I’ll admit that I’m a bit out of sorts and out of touch with the political news cycle. On Friday night, we had Andrew’s wake. On Saturday, we had his memorial service at which I delivered one of the eulogies (my brother, Phil, delivered the other). I’m trying to get back in the swing of things, however slowly.
I knew that the Republicans were having some kind of collective freakout about the CNBC debate and were discussing asinine plans to protect their candidates from any further uncomfortable questions, but I had no idea that the first thing they did was to cancel a Telemundo debate scheduled for February.
That the Republican National Committee did this after issuing a post-2012 autopsy that called on the party to be more inclusive and welcoming of Latinos is stunning to me.
I think David Atkins nailed it with this:
It’s perfectly obvious that of all the battles in the GOP civil war between the establishment and the base, immigration is by far the most toxic. Immigration is the main reason Donald Trump is where he is in the polls, Jeb Bush seems to have one foot in the campaign grave, and media/establishment darling “winner of every debate” Marco Rubio can’t seem to climb higher than 10% in the national numbers.
Any attempt to even consider bring a legislative proposal on immigration in the House would destroy what little is left of Republican Party unity, and make the presidential race an even bigger clown show than it is now. That downside risk is far scarier to most Republicans than whatever upside gains might be made with Hispanics come November as a result of actually trying to be responsible legislators.
Atkins was talking about why Speaker Paul Ryan won’t dare bring up an immigration reform bill, and also why the media are so reluctant to explain this to the American people. But this also explains why the RNC would go from saying immigration reform is vital for the GOP’s future presidential aspirations to canceling a debate with a Spanish-language network.
This makes the party look racist and spineless at the same time. It’s not an attractive look.
