There are better ways to court those who fled fascist oppression than in replicating totalitarian methods.

In a supreme example of lacking awareness, a group of House Democrats are looking to have the federal government step in and block the sale of a radio station in Miami. The only reason they give to justify this is that they may not like the programming content offered by the new owners. The 38 member Congressional Hispanic Caucus wants to reach out to the FCC and have that agency question and stop the sale because they fear the new ownership group will shift to a conservative talk format.

Florida Representative Darren Soto says, “The immediate silencing of progressive voices on South Florida radio is contrary to the public good and importance of varying viewpoints.’’ If this sounds as if he is implying the Spanish community is not savvy enough to seek out alternate outlets, you are not alone. If it sounds like they want to employ Banana Republic tactics you are spot on.

“It disturbs me,’’ says Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, about the prospect of a conservative outlet being entrenched in Miami. ‘’This type of misinformation was applied last cycle and applied by conservative Colombian politicians trying to influence our election.” The fear from this crowd is both palpable, and understandable.

In Miami-Dade County, Donald Trump enjoyed surprising returns, as the traditional Democrat stronghold saw surprisingly close results in the last general election. In addition, the Republicans picked up two House seats in the Hispanic districts, and this matched very strong returns nationwide from Hispanic voters for the GOP. As a result, the Democrats are looking to get their thumbs on the scale in order to halt the move to a balance. The irony is they are looking to block that approach to parity in the name of ‘’fairness’’.

“For a lot of these communities this is the only source they watch,’’ details Gallego. ‘’A lot of them aren’t crossing over and watching other media like CNN, so they end up being siloed in terms of the information they get. They only go to the trusted source so when that source gets corrupted, you essentially have a population getting one point of view.” This is sheer gaslighting.

There are two primary television networks catering to the Hispanic audience — Univision, and Telemundo, the second actually with broadcast studios in Miami. Univision, which has been cited for having a liberal agenda, owns 2 television channels in the area, as well as four radio stations. I think there is a balance in order, to be sure. Telemundo, meanwhile, was sold to NBC, which I doubt places that network firmly right of center.

Despite the array of choices, this cabal of Democrats is pretending that the South Florida market is serviced by a limited variety and that the weak-minded citizens are easily swayed by whatever bleeds through their speakers. For this, they have come up with the justification to block the legal sale of a station without any violations to be found. This is a foolish political move.

The area of concern, South Florida, has a varied Latino community, one dominated by two primary backgrounds — those from Cuba, and from Venezuela. This means the Democrats feel like the best way for them to reach out to those exiles who fled fascist regimes is to block media stations in a Fidel Castro-like fashion. They may speak of the residents in a derogatory fashion, but more than they realize will see this move as the state-control that it is. They will not like the results this delivers.