The Latino online community has had enough of Republicans who turn a blind eye to bigotry. Presente Action — a Latino online advocacy organization has launched new ads in Florida condemning Rush Limbaugh‘s continued racist attacks on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. To learn how you can help keep the ads on the air visit www.DenunciaRush.com. The website includes a YouTube version of the ad in English.

Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte, a spokesperson for Presente Action, told Imagine2050 that the “The ad campaign is a warning to national Republican politicians. This week, if they pile attacks on Sotomayor and refuse to denounce the hateful, offensive rhetoric from Republican leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Latino voters will hear about it.”

Since the elections in November, white nationalists have been attacking the Republican Party. In February white nationalist David Duke called the appointment of African American Michael Steele to the chairmanship of the Republican Party “insanity” and called Steel a “radical black racist.” Instead of rebuking Duke through its actions, the Republican leadership instead allowed a small faction to attack Steele’s leadership using arguments reminiscent of Duke’s.

When Peter Brimelow of VDARE (a website named after the first alleged white child born in North America) argued that the only way the Republican Party could remain viable was by becoming a virtual white only political party, the Republican Party did not send out a media release reaffirming its “Big Tent Strategy”. Instead it allowed its pundits to publicly undercut respected leaders like Colin Powell who called on the party to be more, not less inclusive.

White nationalists are attacking the Republican Party for its alleged lack of response to the upcoming Senate Confirmation Hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (you can view the confirmation in real time here). The white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens compares Sotomayor to the Ku Klux Klan while others, such as Patrick Buchanan, openly mock the well respected Judge.

Once again the Republican Party is responding by remaining silent as individuals associated with the party adopt the same rhetoric as white nationalists. Despite Sotomayor’s appointment to the federal court by a Republican President in 1991, the Republican Party is allowing its pundits like Rush Limbaugh (comparing her to a Klansman) and anti-immigrant Mark Krikorian (making fun of her last name) to publicly mimic white nationalists in hopes of sinking Sotomayor’s confirmation to the country’s highest court.

This is a critical opportunity for the Republican Party to publicly distance themselves from white nationalists and may well be the final chance to signal to the rest of America that it can be a responsible participant in a multiracial America that is grounded in equal opportunity for all.

The Party will only be successful if it publicly rejects the courting of white nationalists and political hacks like Rush Limbaugh who sound more and more like them every day. To do any less is no longer acceptable.