Immigration backfires on right-wing in Virginia.
Immigration backfires on right-wing in Virginia.
“Democrats wrested control of the Senate from the Republicans” in yesterday’s Virginia legislative elections. The vote served as a repudiation of conservatives who ran on a hard-right agenda of cracking down on immigration. Kos writes the “demonization of scary brown people has been a flop.” Raising Kaine adds:
Let this be a wake-up call to progressives everywhere — the immigration issue is nothing to be feared. Reasonable immigration reform that includes strong border security without turning our backs on those that already live among us is not only the right thing to do, it’s the politically smart thing to do as well.
That National Review’s Jim Geraghty concedes that immigration is proving not to be the “silver bullet” that right-wing conservatives had hoped for.
UPDATE: Simon Rosenberg has more.
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From the article
“Was just on a conference call about yesterday’s elections in Virginia, and the consensus, at least among the assembled Democratic pollsters, was that the immigration issue had really flopped for the Republicans, and actually harmed them. The pollsters said that the election became a contest between, on the Republican side, an issue, and on the Democratic side, a leadership style.”
I would be veerrryy careful if I were a Dem Presidential candidate on
November 7th, 2007 at 3:02 pmthis one. 70+% are against drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, and
Hillary has dropped 6 points since her ….answer doesn’t seem like the
right word, whatever it was that seemed to favor such licenses. If V
Virginia Repubs ran a single issue campaign and got beat that is one
thing, but I am not sure what the larger implications mean, if anything.
I wonder if the Dems will jump on this issue, instead of running from it?
November 7th, 2007 at 3:02 pmHey TP, 77% of Americans want us to follow our laws and not allow illegal aliens in our country. Hillary, I mean TP, you are wrong on this issue. Sorry
November 7th, 2007 at 3:02 pmHey, Bigot_Bigot, you aren’t the majority of ANYTHING these days.
Buh-bye.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:05 pmRoughly the same percentage that want Chumpy and Cheney out of Government immediately.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:06 pmThe American Public is catching on to the smear and fear party and here’s hoping that they are finished and shunned by the voting public.
But we do need to follow the law as it is, go after the employers that hire them. They are “illegals” for a reason, they just need to do immigration legally, not illegally.
Progressive aren’t stupid, the Repukians Fascists own stupid.
Buck Fush
November 7th, 2007 at 3:08 pmHeck — we could have told Virginia that. Last November here in North Carolina, our incumbent congressman (Brad Miller, D-NC) was challenged by a guy who had two main boogeymen starring in his campaign — gays and foreigners. All of his campaign messages pretty ran along the line of “illegal Mexicans crossing our borders to hold their gay fiestas!”
Needless to say, he got buried, since North Carolinians weren’t frightened by his rhetoric. And I think the GOP was a bit embarrassed by him, as well.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:08 pmHey TP, 77% of Americans want us to follow our laws and not allow illegal aliens in our country. Hillary, I mean TP, you are wrong on this issue. Sorry
Comment by Roger_Roger — November 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
roger_roger’s right. keep it up rr. tell your republican leaders to keep firing those silver bullets. it’s working!
eh?
November 7th, 2007 at 3:10 pmA new CNN poll reports that the economy is the “number-one issue on the minds of Americans.†82 percent said the economy will be extremely or very important to their vote for president, two points ahead of those who cited the Iraq war.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:15 pmHey TP, 77% of Americans want us to follow our laws and not allow illegal aliens in our country. Hillary, I mean TP, you are wrong on this issue. Sorry
Comment by Roger_Roger — November 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
This doesn’t mean a thing. All it means is that 77% of Americans are allowing themselves to be distracted from the Iraq war and the failing economy by the scary-brown-people-are-invading issue the right trots out every 15 years or so.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:18 pmHey TP, 77% of Americans want us to follow our laws and not allow illegal aliens in our country. Hillary, I mean TP, you are wrong on this issue. Sorry
Comment by Roger_Roger — November 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
No, TP isn’t wrong. TP isn’t taking a position on illegal immigration itself (at least not in this thread), they are illustrating that illegal immigration isn’t a priority with most Americans. The war in Iraq, the economy (and jobs), and health care are all more important to the American people right now.
http://www.pollingreport.com/prioriti.htm
Please note:
Newsweek poll Oct. 31 – Nov. 1:
Only 7% say immigration is the most important issue in deciding which presidential candidate to support.
CBS poll Oct. 12 – 16:
Only 6% say immigration is the issue they most want presidential candidates to discuss.
CBS poll Sept. 14 – 16:
Only 5% say immigration is the most important issue facing this country today.
It’s true that a majority of Americans would like to do more to keep illegal immigrants out of the country (you say 77%, but 69% is the highest number I can find, and I looked at a number of polls). However, an even bigger majority apparently feel there are more pressing problems.
Kinda like flag burning. Most Americans are against it. But they think there are a lot more important things to worry about.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:21 pmReichWingers better be damned careful with those silver bullet thingies.
