Immigration and the GOP (How to make Republicans a minority party once again)

wsj opinion journal ^ | 6 27 07 | wsj editors

[flixxx]

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Immigration and the GOP How to make Republicans a minority party once again.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

Immigration reform stayed alive in the Senate yesterday, albeit not without continuing rancor among Republicans. Restrictionists seem to believe the issue will harm the GOP if it succeeds, but we think the political reality is closer to the opposite: The greater danger for Republicans is if it fails.

We've written often about the merits of immigration reform, and we have our own problems with parts of the Senate bill. But it's worth spending some time on the larger politics of the issue, especially for Republicans. They're caught between a passionate minority of their party--who oppose any reform that allows illegals a path to citizenship--and the larger electorate, which is more moderate and wants to solve the problem. Like Democrats on national security, this is a classic case in which pandering to the base will harm the GOP overall.

[CheyennePress]

It may be well-reasoned, but it stands on false premises. The vast majority of the American people want the border sealed and the illegals sent packing. That’s the reality of it.

Of course, these morons in the media present the false dichotomy of us needing to make these people citizens or deport them all, when simply installing huge fines against employees who hire illegals and enforcing those laws would solve the problem.

[goldstategop]

We're racists, bigots, rednecks and just too stupid to understand immigration. We need to be forced to watch the dissolution of our own country and accept the importation of millions of more illegals in addition to those already here - for our own good, of course. Its time to flush America and shut up, you yokels! Sen. Simpson and the elite that birthed amnesty understand exactly where they're going. The question is: do we?

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[CheyennePress]

I personally do think it’s been demographic change in general that has hurt the GOP—not just illegal immigration. The Rats have been so good at stirring up identity politics and dividing people up in races that are supposed to be united that it has hurt the GOP. And the fact that blacks have been stuck in their ghettoes for decades on end despite all of the “help” the Democrats have supposedly been giving them just testifies to the sad fact that some people are going to continue voting as a bloc than with their heads.

[Man50D]

This article is based on the false premise we have a two party system. the Republican party has become increasingly socialistic thereby aligning itself with the ideology of the socialist Democrats. they are essentially one party.

This is why Bush has no problem working with socialist Teddy Kennedy to pass the Amnesty bill. The only effective way for Conservatives to have their core principles represented is by breaking from the Republican party and forming their own party.

[Wallace T.]

Until the 1980s, California was a bellwether state to a great extent because the state's population was largely derived from the Midwest, South, or Northeast, or from European nations like Italy and Norway, which contributed millions of immigrants to the United States. Except for 1960, when it went for native son Richard Nixon, and in 1976, when it voted for adopted son Gerald Ford, California's voters reflected national trends very closely. The Golden State produced both conservative politicians like Ronald Reagan, S.I. Hayakawa, and William Knowland and liberal ones like Earl Warren, Pat and Jerry Brown, and Gene Tunney. There is no doubt that the influx of Hispanics in the wake of the 1986 amnesty was a major cause for the leftward political shift.

Going back to the Scots-Irish immigration of over 200 years ago, most immigrants have supported the Democratic Party, as it was the party of the small farmer and the urban worker, vs. the Federalist/Whig/Republican support by the professional and middle classes and the industrialists and merchants. The Scots-Irish immigrants and their children, widespread on the frontier, elected Jefferson and Jackson to the White House. Most later immigrants followed this path. The exceptions to this rule have been few: British settlers in the Northern states after 1840, German and Dutch Protestants, and post-Castro Cubans.

The fact is that increased numbers of Hispanics in the voting booths will cause politics in Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and eventually Texas and Florida to shift leftward. Combine increasing Hispanic numbers in the Southeast with Yankees migrating from New York and New Jersey into Virginia and the Carolinas and those states are no longer reliably conservative or Republican and become "purple" at best.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I think this is a very reasoned opinion about what will happen if there is no immigration legislation passed this year.

I think you're smoking crack.

This is the biggest pile of steaming feces the WSJ has ever put out.

Once the illegals are legalized, they're not going to vote Republican.

[rabscuttle385]

...Yankees migrating from New York and New Jersey into Virginia...

Yep! Northern Virginia is crawling with blue-staters and illegal immigrants, and this area's votes drive government in the Commonwealth.

[gubamyster]

ping

[SE Mom]

You ARE joking, correct?

It seems the WSJ editorial board has bought the implausible, if not impossible, theory that incoming illegals will vote GOP in droves.

Either they’re being DELIBERATELY dishonest- or they are so entrenched on Wall Street they’ve no idea what reality looks like.

[usnavycdr]

This “opinion” is a total crock. Kind of like saying we have to sell out just to maintain our position. What kind of nonsense is that? How can any self-respecting individual give creedence to the idea of giving amnesty to people who have OPENLY violated our laws in order to preserve the status quo? In my mind, it is better to lose while fighting for what you believe in, than to compromise for something as abominable as this bill.

[MSF BU]

Immigration is what destroyed the conservative base in California, not opposition to immigration. Read some Thomas Sowell; different cultures bring different values. The immigrants we are getting are, by and large, are not assimilating.

[tophat9000]

Ah yes the logical fallacy that prop 187 is what “caused” the lost of votes in California... the thing is how did prop 187 win with the voters in the first place...

[cripplecreek]

Look at Duncan Hunter. He has a stance on immigration that pretty closely matches Tom Tancredo but he gets re-elected again and again in a heavily hispanic district. That’s because legal hispanic immigrants strongly support him.

[WalterSkinner]

..like these great Americans

You Don't Speak For Me

[APFel]

The immigration issue is what doomed the GOP in California, a formerly GOP state.

I can only assume that you think that the GOP's aversion to illegal immigration destroyed the statewide party? Nice theory. However...

Once upon a time, in the DNC's California, lived a proposition. This proposition was loved by the fair peoples of California, as it denied expensive services to those who entered the country illegally and kept Californian's hard earned monies in their pockets.

They loved the proposition so much, they overwhelmingly voted in favor of enacting it. Oh, the glorious day; the will of the people was heard, for the proposition had passed!

However, along came the judicial Black Knight. The Black Knight merely walked up to the beloved proposition and smote it with an injunction. The California collective reeled back on their heels in horror, for they knew their beloved proposition had been dealt a fatal blow!

The beloved proposition now lies dead and buried, mourned by no one in fear that they be labeled "racists".

The End.

APf

[WalterSkinner]

..and Prop 187 was a perfect solution and answer to those who cry that we cannot deport 12 million people

Prop 187 would have caused self-deportation when benefits and social services were stopped--the only thing Pete Wilson ever did that I supported...

[Cacique]

STOP AMNESTY NOW!! WE CAN DO IT!!

[MSF BU]

True. I’d suggest that many of those “Hispanics” though simply think of themselves as Americans and nothing else; people with that outlook tend to agree with Hunter on this issue.

[Soul Seeker]

The WSJ is never reasoned on this issue. They want to supply a second class citizenry (read:slave labor) for the businesses they serve.

80% of Americans are against this. LEGAL Hispanics are not even too thrilled about this. And, last I checked, this push for amnesty helped lead to defeats last year to pro-border (so they said) democrats and is resulting in the RNC fundraising plummeting and Republican registration declining while independent numbers are increasing.
When the WSJ is more liberal then France, something is wrong.

[Mogollon]

If the immigration bill doesn't pass, Fred Thompson will have a golden opportunity to run as a candidate that will actually do something about the illegal invasion.

If the immigration bill passes, the GOP is toast for generations.