Shredding a leading lie in American politics

Here’s something rare—a syndicated column by Rich Lowry in which he not only makes useful and cogent arguments, but expresses real indignation and shows some spine. He tears apart the blather coming from all the usual suspects that the GOP must, to win more Hispanic votes, support the legalization of illegal aliens, a.k.a. amnesty. Here is just one of the telling points he brings out:

A recent editorial [in the Wall Street Journal] invoked the welcoming attitude of Ronald Reagan. How much of the Latino vote did Reagan get? In his landslide of 1980, 35 percent. In his landslide of 1984, 37 percent. That’s better than Romney, but still a wipeout. Reagan signed the amnesty of 1986. What did it do for the party’s standing among Latinos? George H.W. Bush got only 30 percent of the Latino vote in his own landslide of 1988.

These data should be enough to dispense forever with the idea that passing another amnesty will help the Republicans with Hispanic voters.

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Terry Morris writes:

No doubt! The Republicans can’t possibly NOT know what these data show already. Which begs the question of whether the Republicans are nothing more than a fifth column of the liberal apparatus that has sunk this nation.

LA replies:

Yes, they can’t possibly not know these things. And therefore their failure forcefully to refute the constant lying drumbeat, “You’ve alienated Hispanics by your racist and extremist position of opposing amnesty, and therefore the only way you can make them like you and remain an electorally viable party in this country is to support amnesty,” shows that they simply don’t want to refute it. They don’t want to prove liberalism wrong, just as Romney, the quintessential moderate Republican, didn’t want to expose Obama’s egregious acts and lies. The Republicans’ real function in the American system, which they perform with utmost devotion, is to serve as willing targets for the “racism and extremism” charge. Without their cooperation with liberalism, without their serving the role of greedy wicked white men, which the liberal system requires for its successful functioning, the system would lose its legitimacy and break down.

Max P. writes:

Terry Morris wrote:

“No doubt! The Republicans can’t possibly NOT know what these data show already.”

This week Rush Limbaugh covered the same topic. He gave the voting statistics of Hispanics before and after the 1986 amnesty, and showed that Republicans have actually done worse with Hispanics since the amnesty.

I am glad Rush did this. Now no Republican can claim ignorance. Hopefully the grass roots will know too and won’t let the GOP cave in on amnesty. If you think the base was fired up in 2006 and 2007, they will fight even harder this time. Then many conservatives were calling their congressmen to oppose Bush’s amnesty over a belief in preserving law and order. Now they will be motivated by survival. Conservatives who feigned demographic ignorance before, now know the stakes and realize amnesty will permanently seal their fate.

LA replies:

Given these developments, I’d like to see what happens to Speaker Boehner’s announced intention to pass amnesty—and what happens to Boehner himself.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 17, 2012 05:02 PM | Send