Posted on 01/31/2013 3:11:01 PM PST by River Hawk
In 2006 and 2007, Republicans promoting amnesty favored the cliche, “Immigrants do the jobs Americans won’t do.” It was a bad argument then, and with unemployment still hovering around or over 9%, for the last five years, no one even bothers with that anymore. Instead, Republicans are selling amnesty based solely on political expediency. The new cliche is that Republicans will never win the Hispanic vote unless they support amnesty. John McCain, who led the last great push for amnesty says. "The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens. And we realize this is an issue in which we are in agreement with our Hispanic citizens."
Unfortunately, many conservatives who previously opposed McCain’s immigration plans seem to be convinced by the argument. Senator Rand Paul said that the GOP viewpoint on amnesty has changed based on politics, noting, “I’m not sure the politics of this are really simple, or I know exactly what the politics of this are, particularly in a primary — I’m not sure it makes that much a difference. In a general election, I think, obviously we do need to show the Latino public that we are concerned about their status.” When Sean Hannity argued that he “evolved” on immigration, he said it was because “We’ve got to get rid of the immigration issue altogether.”
Personally, I believe that conservatives should stand for principles over what they think will win the next election. However, even from a purely electoral perspective, supporting amnesty will not win the GOP any Hispanic voters.
In the latest issue of the academic journal Social Science Quarterly, political scientist George Hawley compared Republicans voting records on immigration (calculated by the limited immigration group Numbers USA) and their performance among Hispanics. He found absolutely no relation between support for liberal immigration policy and support among Hispanics.
If immigration is not the reason for the GOP losing the Hispanic vote, what could the reason be? Writing in the National Journal, Michael Catalini argues that Hispanic opposition to the Republican Party “is rooted in the GOP’s skeptical view of government” He notes that, “The Republican Party calls for smaller government, but many Latinos look to government assistance as a necessity. Forty-two percent of Hispanic voters say that a government job offers the best chance of gaining career success, compared to only one-third of white voters.”
A Pew Hispanic Center poll found that 75% of Hispanics “would rather have a bigger government providing more services than a smaller government with fewer services” compared to only 41% of the general population.
Far from being social conservatives, another Pew Poll reported that 52% of Hispanics support gay marriage, while only 34% oppose it.
As liberal Washington Post pundit Jamelle Bouie frankly put it, the reason why Hispanics vote Democratic “is straightforward: Latinos are more liberal than the median voter.”
While passing an amnesty will not make Hispanics vote Republican, it will create millions of new Hispanic voters who will then vote Democratic. As Ann Coulter quipped, “Strangely, some Republicans seem determined to create more Democratic voters.”
Does this mean the Republican Party should give up on attracting Hispanic voters? Of course not. We need to promote our ideas, including respect for our borders and a common national identity, to patriotic Hispanics, and for that matter Americans of all races. Making unprincipled appeals by granting amnesty will ensure that never happens.
The Republican Party is dead. They can’t figure out what the “illegal” part of illegal aliens mean, and they’re just jackasses trying to get a crumb of the people coming here just to sit in Santa’s (Obambi’s) lap for the numerous freebees at our expense.
When you realize that the confirming vote for the communist traitor John Kerry was 94-3, you can see just how serously damaged this party is. How any Republican could let that coward get away with softball questions or none at all about his communist background is disgusting. But apparently virtually ALL of the Republicans sold their soul to the devil instead of standing for patriotism and America.
Just awful!
Amnesty = more democrat voters.
My wife was born in Mexico and was mostly raised and even graduated Beverly Hills HS. She understands hard work, discipline, the importance of education and being independent.
Yet, when she starts voting it will be for Democrats. She is the ONLY one on her family not on the dole and in this state the cost to tax payers is in the many billions.
My wife is looked for to get some money for rent of anything from her whole family.
Though she knows all these people on the dole is unethical, she still feels without the USA dole all her family would be starving back in Mexico.
For that reason most all Hispanics will vote Democrat to get on the dole more.
