Dumber Than Democrats
OK, I'm over my snit with Blogspot for not letting me post on WikiLeaks yesterday. I thought about titling this post "WikiLeaks," but I really didn't want to wind up spending my morning fussing and fuming the way I did yesterday afternoon. Besides, such a title would be misleading.
What this post is really about is how the California state Republican Party is about to be smacked on the immigration issue. After losing every state office to the Democrats in November and with redistricting ahead, the GOP is now facing an issue it really didn't need: an Arizona-type immigration law. Some xenophobes are preparing an initiative drive for the 2012 ballot which would pretty much mirror the law passed by our neighbors. The problem is that Latinos in California have become a political force, one that will grow as the next two years pass.
An article in the Los Angeles Times notes some of the problems involved for the state's conservatives.
A nascent California ballot measure that seeks to replicate Arizona's controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants is dividing the state's Republicans, with a number of prominent strategists and leaders fearing that it could further harm their party's already fraught relationship with Latinos — the fastest-growing segment of the electorate. ...
Several Republicans said that even the effort to do so has the potential to increase the chasm between the party's candidates and the voting bloc whose record-breaking turnout tilted races in November and delivered a clean Democratic statewide sweep in a year in which Republicans celebrated major victories in the rest of the nation. ...
The article, besides quoting some of the party's heavy hitters on both sides of the issue, cites some pretty interesting numbers:
In November, one in five voters was Latino; 80% of them cast ballots for Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, while 15% voted for Whitman despite her multimillion-dollar effort to woo them. Their participation, driven by labor unions who used the Arizona immigration law to pull Latinos to the polls, was nearly double what it was in the last gubernatorial contest. And those numbers are expected to grow.
The current Lt. Governor, Abel Maldonado, has suggested that supporting the proposed initiative would be a death knell for the Republican Party in California. He recommends his party leaders take the time to read the obituary and birth notices, an action which would give them a clue as to the direction the California demographics are heading. I doubt they will take his advice.
All of which just goes to show you: sometimes there really are people dumber than Democrats.
What this post is really about is how the California state Republican Party is about to be smacked on the immigration issue. After losing every state office to the Democrats in November and with redistricting ahead, the GOP is now facing an issue it really didn't need: an Arizona-type immigration law. Some xenophobes are preparing an initiative drive for the 2012 ballot which would pretty much mirror the law passed by our neighbors. The problem is that Latinos in California have become a political force, one that will grow as the next two years pass.
An article in the Los Angeles Times notes some of the problems involved for the state's conservatives.
A nascent California ballot measure that seeks to replicate Arizona's controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants is dividing the state's Republicans, with a number of prominent strategists and leaders fearing that it could further harm their party's already fraught relationship with Latinos — the fastest-growing segment of the electorate. ...
Several Republicans said that even the effort to do so has the potential to increase the chasm between the party's candidates and the voting bloc whose record-breaking turnout tilted races in November and delivered a clean Democratic statewide sweep in a year in which Republicans celebrated major victories in the rest of the nation. ...
The article, besides quoting some of the party's heavy hitters on both sides of the issue, cites some pretty interesting numbers:
In November, one in five voters was Latino; 80% of them cast ballots for Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, while 15% voted for Whitman despite her multimillion-dollar effort to woo them. Their participation, driven by labor unions who used the Arizona immigration law to pull Latinos to the polls, was nearly double what it was in the last gubernatorial contest. And those numbers are expected to grow.
The current Lt. Governor, Abel Maldonado, has suggested that supporting the proposed initiative would be a death knell for the Republican Party in California. He recommends his party leaders take the time to read the obituary and birth notices, an action which would give them a clue as to the direction the California demographics are heading. I doubt they will take his advice.
All of which just goes to show you: sometimes there really are people dumber than Democrats.
Labels: California, Immigration
posted by Diane at 3:03 AM
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