The thing about Tancredo, though, is that his views are actually very mainstream and popular for the most part. Take legal immigration; Tancredo wants to reduce it, and while I haven’t seen any recent polling on this, usually a majority or plurality of Americans agree with that sentiment. On the other hand, support for increasing legal immigration would always poll in a very distant third behind reducing or maintaining current levels. Yet elites on both sides of the partisan divide favor greatly increasing legal immigration. They hold the extreme, out-of-the-mainstream view, but it is never treated as such. It’s very frustrating and disheartening that they get away with this, but when the media is on their side and when the GOP has refused to engage on this aspect of the issue, then it’s really no surprise I guess.
As for illegal immigration; well it really depends on how the question is framed. I’ve seen polls showing majority support for giving illegal aliens a path to citizenship. I’ve also seen polls showing a majority in support of the attrition-through-enforcement approach. So it’s very unclear how exactly most Americans would like to deal with illegals.
But maybe Tancredo is a bad messenger. I’d say he’s been unfairly demonized, but that’s beside the point now. What I wonder is if it is possible for anyone to champion the mainstream views expressed above (reduce legal immigration and attrition-through-enforcement) w/o being demonized? Even if one took great care to avoid any harsh rhetoric, I have no doubt they’d still be viciously and falsely pilloried and demonized. I don’t
The left will always attempt to demonize, no doubt about it. However, if one speaks about these issues in a way that comes across as compassionate and caring of the Hispanic community then much of the demagoguing can be mitigated.
Remember the left is perfectly willing to lose on these immigration issues in the short run. Think of Pete Wilson in California. His initiatives to reign in spending on services to illegals was very popular at the time. Unfortunately they poisoned the well with Hispanics that were here legally. We completely lost California from that time forward.
Caving on Immigration is not going to make Hispanics like us. The truth is most of them simply want more free stuff and vote for the party that promises it to them. Still, we can at least do the simple things like talk about the Hispanic community in a way that isn't offensive. Identify politics works. I hate that it does, but it is what it is. Hispanics aren't going to vote for a party they perceive dislikes them and wishes they'd go back to Mexico (or whatever country they are originally from).