BORDER BATTLELINES

Finally, light at the end of the amnesty tunnel

Exclusive: Tom Tancredo is thankful 'common sense is breaking through the fog' with GOP

Published: 7 hours ago

Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo is the founder of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and founder and co-chairman of Team America PAC. He is also a former five-term congressman and presidential candidate. Tancredo is the author of "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security."

The past year has been hard on Republican cheerleaders for amnesty legislation. Now comes a new Gallup Poll that puts an end to any pretense of intelligent political calculation behind the Republican establishment’s endorsement of the amnesty agenda.
It was only a year ago that the Republican establishment was enthralled by the so-called bi-partisan “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill, which grants legal status to 15 million illegal aliens and sets them on a path to eventual citizenship. That scenario ended in Sen. Rubio’s repudiation of the deal, followed by backroom congressional maneuvers to plan amnesty by stealth in 2014.
Well, amnesty by stealth is also on the rocks, despite Zuckerberg’s millions, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce drumbeat, an avalanche of insulting lectures from the chairman of the Republican National Committee, a continuous stream of propaganda in the mainstream media and stacked pro-amnesty panels at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference.
Throughout 2013 and into 2014, the Beltway plutocracy had its run of the field in demanding “immediate action” on amnesty. But that game is over. Suddenly, common sense is breaking through the fog of self-delusion that has led the Republican establishment down so many blind alleys.
After Obama got 75 percent of Hispanic votes to Romney’s 23 percent in the 2012 presidential election, the debate over immigration reform ceased to be a policy debate about what is good for the country and became a cynical argument over only one thing: “How to win Hispanic votes.” Inside the Beltway, throughout 2013 the Republican establishment was in a panic, and they bought the “amnesty solution” hook, line and sinker.
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The new Gallup Poll exposes the shallowness of establishment thinking about the Hispanic vote. The evidence was there all along if the had bothered to do their homework and look at the 40-year history of Hispanic voting for Democratic presidential candidates. Hispanics have been voting for Democrats by 2-to-1 margins or greater for decades, and that pattern has nothing to do with immigration policy.
What the new Gallup Poll tells us – again – is that Hispanic voters are just like other voters, only more so: Like a majority of all Americans, they are completely disillusioned with Obama – this despite Obama’s continuous, year-long rant against House Republicans, echoed and magnified by the liberal media, for not yet caving into the Gang of Eight amnesty plan.
This latest Gallup poll confirms what critics of the amnesty charade have been saying for years: Whatever the arguments might be for amnesty as good public policy, one thing it is not is a key to luring Hispanic voters away from the Democratic Party.
Other polls over the last decade have said the same thing, so the Gallup Poll should not be surprising for anyone. But Gallup paints the picture in such clear and unmistakable terms that only a total fool would try to deny it.
What does Gallup say about support for Obama among Hispanic voters? It turns out that during the period of the most intense propaganda campaign from the White House and the mainstream media in support of the Senate’s amnesty bill, during all this incessant, orchestrated pressure on Republican members of Congress to “act on immigration reform,” Hispanic voters have been abandoning Obama in higher percentages than other voters.
If it was Hispanics’ vote for Obama in November of 2012 that caused the Republican panic, these poll numbers ought to put an end to that panic.
Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics has dropped from 75 percent to only 52 percent, a drop of 23 points. That’s the largest decline among all demographics – a larger decline than among women voters (a drop of 14 points), 18 to 19-year-olds (a drop of 15 points) and American voters as a whole (a12 point decline).
Hispanics are abandoning Obama at a rate almost twice as fast as the average voter, and that decline in support has nothing to do with the amnesty debate. Even the overpaid geniuses at the RNC and on Speaker Boehner’s staff ought to be able to figure this one out.
If further evidence were needed, the poll also ranked the political issues of most concern to Americans. Not surprisingly, unemployment and lack of jobs was No. 1, with 19 percent of Americans saying it is their main worry. Do you care to guess where immigration is ranked as an issue? It ranked near the bottom, with only 6 percent of voters saying it is their top concern.
And what about Hispanic voters? The Gallup poll shows the same pattern as most previous polls going back to 2008. Hispanic voters rank immigration behind jobs, health care and education, which explains why they are increasingly dismayed by Obama’s performance as president.
What does all this mean for 2014 and 2016 elections? It means the Republican establishment should wake up and smell the coffee.
If Republican leaders and Republican candidates will start talking to Hispanic citizens as Americans who have the same hopes and dreams and fears as other citizens, they can and will win increased Hispanic support. Republicans do indeed need to improve and expand their outreach efforts in Hispanic communities, and they can do so without the baggage of the amnesty debate.

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