They’ll kill themselves.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:22 pmBut let’s not ignore that New Jersey’s residents voted down a measure for the state to borrow money for stem cell research.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/nyregion/07jersey.html?em&ex=1194584400&en=749ce80425670c05&ei=5087
“Supporters had argued that the borrowing would help pay for research that could help deliver New Jersey from financial distress by bringing additional tax revenue and tens of thousands of jobs to the state. Critics, by contrast, said that New Jersey could not afford to add to the state’s surging debt load of $30 billion.”
November 7th, 2007 at 3:22 pmI would be veerrryy careful if I were a Dem Presidential candidate on
this one. 70+% are against drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, and Hillary has dropped 6 points since her ….answer doesn’t seem like the
right word, whatever it was that seemed to favor such licenses.
Comment by Keltoi — November 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
I’d wager that much of that drop is due to her waffling about the issue rather than endosing it.
I think Spitzer has the right idea. It makes good policy sense to get undocumented immigrants into the DMV database and have them become documented, rather than leave them in a legal limbo.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:30 pmNeocons are the Barney Fifes of the political world – they should never be allowed to have any bullets, silver or not.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:31 pmPLC, not even cap guns and arrows with rubber suction cups on the tips…
November 7th, 2007 at 3:40 pm“I would be veerrryy careful if I were a Dem Presidential candidate on this one. 70+% are against drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, and Hillary has dropped 6 points since her ….answer doesn’t seem like the right word, whatever it was that seemed to favor such licenses. If Virginia Repubs ran a single issue campaign and got beat that is one thing, but I am not sure what the larger implications mean, if anything.”
Comment by Keltoi — November 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
It’s difficult to see the implications of the GOP loss in Virginia based upon the information in this TP item — since we don’t know WHY people voted the way they did. All we can do is speculate (fortunately, that’s one of our favorite pastimes here — right and left alike), so here’s my take:
1) Single issue campaigns, as you suggest, seldom are successful. All they do is capture the special interest group for that issue. To capture the population at large, you have to be multi-issue. Period. Even Rudy Giuliani is learning this, as he is learning to talk about more than just 9/11: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21660973/
2) On this particular issue, a majority of Americans would prefer that we do more to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. However, a majority of Americans believe other issues to be more important — the war in Iraq, the economy, and health care are all more important to Americans than immigration is. Therefore, I surmise that most Americans would be willing to vote for a candidate they disagree with on the immigration issue, if they agree with that candidate on Iraq, health care, and the economy.
In short — I don’t see the immigration issue being a make-or-break issue in this campaign unless all other factors are equal between candidates.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:44 pmI’d wager that much of that drop is due to her waffling about the issue rather than endosing it.
Comment by toasterhead — November 7, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
Agreed, it reinforces the impression that she will say anything to win a vote regardless of what she believes.
The polls in NY are against her on this one, though.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:03 pmI think it’s quite funny actually that the Repukes actually created the problem (open borders enticing illegal immigration) and then when the country was full of them after doing absolutely nothing about it, the attempt to bring it full DARVO circle (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender) – by making the Dems take a stand to help these millions of illegals and then slamming the door in the faces of the democrats when they do. Pretty nifty trick but it looks like it won’t the the “silver bullet” they’d hoped to bring to fruition.
The sad fact is that the majority of americans are well-informed today thanks to the internet and no thanks to the MSM whores. The very sick GOP has become almost infantile-like transparent in their plots to wrangle control back to their party. Everyone with a brain could see that you can’t tout national security when the borders are wide open – it’s a contradiction in philosophies.
Likewise, we all realized that there had to be an “alterior motive” to permitting the porous borders, at the extinction of national security, and that was to turn it around into a national issue where the Rethugs could finally look as though they had an epiphany and actually want to do something right like enforcing the law.
Give me a break here! Do they think the people are idiots? Conversely, the people KNOW that the Republican Party is comprised of a bunch of inbred, greed-motivated, sexually perverse nincompoops and fools…..that’s all that’s left to the GOP base these days!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:07 pm“alterior motive” – typo but perhaps more of a Freudian slip than I’d realized….since Repukes live in an definitely “altered state of reality” 24/7.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:09 pmMiss Molly: I think you’re right. The poll I saw earlier had a pretty even balance among a myriad of issues – maybe it would be safer to ask ourselves: What is NOT an issue at this point in this country?
What has Bush NOT botched beyond recognition?
I think the illegal immigrant issue will be more regionally felt myself. Right now the trucker unions are bat$hit about mexicans trucking across the country as of last week. I’m not quite sure how or where the impact of illegal immigration will be felt but I do know that, like the Iraq War, when it’s discussed it engenders quite volatile reactions.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:13 pmThe polls in NY are against her on this one, though.
Comment by Keltoi — November 7, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
Of course they are, but I think it depends on how they word the question. If you ask people “do you support giving driver’s licenses to illegals,” of course they’re going to say no. If you ask people “do you support documenting illegal immigrants and preventing them from causing traffic accidents,” I think you’ll get more people saying yes.
