Posted on 05/24/2007 8:08:28 PM PDT by DaveTesla
The Republican Party would be self-destructive (not for the first time, either) if they did not let the immigration compromise negotiated by Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) pass and become law. The hopes of the entire Latino community are pinned to immigration reform and, if the GOP is seen as blocking it, the consequences for the indefinite future will be horrific. The Republican Party will lose Hispanics as surely as they lost blacks when Barry Goldwater ran in 1964 against the civil rights bill (even though a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats backed the bill in each house).
If the Hispanics are not massively turned off by a Republican rejection of immigration reform, they will drift into an increasingly pro-Republican orientation just as Irish and Italian Catholics did before them. Already Protestant evangelicalism has converted a third of the American Latino population, a clear precursor of GOP political support.
Hispanics now account for 13 percent of the U.S. population (blacks are 12 percent) and will constitute 20 percent of our population by 2020 regardless of whether immigration reform passes or not. Key red states like Texas and Florida hang in the balance, depending on the voting intention of their burgeoning Latino populations.
The reform compromise proposed in the Senate postpones, in my opinion wrongly, granting citizenship and voting rights to immigrants now in the U.S. for at least a decade. While they get legal status immediately on payment of a $5,000 fine, they must return to their country of origin and wait their turn in line for a valid green card to return legally. Only then can they become citizens. Given the seven- to eight-year wait for green cards, they would not be a potent political force until well into the next decade.
In the meantime, the GOP base should note that the bill commits the Democrats to the border fence and a major increase in border guards. It also will require tamper-proof identification cards, a key element in blocking further illegal immigration.
But the political stakes are largely in the symbolism of the bill. Whichever party is seen as supporting reform will gain a huge vote share among Hispanics, and the opponents will lose accordingly.
Had the Republicans gotten it together to pass such a bill while they ran Congress, they would have gotten unambiguous credit for the achievement. This history would have made it possible to switch Latinos into Republican voters. Surely, two-thirds of Latinos would not have voted Democrat as they did, in their disappointment with the lack of a bill, in 2006.
In fact, the Republican Party could well have held onto the Senate with a few Latino switches in key states like Georgia and Missouri.
Now the GOP will have to share credit with the Democrats, but the signature on the bill will still read “George W. Bush,” a fact that Latinos are not going to forget.
But if the Republicans kill the bill, driven by their own irreconcilable base, they will leave it to the next president — very probably a Democrat — and two Democratic houses of Congress to pass the liberating legislation. The GOP will have delivered the largest minority group in America right into the hands of its adversaries.
The compromise requires English skills, payment of a fine, and a good work history for an illegal immigrant to get citizenship. It also requires that he “touch back” in Mexico and wait his turn. The bill also puts border enforcement before the granting of rights.
Democrats want Hispanics to vote but don’t want them to work and compete with their labor union allies for jobs.
Republicans want them to work (since the employers are mostly Republican) but don’t want them to vote.
This bill, unfortunately, allows current illegal immigrants to work immediately but defers giving them the franchise for almost a decade. It’s a bill a Republican should love.
What a load of $hit....
Now politicians perpose to buy votes with citizenship?
Toe Sucker Speaks...
Who’s this traitorous bozo shilling for again?
White racist assumptions.
I read with interest Richardson in the NYTimes. He couldn’t say “Hispanics” are for this bill, just that they don’t like the alleged removal of family reunification policy.
The removal of family reunification in the undefined future, I believe, was some wonkish addition, not really meant to appeal to “conservatives”. It could turn out to be this year’s “felony” provision.
I notice no one trying to remove it. Could be the Dems want it in as a poison pill.
Hey Dick,, you get out here and deal with the neighbors engaged in human trafficking, the gang bangers, and the illegal refugees shouting at the top of their lungs running the city busses out of business. You might just see things differently.
reagan supported the rodinos,
and the pubies got little in return.
Hey, Dick! I've got a deal for you -- If you sign your house over to me, I'll paint it for free.
I’m more worried about the health of our country than the health of the Republican party.
This is where he's wrong. The Democrats always think in monolithic "group" terms. There are many proud, Hispanic Americans who became citizens the legal way who are not in favor of illegal immigration or amnesty. One can just look at the results of the anti-illegal immigration referenda in California to see that a large portion of Hispanic Americans do not support illegal aliens, even if they are Hispanic.
The hopes of the ILLEGAL Latino community are pinned to immigration reform, but these persons are not supposed to have a vote.
“but these persons are not supposed to have a vote”
The real issue.
Baloney.
What a pantload.
Remember when Newt thought he could “buy” hispanic votes by coming out in favor of making Puerto Rico a state?
Even if Morris’ nutty assertion that this law will sway Democrat hispanics to vote Republican was correct, there certainly won’t be enough of those to balance out the 12 million new Democrat voters the bill will create.
Dick Morris is a political whore. Absolutely nothing that he says should ever be taken at face value.
Corsi was on coast-to-coast last night pushing this
WND Exclusive Commentary Bush makes power grab
Posted: May 23, 2007
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55824
I don’t like people telling me that I can’t consider the details. I say trashcan this abomination. If it’s a good idea, it will come back with time for debate.
This is about as retarded as when they told us a few years back that we could get the so called “Latino” vote by pushing for Puto Rican statehood. Sheesh, DICK, please get out of the room.
Besides, I don't see folks of Irish or Italian ancestry being solidly anything. Like other white folks, they vote according to profession and level of religious belief, not on ethnicity. If they did vote "Republican" as a block, NJ, CT, and RI would be solidly GOP states.
I saw a bumper sticker a few weeks back that read,
"I am not a Latino, I am not a Hispanic, I am an American."
The sticker highlighted the Stars and Stripes.
I believe the person who placed such a bumper sticker on their auto would fully agree with your statements.
Make them pay back taxes, get rid of anchor baby, deport on first offense and build the fence. We can then work on the rest.
Republicans have to pander, I guess!?
Since most lawbreakers are Democrat, people that broke into this country should feel right at home in the Democrat Party. I don’t know who’s advising the Republican lemmings in the Senate and the White House, but this immigration bill will be the death nail for the party. Clinton was poison for the Democrat Party, and now it looks like Bush is a poison for the Republican Party.
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