Blocking Immigration Reform Would Be GOP Death Spiral, So Says Lindsey Graham

Political Realities ^ | 06/17/13 | LD Jackson

[LD Jackson]

I'll be the first to admit I have not followed the current attempt to pass immigration reform as closely as I should. I have focused on other issues and between that and me having a real life, immigration reform has been on the back burner for me. Not that it isn't important, but other things have taken precedent. That doesn't mean I am not aware that the powers that be in both parties are trying to force a bad bill down our throats.

I almost feel sorry for Marco Rubio. I am certain he started off with good intentions. He has said all along that border security has to come first, but the gang of Senators he joined to work on immigration reform seemed to have other ideas. As it has been for decades, their idea of immigration reform is to transform the millions of illegal immigrants in America into legal residents, overnight. That's where they want to start and everything else comes second. I can't help but wonder if border security even enters into the equation for someone like John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

Senator Graham seems to be trying to get out in front of the debate, but he is doing so in a most asinine manner. I'll let you read what he said for yourself.

Fox News - "After eight years of President Obama's economic policies, and quite frankly foreign policy, people are going to be looking around," he said. "But if we don't pass immigration reform, if we don't get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn't matter who you run in 2016. We're in a demographic death spiral as a party and the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community in my view is pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don't do that, it really doesn't matter who we run."

In those few short sentences, Senator Lindsey Graham shows us exactly where his priorities are. He is less interested in what is good for America than he is in what is good for the Republican Party. I can't help but question the wisdom of the good people in South Carolina who continue to send him back to Washington. He sounds firmly convinced that the GOP is dead on arrival in 2016, if they fail to vote for immigration reform, in whatever fashion or form it comes before them. Is this another time when we have to accept what the liberals propose? Are we going into a cycle similar to the debt ceiling and budget debates, where the GOP will be blamed for whatever happens, no matter what the real circumstances are? I would suggest that Senator Graham needs to wise up to the tactics being employed by the liberal Democrats in his esteemed body of legislators.

Is what the good Senator from South Carolina is saying true? Ever since the election in November 2012, we have heard how the GOP has to be more inclusive. The main focus of that inclusion has been Hispanic voters. The media and the leaders of the GOP act as if that is a foregone conclusion. I question if that is really the case and I am not the only one. Allow me to use the words someone who has already done the research.

Sentry Journal - From the moment Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election the left with the help of the mainstream media has been shaping and advancing the narrative that the reason the Republicans cannot win elections is because they’re losing more and more of the Latino vote due to their position on immigration reform. They claim that the more Republicans stand against immigration reform the more they will lose the Latino vote. But how can you lose something you never had to begin with? This narrative that the left is pushing is completely false and its real purpose is to place enough doubt about the trend of the Latino vote in the minds of Republican leaders so they will act out of fear and pass an immigration bill that grants backdoor amnesty without border security. Once again the Republicans have failed to do their homework and are dancing to the tune the Democrats are playing. So let’s break it down and explain why this narrative is false.

In order to lose something you must first possess it. The Republicans can’t lose the Latino vote because they have never possessed it. Let’s take a trip back in time in Mr. Peabody’s “Way Back Machine” to the 1976 Presidential Election. Latinos made up a meager one percent of the electorate, but voted overwhelmingly for Jimmy Carter. Carter garnered 83 percent while the Republican candidate Gerald Ford managed to capture only 18 percent of the Latino vote. Remember this election was the first election after the end of the Vietnam War, Nixon resigning in disgrace, and terrible economic times. Four years of Carter brought us the Misery Index, high inflation, high unemployment, the Iran hostage crisis and a military force that was rapidly deteriorating.

As bad is things were in 1980, Jimmy Carter still managed to capture 56 percent of the Latino vote as compared to the 35 percent Ronald Reagan received; a Democratic advantage of 21 percentage points in bad times. In fact the highest percentage President Reagan ever achieved was 37 percent in 1984. These numbers would not improve in the future.

You should go and read the rest of the post from Sentry Journal. John Carey lays it out exactly as it is. Even though the GOP is closer to Hispanics on social issues, ie. abortion, homosexuality, religion, etc., they have never captured the majority of Hispanic voters. I do not believe that will change, just because they choose to support an immigration reform bill that is seriously flawed. Even if we threw ourselves to the wolves and granted amnesty to every illegal immigrant in America, with no future promise of border security, the demographics will likely remain the same. The GOP needs to do what is right for America and forget about the demographics. Doing anything less will surely move us into irrelevancy, permanently.

[ek_hornbeck]

Wow, what a wonderfully insightful summation of Christian Sectarianism

It was more of a wonderfully insightful summation of the degenerate barrio culture that our elected "leaders" are dead-set on importing by the millions.