The Tea Party's worst enemies (other than John Boehner, of course)
Last year, 93 percent of the nation's growth was African American, Asian, and Latino. The other seven percent were white immigrants. Republicans are losing every single one of those groups. By a lot.
A party that wants to keep getting elected would do something about that. And the GOP kinda wants to. But not really.
McMorris Rodgers had gathered faith-based leaders of the Latino community on Capitol Hill to, she said, talk about “our shared goals for America” with a half-dozen of her colleagues as part of a larger outreach effort.
At one point, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., addressed Hispanic media outlets in Spanish — only to get heckled.
“If they all learned English …” someone shouted from the sidelines, then trailed off, as a woman arrived wielding a sign that read, “Do not reward criminals, no amnesty for illegal aliens!!!”
The speakers sought to brush it off.
“I want to make a call for unity,” said Becky Keenan, a pastor with the Gulf Meadows Church of Houston, Texas, “a call for a tone that is civil, where we can discuss issues, see where we can compromise.”
Across the East Front lawn, a woman was shouting wildly into a much louder microphone, almost drowning out Keenan. Protesters wore T-shirts emblazoned with American flags and tea party slogans, and they waved homemade signs that read, “John Boehner: no amnesty, get a backbone,” “Boehner: go home,” “exporting illegals = importing jobs for Americans, stop socialism,” and “if we lose rule of law we become Mexico.”
Crazy Louie Gohmert, staging his own rally, better reflected the GOP consensus during his own rally, with Crazy Steve King and Crazy Michele Bachmann:
“Maybe we won’t get the Latino vote initially,” he said in an interview with a Latino news outlet, “but once they examine who really cares … which party … wants you to learn English and be the president of the company and [not] relegated to digging a ditch the rest of your life … that’s us.”
Every immigrant community is getting a lesson in which party really cares. It's clear that no Republican gives a shit about immigrants—that even the ones engaging in this reform effort are doing so out of demographic fear rather than genuine compassion. They don't care that legalization will
cut federal deficits by over $200 billion over the next 10 years alone, or that it serves no one to have millions of people living in the shadows.
They only care that if they don't do something about this problem, they won't come anywhere near the White House unless invited by yet another Democratic president. And yet, their efforts at getting this issue off the table are undermined daily by their own party, to the point that even if reform passes, Democrats are sure to earn the entirety of the credit.
I'd almost feel sorry for reform-minded Republicans, except that I don't. They've perpetuated (or at best, tolerated) those sentiments in their party for way too long. They're now reaping their just rewards.