Political Geniuses
by digby
The predictable and understandable backlash from Latinos is quickly emerging:
Adam Bustos, a third-generation Mexican-American, has voted Republican since Ronald Reagan ran for president. But he has been reconsidering his party affiliation since Arizona State Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest immigration law last month.
“I’ve been thinking I might leave the party,” said Mr. Bustos, a 58-year-old Arizona native. “A lot of my Latino Republican friends have been talking about it after this law.”
But the Republicans don’t have to fret too much. The Democrats, with their usual perspicacity and impeccable sense of political timing, have decided to chase teabaggers and do the GOP’s work for them:
The Democrats’ legislative “framework” includes a slew of new immigration enforcement measures aimed at U.S. borders and workplaces. It would further expand the 20,000-member Border Patrol; triple fines against U.S. employers that hire illegal immigrants; and, most controversially, require all American workers — citizens and non-citizens alike — to get new Social Security cards linked to their fingerprints to ease work eligibility checks.
The plan’s emphasis on “securing the border first” before taking steps to allow many of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States to pay fines and apply for legal status was plainly a gesture to Republicans. Even so, no Republican is supporting it, not even Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has been working with Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in bipartisan talks over the issue for months.
The Democrats’ shift underscores how, in the struggle between enforcement advocates and legalization backers, the former seem to be gaining, experts said.
Ideas that were hotly contested in ill-fated Senate debates in 2006 and 2007 seem now to be taken for granted, said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “You’ve seen a lot of movement, and in partisan terms mostly movement on the Democratic side toward Republican positions,” he said.
Even the conservadem corporatists have no good reason to do this. They can serve their Galtish masters freely by demanding comprehensive reform that ensures undocumented workers are treated humanely. And any Democrats who likes to think he or she has a conscience can certainly hold the line. There is only one reason to do this and it’s purely political and it’s even wrong on that basis: if the Democrats actually think they are going to be able to compete for the nativist/racist vote with this kind of thing they are very sadly mistaken. The teabaggers aren’t ever going to vote for the party with the Kenyan Muslim president and the San Francisco feminazi speaker of the House.
On the other hand, they might have been able to make a case to Republican Latinos that their interests are better served by a party that doesn’t think it’s a good idea to stop every dark skinned person on the street to determine whether or not they are Real Americans. Unfortunately, Democrats are running like rats deserting a sinking ship on this issue, so the fastest growing demographic in the country doesn’t have any obvious place to go. Well played.
Update: Did I say that Democrats had bad timing?
New Jersey Would Gain $2 Billion From Offshore Drilling
From Chris Prandoni on Friday, April 30, 2010 9:30 AM“All of the benefits associated with offshore drilling, increased economic output, well-paying jobs, new tax revenue, remain locked up in America’s oil reserves. Although a majority of Americans support offshore development, the Obama administration has put forth a plan that inhibits New Jersey’s economic recovery and ability to grow over the coming years,” said Grover Norquist, President Americans for Tax Reform.
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