This is the political version of self-immolation. Most rank and file members of the party believe that those who came here illegally should not, in the first place, be granted citizenship at all and, in the second, that whatever we do about them, it should be contingent upon first ensuring that future waves of immigrants cannot cross the border illegally. No one paints their living room while the roof is still leaking.
The arguments made by those Republicans who think it's somehow politically expedient for them to do what they seem about to do make no sense, as Ann Coulter points out in a recent column. Coulter launches her assault against what she sees as Republican doltishness with this:
Democrats terrify Hispanics into thinking they'll be lynched if they vote for Republicans, and then turn around and taunt Republicans for not winning a majority of the Hispanic vote.Well, that's an interesting question, but to pursue it would get her off track. There's data to support her position that the attempt to woo Hispanics by granting amnesty and allowing the border to remain open is political fool's gold:
This line of attack has real resonance with our stupidest Republicans. (Proposed Republican primary targets: Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.) Which explains why Republicans are devoting all their energy to slightly increasing their share of the Hispanic vote while alienating everyone else in America.
It must be fun for liberals to manipulate Republicans into focusing on hopeless causes. Why don't Democrats waste their time trying to win the votes of gun owners?
As journalist Steve Sailer recently pointed out, the Hispanic vote terrifying Republicans isn't that big. It actually declined in 2012. The Census Bureau finally released the real voter turnout numbers from the last election, and the Hispanic vote came in at only 8.4 percent of the electorate -- not the 10 percent claimed by the pro-amnesty crowd.Coulter has more statistics with which to beat the leading lights in what has been called, not without justification, the "stupid party" over their heads.
In raw numbers, nearly twice as many blacks voted as Hispanics, and nine times as many whites voted as Hispanics. (Ninety-eight million whites, 18 million blacks and 11 million Hispanics.)
So, naturally, the Republican Party's entire battle plan going forward is to win slightly more votes from 8.4 percent of the electorate by giving them something they don't want....
As Byron York has shown, even if Mitt Romney had won 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, he still would have lost. No Republican presidential candidate in at least 50 years has won even half of the Hispanic vote.
The (pro-amnesty) Pew Research Hispanic Center has produced poll after poll showing that Hispanics don't care about amnesty. In a poll last fall, Hispanic voters said they cared more about education, jobs and health care than immigration. They even care more about the federal budget deficit than immigration!So why are Senators Rubio, Graham, McCain et al so determined to grant amnesty to those who are here without first plugging the leaks in the border?
Maybe the greedy businessmen now running the Republican Party should talk with their Hispanic maids sometime. Ask Juanita if she'd like to have seven new immigrants competing with her for the opportunity to clean other people's houses, so that her wages can be dropped from $20 an hour to $10 an hour.For my part I favor legalizing those who are here, but without a path to citizenship and without the taxpayer-subsidized benefits that would accrue to citizens. People brought here illegally as children should be allowed to qualify for citizenship if they complete high school or serve in the military, but adults didn't come here to be citizens, they came here to work. Very well. Let them work and pay taxes as long as they don't break any more laws. If they deem those conditions too onerous or unfair then surely they can find their way back to whence they came if they'd prefer.
A wise Latina, A.J. Delgado, recently explained on Mediaite.com why amnesty won't win Republicans the Hispanic vote -- even if they get credit for it. Her very first argument was: "Latinos will resent the added competition for jobs."
But rich businessmen don't care. Big Republican donors -- and their campaign consultants -- just want to make money. They don't care about Hispanics, and they certainly don't care what happens to the country. If the country is hurt, I don't care, as long as I am doing better! This is the very definition of treason.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans, and some in the House, need to recognize the utter foolishness of legalization before the border is secure. Once these immigrants are legalized and on the road to citizenship there'll be no incentive whatsoever for the Democrats to stop the influx. Coulter summarizes the situation:
Hispanic voters are a small portion of the electorate. They don't want amnesty, and they're hopeless Democrats. So Republicans have decided the path to victory is to flood the country with lots more of them!If the current immigration proposals pass without securing the border, a measure vigorously opposed, understandably enough, by the Democrats who see Hispanics as a bonanza of new Democratic voters, two things will happen to make Republicans a permanent minority party in the United States: Hispanics will be enrolled as Democrats in overwhelming numbers, and a lot of Republican voters will quietly leave the party and become independents.
To avert this debacle Republicans need to insist that there be no amnesty without border security and that no one be rewarded with citizenship who broke the law to come here. If they don't their political future will be as bright and robust as that of the Whigs.