I wish that people like Phylis Schlafly and Pat Buchanan would be totally honest. They come closer than most Republicans to being candid about their racist beliefs, but I still want to know what they really think. The one thing that is obvious is that they don’t want more brown people in this country, and they certainly don’t want them to vote.
But, are they primarily motivated by racism or politics? In other words, do they oppose Latino immigration because they assume it will empower the left or because they just don’t want to live with Latinos?
The premise of the pro-immigration reform right is that the GOP cannot afford to lose more than 70% of the Latino vote, so the party needs to stop being an anti-immigrant party and show that they want to compete for Latino votes. Not so long ago, in 2004, President Bush won well over 40% of the Latino vote, and it helped him win reelection. The idea isn’t that Republicans are a natural fit for the Latino community, but that they can compete for their votes and get a decent share. Either Schlafly and Buchanan simply disagree that the GOP can improve their performance or they simply don’t care.
And that distinction is what puzzles me.
Many have noted that Latinos, taken as a whole, have some fairly left-wing views on both social and economic policy, but the GOP is not yet proposing that they change their policies to better attract Latinos. What they’re really saying is that they should just stop insulting and antagonizing them.
To give a corollary example, the GOP doesn’t have to adopt a pro-gay marriage platform in order to do somewhat better with the gay community. They can do better by being silent on the issue and focusing on other things, especially economic ones, where they are bound to have more appeal. It’s kind of a “First, do no harm” strategy.
As conservatives, I can understand why you’d be concerned that the party is going to water down its principles in order to appeal to a browner electorate. Keep the brown people out, and that risk disappears. I suspect that this is really where Schlafly and Buchanan stand. But, if that is where they stand, they are not being very clever about it. After all, the proposed reform would keep new Latino citizens off the voter rolls for the next three presidential elections while also reducing the degree to which the GOP looks like an anti-Latino party. In the short-term, they’d be in position to do better with Latinos, which would allow them to avoid changing their conservative principles for a little while longer, and maybe elect at least one more conservative president.
On the other hand, maybe there really isn’t much strategic thought involved. Maybe it’s just hate.
