[lit-ideas] making illegal legal
- From: eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 11:11:04 -0400
Hi,
Here's another reason for making what is now illegal, legal.
If we're going to be lucky enough to get Jeb Bush as president in 2008, this
has to happen...
Truly, in this area...almost all the Latinos I know are Republican--and very
much involved in the evangelical world (remember--here even the Catholics are
Baptists <g>) So, seeing the stats in this article about the Evangelical
world...it is interesting.
Our US Rep is African-American and a Democrat...and he just barely won. Make
the illegals legal--even here where there are not as many as elsewhere
[obviously our economy is not doing as well or there would be more...], and
he'll lose.
Have been reading some of the articles on this issue by the African-American
community. Apparently when Reagan did his thing regarding the amnesty a while
ago, they supported it. However (Perhaps because of Fox and Mexico putting the
horrible stereotypical postage stamp thing, there seems to be some concern
towards the racism that Mexicans have towards them...(ie the statement "They
take jobs even Blacks won't take, etc.) when it it thought that they are not
hired, often, because by being Black they are thought to be here legally--and
thus wouldn't accept the substandard wages, etc. Very interesting to read the
point of view from that of other minorities--esp that one...But, they don't
have much clout any longer...so I suppose it does not really matter, does it?
Who will the Democrats have left as a 'base' if this happens as stated below?
Is Jeb Bush our future president, for real? Maybe we better begin to look at
him more closely...
Best,
Marlena
Why Republicans Will Cave on Harsh Immigration Reform
New America Media, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, May 01, 2006
Editor's Note: Never mind the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from parts of the
GOP. Most Republicans know that Latinos' voting power make them crucial to
Republican success in future elections. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an associate
editor at New America Media.
LOS ANGELES--Judging from the cold shoulder conservative Republicans gave
President Bush when he called for a humane, balanced immigration reform law in
a recent speech in Orange County, Calif., one would think these hardliners
won't budge from their demand for a crackdown on illegal immigration. But
eventually, most of them will.
With stratospheric gas prices, the Iraq quagmire, creeping inflation and Bush's
Great Depression-era low approval ratings, the Republicans are in trouble.
Polls show that if the national elections were held today, Democrats would grab
a majority in the House and make deep inroads into the Republican majority in
the Senate.
The political peril is so great that the GOP can't afford to alienate its one
tenuous voting trump card: the Latino vote. Bush knows this better than anyone
else. He also knows that immigration reform is the key to getting those votes.
The Latino vote numbers tell the story. In 2002, the Pew Hispanic Center found
that one-fifth of Latino voters were registered as Republicans. In the 2004
presidential election, Bush got more than one-third of the Latino vote. Without
those votes John Kerry would have won the White House.
It isn't just the votes. It's where those votes come from that cinched the
victory for Bush, and where they could come from in the 2008 presidential
elections that Republicans hope will cinch victory for them again. The greatest
numbers of Latino voters are in California, Florida, Texas and New York. In the
next two years, the Latino vote will swell in Illinois and New Jersey. The
number of Latino elected officials doubled and tripled in those states in 2004.
These are the key electoral states that virtually determine who will sit in the
White House for years to come.
Bush got Latino votes in 2004 by pumping millions into ads on Spanish-language
networks Univision and Telemundo. The ads saturated the airwaves in New Mexico,
Florida, Nevada and Arizona. The money was well spent. Bush won the four
states, and he did it with substantial Latino support.
Republicans didn't just spend heavily on Spanish-language ads, and enlist a
bevy of talking heads, and that at times included Bush with his weekly radio
broadcasts in bad, broken Spanish. They adroitly tailored their political
pitches to their Spanish audience in Florida, Texas, California and other
Southwestern states, complete with local accents and idioms. If Republicans can
hold a substantial part of those votes in 2004, and bolster those numbers with
thousands more undocumented workers transformed into citizens and voters, that
could potentially result in millions more Republican loyalists.
Then there are the evangelicals. Latino evangelicals, both legal and illegal
immigrants, make up about one-fourth of the membership of evangelical churches
in America, and their numbers are growing. They are staunchly anti-gay
marriage, anti-abortion and pro-family values. They are prime political
pickings for the GOP. Latino evangelicals flexed their political muscle in
March when they forced several prominent national evangelical groups to
back-peddle fast from their hard-nosed stance on immigration reform, and either
remain neutral in the debate or issue cautious statements calling on Congress
to enact a fair and balanced immigration reform law.
There is a cautionary tale for the Republicans in playing fast and loose with
the immigration issue. During the hard-fought Virginia Republican gubernatorial
campaign in November 2005, Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore fanned the
anti-immigrant flames with a series of 11th-hour anti-illegal immigration
campaign ads. It backfired. It cost him crucial votes in Northern Virginia
where the number of Latino voters has leaped in the past few years.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie was one of the first
to sound the alarm bell. In a Wall Street Journal editorial in April, he firmly
put the GOP on notice that it must not become known as the anti-immigrant
party. Gillespie crunched the numbers and noted that Republicans can't win in
2008 without the key swing states of New Mexico, Florida, Colorado and Nevada,
which Bush won in 2004.
Bush and the Republicans fix their political eye on more than Latino population
numbers and votes. They also see Latinos' dollars. In politics money doesn't
talk, it screams. The disposable income of Latinos soared to nearly $1 trillion
during the 1990s and continues to climb. Credit card, shipping and
communications companies, trade and tourist associations, hotels, airlines and
sports franchises are now feverishly marketing products to snatch a bigger
share of Latinos' dollars. Republican campaign officials will do the same.
Latino campaign contributions can influence and shape political attitudes and
politician's actions the same as others' dollars routinely have. Republican
senators warn that it's absolutely imperative to pass an immigration reform
bill, and that the bill should look pretty much like the one Bush wants. For
the Republicans it's more than a matter of fairness -- it's also a matter of
votes.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=76f187ba2d3896241f7c67afe566d649
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