by: Carl Leubsdorf
02:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 27, 2010
(WEB EXCLUSIVE)
"He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind," concludes a well-known Biblical proverb. Republican immigration hard-liners may be about to learn that lesson – again.
In the mid-1990s, California Gov. Pete Wilson's anti-immigrant policies damaged his party's standing with Hispanics in the nation's largest state. A decade later, a GOP congressional stand against immigration reform spurred nationwide demonstrations and helped the Democrats reverse a modest GOP increase in Hispanic support attracted by President George W. Bush.
This time, Arizona Republicans may have unwittingly given another boost to Democratic support in the nation's fastest-growing demographic group by enacting a law giving local police the authority to round up suspected illegal immigrants and thus thrusting the contentious issue back onto the national political stage.
Whether that impact is more long-term than short-term is hard to say. To be fair, the politics of illegal immigration aren't clear-cut, and members of both parties play politics with the issue.
But this surely won't help Republicans achieve a goal that many strategists regard as crucial to their long-term hopes: attracting an increased number of this culturally conservative, rapidly growing voter group. Barack Obama's election ensures black voters will stay overwhelmingly Democratic; the whites who favor Republicans constitute an ever-declining portion of the electorate.
Posted By: Michael Felix
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