(the White House and the Republican Senate have) "slapped me and every immigrant who came into this country legally in the face. They can call it what they want, but their 'comprehensive guest worker program' is nothing but amnesty for people who willingly broke the law, while myself and millions of others who wanted to be part of this great country paid our dues, did our paperwork, played by the rules and obeyed the law. I can tell you one thing, when I do get to vote for the first time in November, it won't be for the Republican Party." - legal immigrant from S.A.Not much can be added to the comments in this opinion piece, but I will say that this is such a no brainer that you really don't have to wonder where these pols keep their heads. If they ever remove them I can suggest a couple of conditioners that will help them getting their hair back in shape.
You have to wonder why they think segment of the hispanic population they are pandering to is the right one. No brainer, one is legal the other illegal.
Very worthwhile (but not news to CAII), quick read from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
What I am hearing -- quite loudly -- from two distinctive Hispanic-American camps is that my party, the Republican Party, has lost the respect and future votes of untold millions from that community.On one side, there are people like my wife. She is a highly educated lawyer from South America who recently became a newly minted, and very proud, U.S. citizen. Her lifelong positions on family, the sanctity of life, law and order, education and a host of other issues of national importance had her aligning with the GOP. At least, that was the case until the question of illegal immigration came to be used as cannon fodder by our warring politicians.
Suddenly, this very conservative wife of mine, who has long admired George W. Bush for his principled stands, is ready to throw him and the Republican Senate overboard. Why? According to her, the White House and the Republican Senate have "slapped me and every immigrant who came into this country legally in the face. They can call it what they want, but their 'comprehensive guest worker program' is nothing but amnesty for people who willingly broke the law, while myself and millions of others who wanted to be part of this great country paid our dues, did our paperwork, played by the rules and obeyed the law. I can tell you one thing, when I do get to vote for the first time in November, it won't be for the Republican Party."
As various politicians and members of the media focus on this now critically important issue, it seems to me that they are greatly undersampling people like my wife -- that being naturalized, "white-collar" U.S. citizens from Spanish-speaking countries who vote.
With that in mind, I decided to call a number of my friends and family members who met that criteria. Almost to a person, they agreed with my wife. Not only that, but they shared her growing anger at the White House and the Republican Senate. They felt that since the GOP clearly understands that the Hispanic-American vote is going to play an increasingly crucial role in our upcoming elections, it is shamefully pandering to the "undocumented" workers and their allies in the Democratic Party and the media to capture more of that vote.
The equal and opposite reaction to that pandering is to alienate a large number of educated Hispanic-American voters who feel the GOP is betraying and insulting them by basically saying, "You played by the rules for nothing." Ominously for the Republican Party, there are also a large number of Korean, Indian and other educated naturalized Americans who are equally troubled by this about-face by the GOP.
Next, I turned my attention to less-educated Hispanic-American voters who are no less vocal than my wife and friends, albeit for totally different reasons. Over the course of the last month, in Spanish and English, I have spoken to as many of these people as possible. And what my discussions with these various "blue-collar" workers have told me, is that, at least for the near future, the GOP is dead to them.
I directed my questions only at legal, lower-wage-earning Hispanic U.S. citizens. What I learned seems to be potentially catastrophic for GOP hopes to "grow" the Hispanic-American vote in November and in 2008.
Most of those I spoke with who favored "amnesty" felt greatly empowered by the massive marches seeking citizenship for illegal aliens, participated in the May 1 boycott and got much of their "news" from Spanish-speaking radio stations. More than that, with each passing day, regardless of the overtures made by the White House and Republican Senate, they are coming to see the GOP as the obstacle to their assimilation into the United States -- an assumption that is being fueled by various left-wing Hispanic and liberal organizations.
The third component to this equation is the conservative base of the Republican Party. It, like my wife and many other play-by-the-rules Hispanic Americans, feels betrayed by the White House and the Republican Senate -- so much so that many insist they are going to sit out the elections in November and 2008.
So, while Republican senators like Bill Frist, John McCain and Lindsey Graham may actually believe their political rhetoric about losing the Hispanic-American vote forever if they don't pass their "comprehensive guest worker" program, in reality what they and the White House may have done is create a perfect storm that is going to batter the GOP on three fronts, for years to come.
In 2000, George W. Bush received approximately 34 percent of the Hispanic-American vote. In 2004, he got around 40 percent. While the White House and the Republican National Committee hope to add at least 1 million to that 40 percent for the 2008 presidential election, my feeling, based on the firsthand information I'm getting, is that the Republican nominee for president in 2008 may actually drop below the 34 percent Mr. Bush got in 2000.
While seemingly impossible to do, in the course of a few months, the Republican Party has managed to push away "white-collar" Hispanic-American voters, "blue-collar" Hispanic-American voters and the conservative base it needs to win local and national elections.
As we say in Spanish, "Felicitaciones!"
**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.**
