Political Winds Favor Comprehensive Immigration Reform

by Dave Bennion · 2008-11-11 08:00:00 UTC
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The mainstream blogosphere is talking about immigration reform and the electoral consequences the GOP is seeing of alienating the Latin@ vote.  Kos has a message for Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama: pay attention to what just happened to your opponents.  Don't repeat their mistakes.  The Latin@ vote is a swing vote, and the current alignment may not be permanent if the Democrats don't take this opportunity to legislate sensible, humane comprehensive immigration reform.

[W]atch in 2010, as an unreformed Republican Party tries to play off its old playbook of division and hate.  The immigrant bashing was muted this year because of McCain's presence at the top of the ticket. Had Romney been the nominee (or pretty much anyone else), such restraint would've been thrown out the window. They won't have that problem in 2010.

That playbook led them to wage a hateful anti-immigrant campaign in 2006, to ill effect. Their one chance to pick off an entrenched non-freshman Democratic House incumbent this year -- Paul Kanjorski in PA-11 -- fell flat on its face after a practically one-note anti-immigrant effort. The strategy has had zero payoff at the polls, while ensuring that Latinos are an even bigger, more reliable Democratic constituency.

That won't stop some Democrats from freaking out. While I generally don't mind Rahm Emanuel as Obama's chief of staff -- I like his pugnacious partisanship, and I expect that to counteract Obama's tendencies toward conciliation and compromise -- fact is Rahm dedicated the last two years of his tenure with the House leadership fighting to push the Democratic caucus Right on immigration, even getting NC Rep. Heath Shuler to co-sponsor a bullshit anti-immigration bill with the anti-Latino bigot Tom Tancredo.

I know for a fact that prominent party Latinos are viewing Rahm's new perch at the White House with some healthy skepticism. But Rahm has proven that he's nothing if not practical. Hopefully the new data from this election proves to him the wisdom of pursuing a pro-immigrant policy as not just the moral course of action, but the most politically expedient for the near- and long-term health of the Democratic Party.

[Image: Heath Shuler, nativist extraordinaire]

Dave Bennion
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