Posted on 05/16/2002 12:24:37 PM PDT by hchutch
For its political survival, the Republican Party must court the Hispanic vote. Totally shut out among black voters and badly defeated among Hispanics, the GOP is having a hard time finding enough white voters to overcome the deficit. With blacks and Hispanics casting one vote in four, a Republican must win two-thirds of the white vote to have a shot at 51 percent in the average election.
And the situation will only get worse for the Republican Party. The Hispanic population, which swelled from 7 percent to 12 percent of the U.S. population in the past 10 years, is forecast to grow to 18 percent by the end of the decade. If they continue to vote Democrat, the GOP will run out of white people — and face death as a political party.
Only by taking the bold and dramatic step of providing amnesty to illegal Mexican immigrants can the GOP, at a stroke, become competitive among Hispanic voters. This legislation, the equivalent for Hispanics of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for blacks, holds the potential to reposition an entire slice of the electorate and move Hispanics to the Republican Party.
But, at the same time, the Republican Party needs to hang on to its base of angry white men who largely oppose immigration — and illegal immigration most of all. They are the base that insisted on English-only initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s, battled to cutoff aid to illegal aliens, and demanded a halt to bilingual education.
How are Republicans to reach out to Hispanics while appeasing their truculent base?
President Bush has already taken the lead in pulling the Republican Party back from the issue precipices on which it was dancing. By stopping Republicans from opposing bilingual education or affirmative action, and by demoting English-only initiatives to the bottom of the party’s agenda, he has moved mightily to strengthen GOP outreach to Hispanics.
But it is his amnesty proposal for illegal Mexican immigrants that holds the real hope for his party to avert demographic extinction.
The key to resolving the Republican dilemma of having to choose between outreach to Hispanics and alienating its Anglo political base is to condition amnesty with good citizenship requirements.
Republicans should offer conditional amnesty to Mexican illegal immigrants. Here’s the deal: If you want to stay in the United States, you must enroll in a good-citizen program. The immigrant has to agree to become functionally literate in English within two years, work for six of the next eight quarters and pay taxes to FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) for each of these quarters — no off-the-books work — and avoid arrest for 24 months.
At the end of the two-year period, those who meet the requirements would become citizens in good standing, eligible to vote and participate in civic life. Those who refuse to enroll or who fail the meet the requirements would face deportation. If the program works, it can be expanded to other categories of illegal immigrants.
Polling shows that most voters, even among the GOP base, are willing to forgive the illegality of their arrival if these Mexican immigrants show a willingness to earn their legal status in America. The compromise has the contractual opportunity/responsibility formula that sold so many of Clinton’s programs and that lies at the core of the highly successful welfare reform program. By asking something in return for giving something, the resulting transaction acquires a moral impetus that it sorely needs to win national support.
At the same time as the Republicans offer the olive branch to illegal Hispanic immigrants, they must use this year’s review of immigration statutes to close down immigration from nations that sponsor or harbor terrorists — including even such so-called allies as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. By closing one spigot as they open the other, Republicans can master the political hat trick of reaching out to Hispanics while appeasing their political base.
Otherwise, the GOP will go the way of the Liberal Party in Great Britain, to the political grave.
Guess what, they'll figure out a way to win without you. And if your guys happen to win the primary, they'll just stay home - after all, you didn't stick up for them, why should they stick up for you?
Welcome to political REALITY. It ain't pretty sometimes.
Oh, I forgot, taking political reality into consideration is now considered selling out.
If that's the way you think, then why don't we all just switch to DemocRats? That way we're GUARANTEED to win. And winning is everything, right? That's "reality," right? Just like a whore turning tricks is just doing what she has to do...
Voting for the lesser of two evils is a sucker's game.
FDR, Bill Clinton, and Woodrow Wilson were all real good at getting votes.
I suppose, like Dick Morris, you consider yourself in good company.
THEY ALREADY HAVE, but Rhino's convinced people to vote for Bush anyway. He'll change things. Right. That's why he keeps pushing for amnesty.
Good suggestion!
Because that is all that I see coming from the folks who insist on "principle." Guess what, a principled loser is still a loser. And losers in politics have no effect on policy or legislation.
Again, I apologize for bringing REALITY into the mix. How horrible of me to do that as opposed to going for some pipe dream that has NO realistic chance of happening.
40% of Hispanics voted FOR 187.
Which means that 60% of Hispanics voted AGAINST Prop.187, and who can ever forget the video footage
on TV showing large crowds of mostly Hispanics marching in the streets of California cities waving the Mexican flag.
A train wreck is NOTHING compared to what will happen once America's "non-elite" whites realize that both parties despise us. When about 50% of the population figures out that their future and the future of their children is being systematically looted, there will be Hell to pay...
What part of that do you have difficulty understanding?
Spoken like a true Tory. I'm sure that your ancestors were loudly telling the Patriots back in 1776 that indedendence was a pipe dream, and that the savvy political move was to go ahead pay that damn tax on tea (they cut the Stamp Tax, after all. Smart people know when to compromise) and learn to get along with King George...
No? Why the heck not? Why didn't the administration get out there in full force and tell it the way it is. That Clinton knew long before. And that flying planes into buildings was a DISTINCT possibility!! The only thing they didn't know was when.
At least one news channel (FNC) would hopefully show the INS doing there job, arressting and deporting illegal aliens and not all illegals are hispanic!! Bu systematically deporting illegals we not only put less strain on gravy train and budget but security goes up a bit too. Unless you think there are NO terrorists within our borders right now. In which case you can buy back your bridge!
Don't you worry. Reality will hit. Even moderate Republicans can't repeal the laws of economics.
The source I quoted from earlier in this thread indicated that 46% of Latinos voted against Prop 187, so that means that 54% voted for it. (The link is on my computer at work, so I can't give it to you. If you want it, I'd be glad to provide it to you later.)
It's really not a race issue, is it.
Easy to do. Severely and I do mean harshly, borderline cruelly and unusally, punish anyone who hires illegals. Without jobs they will either have to go home or turn to crime.
FIRST, some of us refuse to buy into the socialist premise that the only way to get votes is to act like a DemocRat. You've been brainwashed by the liberal media (and your buddy Dick Morris) to think that the only choice is between socialism and extreme socialism.
SECOND, what's the point of "influencing" policy and legislation if it's BAD policy and legislation? The goal is not to "influence" - it's to defeat it or pass it! What you're saying is like telling a woman who's getting raped that if she goes along at least she can influence the rapist's choice of sexual position...
The main reason is due to the very low wages that many illegal aliens workers receive for doing these jobs. Most Americans can't live on such meager wages. Illegal aliens can get by on these low wages by living 10-15 to a house, a way of living that most Americans abhor.
Bingo! As I've said many times before, illegals are the bugs and jobs are the porch light. You can sit outside all night swatting the bugs, or you can TURN OUT THE LIGHT.
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