan’s microphone be shut off. Reagan instantly half rose from his seat and grabbed the mic, saying sharply, “I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green!” The moment electrified his supporters, Reagan won the primary, the nomination, and eventually the election.

Has Jorge Ramos just won the Republican nomination for Donald Trump? We will see. But certainly Trump’s firm handling of this situation was a serious plus for his campaign. A campaign that is already swimming in favorable polls and large crowds.

But there’s more to this — much more. And the consequences of what Jorge Ramos is really about needs to be addressed plainly.

For some background, saunter over here to CNN (where, full disclosure I am now a commentator) and this article by Ruben Navarrette Jr. titled: 

In Mexico, racism hides in plain view 

In which Mr. Navarrette, an American of Mexican descent through his grandfather who arrived as a boy, writes in part:

 And yet, even with all the progress and openness in Mexico over the past few years, there is still one subject that no one talks about, one that is still off-limits: race.

The enduring taboo subject is skin color, whether an individual’s complexion betrays an allegiance to the Spanish who conquered the Aztec empire in 1521 or the Aztecs who were conquered. It’s no exaggeration to say that, in this country and especially in this city, the best, highest-paying, most important jobs often seem to go to those who, in addition to having the best education and the strongest connections, have the lightest skin.…

Prejudice kills progress.

Indeed it does, aside from being immoral.

Now add that note from Mr. Navarrette to this 2012 BBC story by the British network’s Mexico City correspondent Will Grant. 

The story (which I have mentioned over here at Conservative Review) is about the lack of social mobility in Mexico, noting the country’s rigid class structure and that: “If you are born into poverty the chances are very high that you will die poor too.”

Now let’s get back to Jorge Ramos. The blue-eyed, light-skinned Ramos — let’s be candid he is a European Mexican — is the epitome of what Navarrete is saying when he says: “It’s no exaggeration to say that, in this country and especially in this city, the best, highest-paying, most important jobs often seem to go to those who, in addition to having the best education and the strongest connections, have the lightest skin.” 

Ramos also penned a 2002 column in which he revealed that he wants to turn America from the “melting pot” of historical fame into a North American version of Mexico — divided by class and race. In the words of Ramos, “the challenge of the United States is that it recognize itself as it is—a multiethnic, multi-racial and multicultural nation.”

This is exactly antithetical to the American Dream. America is not supposed to be an “ethnic” or “racial” nation let alone a “multiethnic, multi-racial and multicultural” nation. “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence is about “all men.” Period. Full stop. It says nothing about race or ethnicity. The nation is founded on principles of freedom and liberty — ideas, not skin color or class structure.

Yet that is not what Ramos is seeking. He is playing the Mexican version of the race card and wanting to transfer the rigid class structure of his native country northward.

It is no accident that his ideas get such a warm welcome on the American Left. As we note here so often, the political party that fuels the American Left is the Democrats — the party that arose around the organizing principle of dividing Americans by skin color. From slavery to segregation to lynching to the Ku Klux Klan to illegal immigration, the beating heart of the American left is race — race card-playing, outright racism.

It is no wonder that Ramos, coming from a Mexican society that is itself hopelessly divided by out and out racism thinks it would be terrific to import this way of life to America. And it is no wonder that millions of Americans — yes, those supporters of Donald Trump — are furiously resisting. Trump supporters come from a wide diversity of ethnicities — and in a country that is 100% populated by the descendants of immigrants from all over the globe — Trump supporters are demanding a colorblind society of American social mobility — where race and class remain the foreign notions that so many millions came here to escape.

Note well that the move is now afoot to take Trump’s demands for legal immigration and turn Trump into what in fact the left really is — a race card player. The man who has employed thousands of Latinos, whose far-flung global empire includes properties in locations favored by Latino populations such as Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Uruguay among others, is suddenly an anti-Hispanic racist. Right.

This is the same race card Democrats played for generations as they pitted whites against blacks for political and financial profit. Everything from the modern Civil Service to the Federal Reserve to Social Security to the federal school lunch program resulted from political power obtained by the Left and its Democratic Party/progressive allies playing straight up racism. This time around the idea is to play the race card with Hispanics. Eliminating the reality of the illegal immigrant — a concept not tolerated in Mexico itself — and playing the race card instead. 

It is disgraceful if sadly — make that eye-rollingly — typical. 

As we have noted many times in this space, John F. Kennedy observed back when he began to force the Democratic Party to yield its racist ways that “race has no place in American life or law.”

Alas, while the civil rights battles once won by Lincoln and his Republican allies of the 1860s had to be re-fought and re-won in the 1960s due to a century of fierce resistance by bitter-end lefties, there once was hope that racism was gone for good from the party that used it to obtain its political power. Alas, not so. Here we are again.

This very week, the left-wing New Yorker is out with a cover story headlined:

Trump and the White Nationalists

To modify the famous Ronald Reagan remark, there goes the Left again. Transferring their own paranoid addiction to race to Donald Trump and his supporters. (Notably, in discussing Trump’s embrace of families who have lost family members to murderous illegals, they mentioned Jamail Shaw Sr. and his murdered son Jamail Jr. — curiously leaving out the fact that the Shaws are black. Apparently, since Mr. Shaw doesn’t fit the “profile” of a Trump-supporting white nationalist, it was better to just ignore the obvious.) 

The hard reality is that a political party and a political movement — the Democrats and the Left that were built on the power of out and out racism — are fully intending to keep Americans divided by race. Forever.

And Jorge Ramos — as his hateful message of glorifying ethnicity and race over the colorblind ideals of freedom and liberty illustrates all too well — intends to help them.

Shameful.

The good news illustrated in that Iowa press conference? Donald Trump — the son and grandson of immigrants who is also married to an immigrant — won’t stand for any of this disgraceful business.

Good for him.