[Vision2020] Blind to the Past — and Future

Art Deco art.deco.studios at gmail.com
Sat Jun 1 12:49:52 PDT 2013


  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

------------------------------
May 31, 2013
Blind to the Past — and Future By CHARLES M. BLOW

As a new effort at comprehensive immigration reform inches its way forward
in the Senate, dissent from many conservatives is revealing their true
contempt for, and fear of, the possibility that demographic groups who look
different from their base will accrue power.

The questions are: Is providing a pathway to citizenship (or at least
permanent residency) for the 11 million people in this country illegally an
act of humanity and practicality? Or is it an electoral imperative to which
opposition ultimately guarantees political suicide?

The answer probably is “yes” to both, although many Republicans seem to
think the opposite.

President George W. Bush, a supporter of a pathway to citizenship, spoke to
The Huffington Post about the current efforts for comprehensive immigration
reform, saying, “I think the atmosphere, unlike when I tried it, is better,
maybe for the wrong reason.”

Bush continued: “The right reason is it’s important to reform a broken
system. I’m not sure a right reason is that in so doing we win votes. I
mean when you do the right thing, I think you win votes, as opposed to
doing something that’s the right thing to win votes. Maybe there’s no
difference there. It seems like there is to me though.”

But that distinction — humanitarianism over opportunism — is as lost on as
many of Bush’s fellow Republicans today as when he was in office. They
don’t even accept the logic of long-term electoral viability over
extinction.

The most outlandish example of conservative rhetoric in its truly offensive
glory on this subject came in an
interview<http://www.policymic.com/articles/43987/conservative-icon-phyllis-schlafly-the-republican-party-is-in-the-hands-of-the-wrong-people>last
week with Phyllis Schlafly, a prominent conservative activist, on the
news site PolicyMic. In it she said:

“I don’t see any evidence that Hispanics resonate with Republican values.
They have no experience or knowledge of the whole idea of limited
government and keeping government out of our private lives. They come from
a country where the government has to decide everything. I don’t know where
you get the idea that the Mexicans coming in resonate with Republican
values. They’re running an illegitimacy rate that is extremely high. I
think it’s the highest of any ethnic group. We welcome people who want to
be Americans. And then you hear many of them talk about wanting Mexico to
reclaim several of our Southwestern states, because they think Mexico
should really own some of those states. Well, that’s unacceptable. We don’t
want people like that.”

There are so many stereotypes and fallacies in that statement that it’s not
even worth unpacking, but it is a great illustration of some deep-rooted
conservative views.

The one thing I will take the time to contest is the notion that even if
Republicans changed their rhetoric and tactics, they wouldn’t gain traction
with Hispanics (not all of whom are Mexican, by the way, Ms. Schlafly).

According to exit poll
data<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/07/weekinreview/20101107-detailed-exitpolls.html>,
from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, Republicans made significant
headway in closing the gap between the number of Hispanics who voted for
Democratic candidates to the House of Representatives and those who voted
for Republicans, shrinking a 50-point Democratic advantage in 1982 to just
12 points in 2004.

But then came Bush’s attempt at comprehensive immigration reform and the
enormous pushback it got from Congressional Republicans. Just before
Christmas in 2005, the Republican-led House passed an enforcement-only
immigration bill that sparked huge protests.

In the 2006 elections, the Democratic advantage among Hispanic voters for
House races shot back up to 48 points. That year, Democrats recaptured the
House and the Senate, and took control of a majority of governorships.

Republicans, seemingly ignorant of the lessons of history and impervious to
the wisdom of experience, are hellbent on revisiting 2005. While the
Democratic advantage among Hispanics in presidential races is large and
growing, the Democratic advantage in House elections has slowly begun to
shrink again. And Hispanics, seemingly excited by the movement on
immigration reform and optimistic about its prospects, have developed
sharply more favorable opinions of Congress. A full 56 percent of Hispanics
hold Congress in high esteem, up from 35 percent in November 2011,
according to an ABC News/Washington Post
Poll<http://www.langerresearch.com/uploads/1144a14Congress-POTUS-SCOTUS.pdf>.


So what do some Republican lawmakers want to do to the only segment of the
population in which a majority now has a favorable opinion of Congress?
Spurn them and dash their hopes.

Brilliant, if you want to cement Democratic preference among Hispanics in
perpetuity.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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