New Poll: Latino voters strongly reject anti-immigrant posturing from House Republicans

[cal04]

http://www.latinodecisions.com/blog/2013/07/18/new-poll-latino-voters-strongly-reject-anti-immigrant-posturing-from-house-republicans/

New polling results released today show clear evidence that Latino voters now believe that the anti-immigrant voices in the House are not isolated individuals but that many Republicans in Congress hold these views. When hearing a quote from Republican Mo Brooks, “There is a surefire way to create jobs now for American citizens: evict all illegal aliens from America” 77% of Latino voters said it gives them a less favorable view of the overall Republican Party. After hearing quotes from eight different House Republicans, 66% of Latino voters said the anti-immigrant quotes represent “many Republicans in Congress” compared to 27% who said they represent only a few isolated individuals.

(Click here for a graphic of all eight quotes we tested)





Now that the immigration reform debate has moved on to the Republican-controlled House, Latino voters are readily aware that the Republican Party controls the bills future. When asked which party would be to blame if immigration reform does not pass, 69% pointed to Republicans, compared to 13% who would blame Democrats. What’s more, 58% of Latino voters said they would feel personally angry if the immigration bill is blocked, including 51% of Latinos who had previously voted Republican, and 58% of high-income earners, and 59% of Latino college graduates – subgroups of Latino voters the Republican Party can least afford to alienate.

[pampango]

1. "The Immigration Fight Is the Battle for the Soul of the GOP" (and the 'hard right' is winning)

Imagine a policy proposal that has the support of the Republican National Committee, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Karl Rove, John McCain, and George W. Bush. The Chamber of Commerce backs it, as do major Catholic and evangelical groups. Right-wing think tanks like the Cato Institute, major GOP donors, Rupert Murdoch, Grover Norquist, Haley Barbour -- they all want it, and it is broadly popular with voters.

And yet this legislation -- immigration reform -- is widely viewed as having no chance in the Republican-led House of Representatives, because the party's hard right has decided it is not the "conservative" thing to do.

If immigration reform goes down to defeat, it will mean that the right has won the defining post-2012 battle between Republican factions. It will mean the GOP establishment's efforts to wrest back authority, which had appeared initially promising, have failed, and the hard core is still in charge. It will mean that the party is ruled for the foreseeable future by a small but implacable faction whose ideology is so unyielding it cannot be swayed by policy concessions, political necessity, or financial self-interest. It will mean that, in the climactic confrontation between the establishment and the Tea Party, the Tea Party won.

The debate over Republicans' approach to immigration has largely focused on politics -- on whether and how the party will be able to woo Hispanic voters in the next presidential election. But the intra-party psychodrama is bigger than that. It's about whether the pragmatists can seize the reins of the Republican Party, or whether the angry, oppositionist, populist strain retains control. (Feehery calls them "the haters," and sees them as the heirs to the Know-Nothings who tried to keep out his Irish ancestors.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/the-immigration-fight-is-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-gop/277867/

[Lee-Lee]

2. File this under "Duh"

Honestly, it is a win for Dems if the legislation passes or fails, electorally.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. The Wingnutz Think We Don't Understand Their Code-Words

The Wingnutz think that Latinos don't understand their code-words or their dog-whistle phraseology.

I suspect that all but the most clueless Latinos have wised up to the point where they realize that "illegal immigrant" is right-wing dog-whistle rhetoric meaning not only the undocumented and their American-born offspring, but also American-born US citizen Latinos with roots extending back decades and sometimes centuries longer than many of the white racists who are their target audiences.