The National Review, a cornerstone of GOP "thinking," explains why going along with immigration reform is, in a word, pointless.
And, if we are to take Hispanics at their word, conservative attitudes toward illegal immigration are a minor reason for their voting preferences. While many are in business for themselves, they express hostile attitudes toward free enterprise in polls. They are disproportionately low-income and disproportionately likely to receive some form of government support. More than half of Hispanic births are out of wedlock. Take away the Spanish surname and Latino voters look a great deal like many other Democratic constituencies. Low-income households headed by single mothers and dependent upon some form of welfare are not looking for an excuse to join forces with Paul Ryan and Pat Toomey. Given the growing size of the Hispanic vote, it would help Republicans significantly to lose it by smaller margins than they have recently. But the idea that an amnesty is going to put Latinos squarely in the GOP tent is a fantasy.
It would help Republicans to lose this demographic by smaller margins, and we will accomplish this by accusing them of being hostile to business, being lazy free-loaders, having the wrong skin color (???), and being born to heathen single mothers on welfare.
Honestly -- I laughed so hard at this I broke a sweat. It's extremely offensive, but the idea that someone thought it would be a good idea to publish this is hilarious to me.
The editorial goes on to downplay the merits Marco Rubio's immigration reform plan, which is suppose to be the moderate GOP counter-offer that House conservatives may be able to support. But if this is any indication, I wouldn't count on that.
The National Review agrees that we have a problem, but their contempt for brown people is simply too great to justify doing anything about it. And I suspect that is equally the case for much of the House of Representatives.
It's Republican Outreach.