It’s a really complex issue, and people are starting to realize that the build-a-fence-and-deport-em-all strategy is not viable.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:13 pmand, unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, the Democrats and their candidates are sitting on the opposite side of the issue than a good percentage of americans.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:14 pmToasterhead: And people are realizing that the blame for this mess needs to remain where it belongs – right back to GWBush and his cadre of law breakers.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:15 pmActually, I believe that this was entirely an intentional move by Bush to move his wet dream for a North American Union forward. Leave the borders wide open and entice the illegals in with jobs – then when it’s impossible to document or deport them, voila! Now we have the foundation for the Canada/US/Mexico union which he signed well over a year ago. I’ve read that the connecting highway is already being built in Texas – anyone else read anything about that?
November 7th, 2007 at 4:17 pmToasterhead: And people are realizing that the blame for this mess needs to remain where it belongs – right back to GWBush and his cadre of law breakers.
Comment by Veritas — November 7, 2007 @ 4:15 pm
I’m hoping they’ll take it further than that. It’s an issue that goes way farther than Bush. Illegal immigration is just one symptom of a global poverty problem that involves trade policy, foreign direct investment, structural adjustment, and farm subsidies, among many issues. We need to approach it holistically.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:22 pmIt ain’t Progressives who are afraid of immigration as an issue, it’s dem cookie jar Democrats.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:25 pmDamn. This is funny. The repubs lose because of this issue, and rather than learn from this experience they continue further down the same path.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:26 pmNow we have the foundation for the Canada/US/Mexico union which he signed well over a year ago. I’ve read that the connecting highway is already being built in Texas – anyone else read anything about that?
Comment by Veritas — November 7, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
We already have that. It’s called I-35.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:36 pmNeocons are the Barney Fifes of the political world – they should never be allowed to have any bullets, silver or not.
Comment by PatrioticLiberalChristian — November 7, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
On behalf of the Barney Fife Anti-Defamation League, I strenuously object to your mentioning the Great Deputy’s name in the same sentence as the word “neocon”, especially when you DARE malign him so atrociously. Deputy Fife might have been somewhat overzealous in the performance of his duties but he NEVER overstepped his lawful authority, and in those instances when Sheriff Taylor had to rebuke him, Deputy Fife willingly accepted his punishment and learned the errors of his ways.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:43 pmShow me one neocon who’s been rebuked, then willingly accepted his punishment, and THEN learned the errors of his ways. Be aware that the BFADL allows no more than 5 years for such evidence to be presented.
Hurrah for the racist-mongering liberal puppet heads.
Comment by DreamCrusher — November 7, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Actually, it was the racist-mongerers who lost the VA senate yesterday.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:57 pmComment by DreamCrusher — November 7, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
#
Thank you for proving the point I made in #30
November 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pmAgreed, it reinforces the impression that she will say anything to win a vote regardless of what she believes.
The polls in NY are against her on this one, though.
Comment by Keltoi — November 7, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
So, you agree that she’s a Republican, like her husband?
November 7th, 2007 at 5:07 pmHurrah for the racist-mongering liberal puppet heads.
Comment by DreamCrusher — November 7, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Good for you! Three straw men for us to burn up! Your parole officer must be so proud that you’re learning to type.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:08 pmLike #21
Here in the NYS the Repigs were & are exploiting the issue successfully- sometimes not by much, but enough that it was probably a factor in ousting several long term Democrats. The day before the election a nasty letter from the local Repig State Senator arrived in mailboxes. In upstate NY this last minute dumping of rumor – a Swiftboating if you will – has been a long term tradition.
They’ve learned from Rove – surprised that one of them didn’t replace him in the WH.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:06 pmPoliticians and Americans for that matter should take a look at “American Harvest.” Its a non-partisan feature length documentary about immigration as it relates to agriculture. It presents the facts as they are without political bias.
http://www.americanharvestmovie.com
American Harvest Synopsis
Anti-immigration sentiment sweeps across America. A journey from Florida to New York, including a trip to the Mexican border, reveals the lives and issues of legal and illegal migrants and farmers working toward a better life. Is the immigration system in America flawed? Immigrants are dying to feed America.
American farmers and agriculture rely on immigrants to do jobs that Americans won’t do or feel that are simply beneath them. Some only see the problems in the news from the perspective of those extreme points of view of the left and the right side of our political system.
Discrimination of immigrants has existed in the United States since the English persecuted the Irish. It was once generally considered that if you were Greek or Southern Italian you were not white.
American Harvest points out the inconsistencies of the current policy on immigration. See the changing face of immigrant America as it relates to Agriculture.
Follow legal and illegal farm workers and the farmers caught in the middle of a flawed immigration policy.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:55 pmIllegal Aliens and Immigration is NOT the same thing. 80% of the American people want an end to anarchy!
Illegal aliens are criminals, those who hire them are criminals and those who aid-and-abet them are criminals.
Illegal aliens in America have NO rights. We are required by law to arrest and prosecute, deport them. (Title 8 U.S. Code) To report illegal aliens call the DHS National Hotline 1 866 DHS 2ICE. (1-866-347-2523)
No, matter your political party affiliation, and setting aside your thoughts on issues. We all need to remember what it is to be an American Citizen. We need to make sure our elected representatives obey their Oath of Office and keep their Oath of Allegiance. See http://tinyurl.com/2znnvl Know whom you are voting for.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:29 pm