Any objective person who watched would tell you Lou Barletta's time as Mayor of Hazleton was not a success. Barletta left office popular though, finally winning for Congress on his third try, and then re-districted himself into a safely Republican seat. While he remained popular in Hazleton all along, it took a Republican tsunami in 2010 to actually get him promoted. How does a failed Mayor stay popular and get a promotion though? Well, scapegoating the incoming Dominican population was a big part of Barletta's pathway. Before the "Arizona immigration law," Barletta was passing an ordinance to deal with an alleged illegal immigration problem, striking fear into the Latino community. His down-scale economic, white base was willing to overlook the lack of jobs and poor quality of life under his leadership, so long as he scapegoated Latinos.
Of course, in line with his brand of politics and right on cue yesterday, Congressman Barletta endorsed Donald Trump yesterday. Of course he would embrace building a wall on our Southern border. I'm sure that Lou is fine with banning Muslims from entering the country too. It's the only political brand that he can embrace.
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