The real question is: who is living in denial...you or me? I don’t question whether you are a conservative or not. I just question whether you understand that pandering to minorities will not win them over. Nobody is calling members of certain ethnic groups derogatory words...unless, of course like you, they think the term “illegal” is calling someone a dirty name. If I enter Mexico illegally, then I am an illegal. The Mexicans would have a right to call me that. Let me reiterate...anybody who is in this country illegally is an illegal.
Avoiding insulting people is not pandering.
Like it or not, the vast majority of currently ‘illegal’ people in this country are going to eventually be citizens and voters. There is simply no way the fantasy of many of the right, INCLUDING ME to rid the country of everyone who should’t be here is going to happen. I have issues with non English speakers and detest anyone who won’t assimilate, but it’s just a bad word to use, even though I have used it myself. It’s like calling people of pigment “African Americans”; what I think doesn’t matter; what they want to be called, if I want to work on getting their vote, does.
Now, I could be wrong, often am, but to me “pandering” is what the Democrats do, actually changing policy and telling bold lies. I merely mean that using language your potential ‘customer’ or ‘boss’ (voter) finds denigrating is NOT the way to win elections )or get sales or get a job).