Considering the overwhelming support of the electorate for radical immigration reform (in the direction of defending our borders against invasion), this would be a smart move. ......but there's not a chance in hell they'll do it.
I agree, they will dump the homosexual lobby. They can't afford to dump the abortionists however. Too much a core constituency. They'd lose millions of female babykillers and their money (think Emily's List).
They certainly could afford to work the immigration issue however, and I think you are insightful to see this. I didn't think of it.
The 'rats have enough access into the hispanic population that if they do it carefully, they could construct a domestic "proHispanic" anti-illegal immigration platform.
I understand that many hispanics already feel this way, but distrust the GOP on the issue because we got demagogued in California years ago.
The best platform for either party would thus be pro-Hispanic, pro-legal immigrant, anti-illegal immigrant, and be able to convey those distinctions in a convincing way.
I bet you are right, the "rats will try, and in fact so should we!
OK. Let's suppose they dump their abortion stand, or just lighten up from all abortions, all the time, from day 1 of a pregnancy to 3 yrs. after, that gets rid of the NOW gang and Emily's list (including a lot of Rino women.) Then if they dump the gays, that gets rid of a handful of people, but a ton of $. Then they adopt some reasonable stand on illegal immigration, that loses a boatload of voters signed up at the DMV, the 10 gazillion illegals who already live here who are already on the voting rolls, and worst of all, it makes Soros and all his money and "open borders" people run like hell. And they gain in the red states what portion of Dems voting Repub and Repubs? Looks very risky to me.
I don't think your far off, B Knotts. Weeks before the election, Sheila Jackson Lee and several other dems were harping on CSpan about the border. They need a cause and if the Repubs are right, the "immigrants" are voting republican, so why should they care. Also, if the envirofreak lawyers get hold of this, they will push it, because it is an endangered species, watershed topic. Here's a couple references below for that. Not to mention what happens along the border with garbage, destroying habitat, etc....ask anyone who lives there.
The seizures statewide included 155,000 more plants than last year and had a street value of $2.5 billion, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. More than half of all the pot seized was grown on public land, where armed growers can pose a danger to unsuspecting hikers and hunters.
Such people stumbled upon marijuana gardens 16 times this year, officials said, including one instance in the Sierra National Forest where three brothers going fishing with their children came across men with guns guarding a 3,000-plant garden.
"They feared for their lives," Jimenez said of the men, who picked their way quietly and slowly out of the area.
Members of local sheriffs offices, the U.S. Forest Service, California National Guard and Bureau of Land Management conducted 181 raids, seized 53 weapons and arrested more than 50 people.
Outside Riverside, nearly all the program's raids this year utilized helicopters for so-called "short-haul" operations. Agents drop in on marijuana gardens by dangling from lines attached to the aircraft, saving countless hours previously spent hiking through dense brush or forests to the remote, often secluded locations favored by growers.
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/9384213p-10292091c.html
"Park officials said marijuana growers are causing havoc. Besides clearing trees and brush to cultivate marijuana plants, growers often terrace the land, stirring up soil and attracting plants that wouldn't otherwise take hold. In addition, the diversion of water is hindering the migration of wildlife, and pollution from fertilizer runoff is killing fish."
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/911265/posts
In the late 70s/early 80s, all the local Democratic politicians in South Florida (Janet Reno included) along with the liberal Miami Herald were anti-immigrant. Most of the people with bumper stickers saying "Will the last American leaving Miami turn out the lights" were Democrats themselves. Then, when Haitians and other (non-Cuban) immigrants started entering South Florida, they went right back to being the "party of diversity."
"The first thing we want is tough border control," Mr. Dean told reporters Wednesday. "We have to do a much better job on our borders than George Bush has done. And then we can go to the policy disagreements about how to get it done."
Conservatives point to Dean for significance of border issue
And, yes, I know it's posturing, but it nevertheless points to the fact that the Democrats have picked up on the facts I outlined above.