The GOP's harsh immigration stance will cost it - Washington Post

[pampango]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/13/AR2010051303542.html

"...it would be absurd to deny that the Republican ideological coalition includes elements that are anti-immigrant -- those who believe that Hispanics, particularly Mexicans, are a threat to American culture and identity. When Arizona Republican Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth calls for a moratorium on legal immigration from Mexico, when then-Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) refers to Miami as a "Third World country," when state Rep. Russell Pearce (R), one of the authors of the Arizona immigration law, says Mexicans' and Central Americans' "way of doing business" is different, Latinos can reasonably assume that they are unwelcome in certain Republican circles.

The intensity of these Republican attitudes is evident not just from what activists say but also from what Republican leaders are being forced to say. Sen. John McCain, a long-term supporter of humane, comprehensive immigration reform, has run a commercial feeding fears of "drug and human smuggling, home invasions, murder" by illegal immigrants.

Never mind that the level of illegal immigration is down in Arizona or that skyrocketing crime rates along the border are a myth. McCain's tag line -- "Complete the danged fence" -- will rank as one of the most humiliating capitulations in modern political history."

"Republicans have now sent three clear signals to Hispanic voters:

California's Proposition 187, which was passed in 1994 and attempted to deny illegal immigrants health care and public education before being struck down in court; the immigration debate of 2006, dominated by strident Republican opponents of reform; and now the Arizona immigration law. According to a 2008 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, 49 percent of Hispanics said that Democrats had more concern for people of their background; 7 percent believed this was true of Republicans. Since the Arizona controversy, this gap can only have grown. In a matter of months, Hispanic voters in Arizona have gone from being among the most pro-GOP in the nation to being among the most hostile."

[saracat]

1. Sigh, but now if only we can get them to vote!

[eShirl]

2. Reagan: "Tear down this wall." McCain: "Complete the danged fence."

How much more screwed up can the Republicans get when they make people like Reagan and Nixon look reasonable?

[saracat]

3. Who on earth is unreccing this? And why?

[Kolesar]

6. republican shut ins

[AlinPA]

4. The teabagger rhetoric won't help them with immigrants either. nt

[Kolesar]

5. Pat Buchanan predicted that "immigration" was going to divide the Republican party

wasn't Michael Gerson one of Reagan's people?

[pinboy3niner]

7. Some analysts think McCain's shift may help him keep his Senate seat

Dan Nowicki has a story in today's Arizona Republic on McCain's about-face. Here are the last two paragraphs:

"I know the primary is in August, but it looks as though McCain has probably outmaneuvered Hayworth," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "So, you have to give him credit for political sense, but the level of admiration for McCain has declined enormously, at least in certain circles."

National political analyst Charlie Cook put it more bluntly in a Tuesday column he wrote for National Journal: "The truth is that McCain would be a dead man in this primary had he not seen this coming and begun repositioning himself. The political climate for a Republican who has long relished poking his party's ideologues in the eye is awful."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/14/20100514arizona-immigration-law-john-mccain.html

[mucifer]

8. I hope it's true. But, hate and fear sells and there are more non Latino voters than

Latino voters. That is what the repubs are counting on.