Immigration: Sometimes it all comes down to race

As the issue of immigration reform and border security heats up, we continue to hear from those demanding tighter controls at the border and more punitive laws to deal with illegal immigration that he issue is not one of race, but rather security and economics. Whenever, Tancredo, Hayworth, Sensenbrenner, Dobbs, Buchanan, or the myriad of other proponents of closed borders are asked about the racial overtones of their proposals, they vehemently deny any malevolent motivations whatsoever. They claim that the closing of the borders and the expulsion of all undocumented immigrants are the only way to ensure our national security and protect American workers from unfair competition.

We’ve all heard the claims:
* Undocumented workers, working for less, causing native-born Americans to lose valuable jobs.

* Undocumented immigrants put undo strains on our social services.

* Terrorists use our weak border security to enter the country
Etc,etc.

But they never, ever, mention the two-ton elephant in the room … race.

Or do they?
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

Demographic crisis of the GOP
by Patrick J. Buchanan
The American Cause
January 11, 2006

-snip-

Rove and Bush correctly perceived that, due to immigration, the Nixon-Reagan coalition, composed almost entirely of white voters, was shrinking in relative terms. Where, in 1960, European-Americans were nearly 90 percent of the population and an even higher share of the voters, today, they are less than 70 percent of the population.

Today, a Republican can sweep the white vote 55 percent to 45 percent, and still lose. And as President Clinton merrily predicted a few years ago, white folks will be just another minority in 2050, as they are already in California and Texas.

… The Bush-Rove solution to the looming demographic disaster is to go all-out to court the nation's fastest growing minority, Hispanics, who now number 40 million and 13 percent of the U.S. population. But, in seeking to win the Hispanic vote, the inherent defects of the Bush-Rove strategy have become manifestly clear.

First, Hispanics have never voted Republican in any presidential election. … . In national elections, the Hispanic vote ranges between 56 percent and 75 percent Democratic. Thus, the more Hispanic America becomes, the more Democratic America becomes.

California, which Nixon carried on five tickets and Ronald Reagan never lost, is a harbinger of what is to come. With a fifth of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency, California has moved beyond the reach of a conservative Republican.

Reason: Though many Hispanics may be social conservatives, they believe in Big Government. Understandably so. For, as lower-income voters, they pay far less in income taxes than the average American, while benefiting far more from the welfare state: free education for their kids, food stamps, welfare checks, housing supplements, Medicaid, subsidized day care, student loans and grants, affirmative action, and earned income tax credits. At the local, state and federal level, Hispanics vote for the party of government.

-snip-

In short, there is an inherent contradiction between being the party of small government and being the party of Hispanics, and that contradiction is tearing the Bush-Rove coalition apart at the seams.

Now, an irreconcilable conflict looms. In a House vote before the Christmas-New Year's break, Republicans endorsed a 700-mile security fence on the U.S.-Mexican border and tough sanctions on corporations that hire illegal aliens. No issue more fires up the populist base and white working-class Democrats than the issue of unprotected borders and the flooding of our cities and towns by some 12 million illegal aliens and counting.

For five years, President Bush has refused to deal with the crisis on the border, denouncing the Minutemen who went there to serve as spotters for a beleaguered Border Patrol as "vigilantes." For Bush and Rove believe that taking a tough line on illegal immigration will do to the national GOP what they think Gov. Pete Wilson's hard line on illegal immigration did to the California GOP.

But now that immigration has become the hot domestic issue and Republicans are taking a tougher line, repudiating Bush's guest-worker plan as amnesty, Bush is being compelled to come down harder himself against illegal immigration – or become irrelevant.

The question Bush and Rove face is this: Can the GOP be both the party that secures the border against Hispanic invaders and sanctions employers who hire them, and still be the party Hispanics will vote for? In the old imagery, if Bush reaches for the bird in the bush, the Hispanic vote, by favoring open borders and amnesty, he may lose the bird in the hand, the support of the white working and middle class that is the heart of the Republican coalition.

-snip-

Either Bush and Rove secure the border now, or we can kiss the GOP goodbye.

Now, I realize that most will say … come on, it’s Buchanan …he doesn’t represent any “mainstream” political philosophy. … He’s on the fringe, and always has been.

I believe it would be folly to underestimate the power of his message or his political savvy. Twice before he has pushed his party further to the right with unsuccessful presidential bids. Each time he has forced them to consolidate some of his views into party dogma. He is about to again.

As outlined in an excellent article from Blog for Arizona , the Buchanan juggernaut is just beginning. He and his sister, Bay, along with their friend Tom Tancredo, are raising big money, formulating a widespread network of contacts and laying the groundwork for a major anti-immigration campaign on a national scale. This time it will be Tancredo playing Buchanan’s traditional role as the spoiler.

As this debate heats up even further, the racist undertones will come ever closer to the surface. If Pat Buchanan has anything to do with it.