My wife is into real estate and we went to an investors convention where I spent a couple lunch hours with a woman from the Palestine area. I asked why every Republican including Perry couldn't say the phrase ‘illegal alien’ or ‘secure the borders’ when Texas is getting hammered with the problem and virtually under asort of invasion. Her responses were along these lines
‘You have to understand some facts about Texas that will never be publicly acknowledged. First there are tens of thousands of people who will vote GOP unless the ‘illegal problem’ is candidly stated by a candidate. These people are either Hispanic or from mixed ethnic backgrounds and as a result of ancestors a generation or two coming here illegally they are extremely thin skinned about any reference to illegals as they feel they are being called less than American. If you publicly state opposition to the illegal invasion these people will either not vote or vote against you and they are the margin in many races.”
“Secondly there really are significant parts of our economy that can't function competitively without illegals that cost much less to employ than legal workers. For instance the rose cultivation segment of agribusiness in NE Texas would not be able to survive without lots of illegals being paid far less than legal labor. The business would be overwhelmed by imports from Mexico and Columbia within a few years without illegals. There are a lot of segments of our economy like that. We don't like it and it is something Texans loath but know it has to be that way to survive. Bringing up the illegal issue just infuriates a significant part of the GOP base in Texas and wins one no friends except for some people down on the border.”
That was her take and she was very matter of fact about it. What say you?
Thanks again!