Specifically, there are five things that Republicans did which cost them Hispanic support.
* They made language and culture the issue rather than illegality, which irked U.S.-born Hispanics who might otherwise have stayed out of the fray;
* They didn’t condemn the racism in their ranks on the part of those who believe that Hispanic immigrants are inferior to the immigrants of old;
* They let the debate digress from one that was anti-illegal immigration to one that was anti-immigrant to, finally, one that was anti-Hispanic;
* They fell into the trap of offering simple solutions to what remains a complicated problem ; and
* They either assumed that Hispanics were not in play or that they could win some of those votes on the cheap with a spattering of Spanish ads.
It’s tough to disagree with any of these conclusions.
The anti-illegal argument has been infected by a strain of thought that fears any immigrant, especially ones that are darker-skinned than the American norm.