Bring The Hate

As I alluded to in that last post, conservatives appear to believe hating on immigrants is the ticket back to power.

As Schlafly urged her brethren to reach out to the "Reagan Democrats" whose "jobs have been taken away," she ramped up the demagougery, hysterically warning "we cannot let Mexico turn us into a two-language nation."

(Ever been to Puerto Rico, Louisiana, Chinatown, Little Saigon, Amish country...?)

She thundered that America should not be a country of "multiculturalism, multilingualism and diversity".

But as she sought to race-bait her way into the hearts of hard-working Americans, her fundamental conservative elitism and disrespect came through, as she said, "millions of low-wage high school dropouts" from Mexico are "taking jobs away from our own high school dropouts."

(Similary Ken Blackwell hinted at his own condescenion towards Americans when, in praising individual freedom, he said "all men are created equal" also can be stated "any idiot should get this.")

Conservatives tried to play working Americans for idiots by flooding the airwaves with anti-immigrant ads last year. Whites didn't buy it and Latinos left the GOP in droves.

So, good luck with that strategy. Meanwhile, the rest of us will keep pushing for real reform of our broken immigration system that respects the struggles of those on both sides of the border.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future