My wife hasn’t been on the dole, but she views it as bad if all her extended family loses all the free stuff.
Any amnesty or immigration reform should land everybody to a back of the line. They should be SELF SUFFICIENT for at least ten years IMO before citizenship and voting rights are allowed. In addition, if anyone is found to access the dole, IMO you nullify the visa and ship them home.
That is a kind of reform good for us and the country. Anything else is just growing dependence and a giant tax burden for all.
Mark Levin has been all over this. Hispanics always vote for Democrats because they want free stuff. Juan Amnesty McCain got a tiny percentage of the Hispanic vote as did all other Republican candidates going back to Reagan. The GOP candidates’ positions on immigration has nothing do with it.
Michael Barone did a study and concluded that Romney would have lost if he got over 60 percent of the Hispanic vote. Romney lost because millions of white conservatives did not go to the polls in battlegroud states like Ohio and vote for him.
File this under NSS. Immigrants from down under are overwhelmingly socialist and even after generations a majority remain that way. Conservatives can not outbid liberals, it just can not be done. Rome fell, America will fall as well. But we can hold them off for while. Actually, I’m in my 60’s. If I was young again I have come to the conclusion that I’d be advocating a peaceful breakup of the United States. The gulf between liberals and conservatives can never be bridged.
Hard choice there ~ a traitor at State ~ nothing new there, or a traitor in the Senate ~ nothing new there either!
Even if Marco Rubio himself went to Mexico and loaded up 10,000 bus loads and gave them new homes, new cars, and free chalupas for life, the Dem’s would say it was because of Barry and they would vote for anything but GOP.
The more I read on John McCain the more I believe him to be a damned fool. He graduated at the bottom of his Annapolis class, but yet got to fly.
He crashed several airplanes, He got shot down and it is rumored he got special favors from the Viet Cong.
His record as a Republican sucks, he backs Democrats as often as he backs Republicans, he supported the traitor John Kerry, and now he upports immigration because he thinks Hispanics will vote for him if he does.
Hispanics are not going to vote for Republicans any more than blacks are. They know where their bread is buttered.
Is John Mccain really that stupid or is he just a damned fool?.
Just the idea that only 3 people in the Senate refused to confirm him lets me know that the rest of them are cowards and good old boys. Don't we have a couple Tea Party members in the Senate . . . and how did they vote?
Eventually, Republicans will be working the fields - picking leaves off of marijuana plants.
Duh.
My preference would be to have him penniless in an alley somewhere in Boston ~ but that's just me. Teresa would be upset if that happened.
NOTE: Don't worry about the foreign countries ~ they know more about Kerry than he knows about himself. They'll use it on him. He'll be a broken man in 3 months.
There really is no good public policy reason to accept illegal aliens who no one selected, rather than whatever legal immigration program is developed.
I would throw them all out, and the only accommodation I would make is perhaps creating a larger quota of legal immigration of Mexicans who are relatives of American citizens. Subject to economic conditions and all other selection factors.
But then that would make sense for our country, rather than just serve the interests of scumbag democrats.
I hope so . . . what a miserable creepy, traitorous, and disgusting guy.
Tom Tancredo gets it....too bad the Amnesty Liberals (same ones who sandbagged Tancredo in the 2008 Presidential primaries) do not.
Just wished Tanc mentioned the government cost of implementing Illegal Alien Amnesty, which will be much higher than the 2.5 Trillion Heritage Fdn. estimated in 2008....before ObamaCare. Amnesty will be the biggest government program EVER
If the GOP passes Rubio-Obama Amnesty...its over for the GOP. Only a fool or a liberal will waste their vote on a GOP Presidential candidate or Senate candidate (still hope for some in the House)
Why anyone attaches any credibility to a guy who lost to BHO is beyond me.
Not only did McCain lose, the guy didn’t even try very hard.
Oh, yes, those precious, precious, precious Hispanic votes. So valuable, they're even worth angering and alienating whites and everybody else! Is one Hispanic vote worth 1,000 of other races' votes? Must be!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.