It's completely possible that representative Lamborn used it merely to refer to "a sticky situation." But, once again, the term has well-known racial connotations. We'll never know what was actually going through his mind when he said that, but to his credit, he did apologize.
I should also mention - and I feel like I've repeated myself too many times on this issue - racism and racial prejudice, these days, mostly occur on a subtle, subconscious level. I'm guilty of it, almost all of us are guilty of it to some extent or another, of pre-judging people based on their skin color, or how they dress, or their appearance, or whatnot. It's simply how the mind works. The problem is that racial prejudice has been reinforced by the media. Gone are the days of Jim Crow, blatant, in-your-face, racism. So people who harbor racially prejudiced attitudes usually don't put them "out there," or worse, might not even be aware that they hold such attitudes. Such is how subtle racism operates; on the subconscious level.
I agree with Perry's bit about the use of labels, and I apologize if you felt that I meant them to have any negative connotation. Saying that Tea Party members hold nativist attitudes is qualitatively and substantively no different than saying liberals generally critical of corporations or concentration of money. They are simply attitudes.
As for my own views - I am a liberal. I believe in an activist government ("big government" if you will). That does not mean that I don't believe in a fiscally prudent government. I think the government should pay its bills and cut deficits. I believe in the role of government as problem-solver. It can't solve all of society's ills, but in many cases it is the institution that is most suited to do so. Some problems are better left to the states, some better left to the federal gov't.
I believe the conversation about illegal immigration to be misguided - the root of the problem lies with the push factors that are causing people to cross our border illegally, and laws that inadequalely take into account the situations of people, who for whatever reason, overstay their visa. Everything else we talk about afterwards is just talking about what the bandaid should look like rather than what the cause of the illness is. Anyway, this is for another discussion.
