Illegals
It always surprises me that members of the press in other countries not only follow American election campaigns closely, but also seem to have a pretty good handle on just what is going on. My trip to Watching America this week certainly bore this out. One article in particular appealed to me because it pointed out the same stupid move by Republicans that a number of us have pointing out for several years now.
From France's Le Figaro:
This is the new Republican buzzword: “illegals.” Translation: illegal aliens. Without papers. According to the good old method perfected by Karl Rove, you create a euphemism to stigmatize — without seeming to — a particular group and rally the troops. The euphemism of the season: "illegals.” Meaning: latinos.
Pretty astute, yes? That's exactly what's going on amongst the candidates for the 2012 nomination, which is, as this article points out, very stupid.
Bush understood that Latinos were natural allies, more conservative than black voters, who are traditionally aligned with Democrats. During the 2000 election, he received a substantial share of the Latino vote. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of Hispanics increased from 35.6 million to 44.3 million. They now represent 14.8 percent of the population. [Emphasis added]
And the number of "legals" among the "illegals" will increase even more as the next generation of Latinos reach the voting age. This is something that some Republicans are beginning to understand, but only after a severe electoral trouncing, such as the one administered in 2010 by the Democrats in California. Republicans lost every statewide office and lost one member of the state legislature. Key to the disaster was the wildly anti-immigrant stances taken by the candidate for governor, Meg Whitman, and the candidate for US Senate, Carly Fiorina. During the post mortem, a key campaign adviser saw the problem and urged his colleagues to start correcting the problem well in advance of 2012. I haven't seen that happening, at least not in California.
And it's certainly not happening on the presidential nomination trail right now. All are calling for a bigger and better fence along the border. All are calling for increased military patrols at the border. All are calling for the denial of any kind of benefits for even the children of the "illegals". Playing to the base now to secure the nomination may very well come back to bite the ultimate nominee came November, 2012.
But, hey, why should I point that out to the likes of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Both should know better.
From France's Le Figaro:
This is the new Republican buzzword: “illegals.” Translation: illegal aliens. Without papers. According to the good old method perfected by Karl Rove, you create a euphemism to stigmatize — without seeming to — a particular group and rally the troops. The euphemism of the season: "illegals.” Meaning: latinos.
Pretty astute, yes? That's exactly what's going on amongst the candidates for the 2012 nomination, which is, as this article points out, very stupid.
Bush understood that Latinos were natural allies, more conservative than black voters, who are traditionally aligned with Democrats. During the 2000 election, he received a substantial share of the Latino vote. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of Hispanics increased from 35.6 million to 44.3 million. They now represent 14.8 percent of the population. [Emphasis added]
And the number of "legals" among the "illegals" will increase even more as the next generation of Latinos reach the voting age. This is something that some Republicans are beginning to understand, but only after a severe electoral trouncing, such as the one administered in 2010 by the Democrats in California. Republicans lost every statewide office and lost one member of the state legislature. Key to the disaster was the wildly anti-immigrant stances taken by the candidate for governor, Meg Whitman, and the candidate for US Senate, Carly Fiorina. During the post mortem, a key campaign adviser saw the problem and urged his colleagues to start correcting the problem well in advance of 2012. I haven't seen that happening, at least not in California.
And it's certainly not happening on the presidential nomination trail right now. All are calling for a bigger and better fence along the border. All are calling for increased military patrols at the border. All are calling for the denial of any kind of benefits for even the children of the "illegals". Playing to the base now to secure the nomination may very well come back to bite the ultimate nominee came November, 2012.
But, hey, why should I point that out to the likes of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Both should know better.
Labels: Election 2012, Immigration
posted by Diane at 11:00 AM
2 Comments:
I'll bet the Native Americans would like to deny benefits to a whole lot of illegal immigrants.
LOL
Amen to that, Florence!
As the daughter of an immigrant I'm always amazed at the crazed responses of so many Americans to the latest waves.
Post a Comment
<< Home