Five myths about conservative voters (by Frank Luntz, based on his polls)

Washington Post ^ | April 27, 2012 | Frank Luntz

[Aetius]

The same thing about ‘wide gates’ caught my eye. I think a couple of things are going on here.

1. Much depends on which questions pollsters ask, and how they frame the ones they do ask. If Luntz, or whoever actually posed the question about what immigration policy should be as “America’s immigration policy...wide gates” then shame on them. It’s a meaningless soundbite phrase that sounds good but suggests nothing specific. A better question is to ask Americans directly if they think we should increase, decrease, or maintain current levels of legal immigration. I haven’t seen a poll putting it that way in a while, but generally those polls show a majority or plurality in support of REDUCING legal immigration. Sometimes support for maintaining current levels wins out, but support for increasing legal immigration is always a distant third, usually failing to surpass 20%.

2. The focus on illegal immigration has served to sort of sanctify legal immigration. Whether it’s Romney, Gingrich, Rush, or Hannity, pretty much any tough talk about illegal immigration is prefaced and followed with tripe about how much they love legal immigration, and how they have no problem with immigration as long as its legal. I think this may have filtered down and now rank and file conservatives think it’s only proper to question and fight illegal immigration, while legal immigration is all good. This is unfortunate, because the question is never asked, ‘okay you support legal immigration, but how much legal immigration do you support?’

I fear that the factors in play for number 2 may change number one. I fear that the focus on illegal immigration may make Americans much more supporting of unending and increased mass legal immigration, which will result in demographic oblivion for the GOP and conservatism. However, I also believe that Americans general opposition to mass immigration and support for reduced legal immigration would remain if they were made fully aware of how much legal immigration we currently admit. And if the public knew that leadership in both parties would like to greatly increase these already high levels of legal immigration, I’m confident they would oppose it overwhelmingly. Frankly I’m surprised that we haven’t yet seen Congress approve a huge increase in legal immigration.