Does anyone other than myself see it as being the least
bit peculiar that we have what seems to be an overabundance of Democrats who
are more than willing to offer up all manner of what they apparently see as
being some heartfelt political advice? Is
it because they have our best interest at heart, or, perhaps, might there be an
ulterior motive of some sort? I just
don’t get it. Previous advice handed out
has had to do with the fact that unless Republicans pass some sort of ‘comprehensive’
immigration reform they will risk being relegated to minority status for the
next 20 years and succeed in preventing themselves from winning the White House
for just as long.
Now it would seem we have some additional advice,
presumably just as well intentioned, coming from none other than Barry
“Almighty”. You see, it’s according to
Barry that because white voters are abandoning the Democrat Party because they
feel left out, the GOP should react by wooing Latino voters. Barry offered his advice during an interview
with National Public Radio. And while I
wish I could be confident that our stellar leadership in the Republican Party
would get together and tell Barry to take his advice and stick it where the sun
don’t shine, I doubt very much that our collection of spineless are actually
capable of doing such a thing.
Anyway, Barry said, “There’s a burden on Democrats to
need to make very clear to a broad swath of [white] working-class and
middle-class voters that we are, in fact, fighting for them. And there’s also
an obligation on the part of the Republican Party to make sure that they are
broadening their coalition to reach out to the new face of America.” Barry’s comments would seem to align him with
many members of the GOP’s establishment wing, the very same ones who we
continue to hear arguing the idiotic point that a high-immigration policy would
kill two birds with one stone, aiding businesses while helping to win
ballot-box support from low-income Latino immigrants.
That’s the sort of policy that is endorsed by the GOP’s many
business allies, who want the GOP-led Congress to get busy and pass immigration
laws in 2015. However, that is also the
view currently opposed by the GOP’s more populist wing, whose leaders argue
that a low-immigration policy would spur 2016 support for the Republican Party
from lower-income white, Latino and black swing voters in critical Midwest
states. The leaders in this group include Sen. Jeff Sessions as well as likely
2016 candidate, former Sen. Rick Santorum, and they generally oppose Barry
“Almighty’s” Nov. 20 decision to award work permits to five million
unauthorized migrants.
The fact is that today we have fewer U.S.-born Americans who
have jobs than were employed in November 2007, that despite the fact that we
have undergone a working-age population growth of 11 million. Almost one in every two jobs added since 2009
have gone to foreign-born workers. Low-income
white voters have shifted, and rather significantly so, to the GOP since the
1990s. That shift was highlighted by the
November election, where GOP candidates won 60 percent of white voters, giving
the GOP a majority in the Senate. The GOP also won them 36 percent of the
Latino vote and 50 percent of the Asian vote.
When asked about that loss, Barry simply chose to blame
Democrat messaging. He said, “There’s
sometimes a gap in perceptions that we have to bridge,” while claiming
centralized Obamacare health-care system should be welcomed by lower-income
voters. He went on to say, Kentucky “is
one of the best states in using the Affordable Care Act to insure huge numbers
of working-class white voters. It’s just they don’t call it Obamacare; they call
it something else.” However, Barry also acknowledged
that his policies haven’t done much to help lower-income white voters gain jobs
or reverse the slide in wages that has been underway since 2001. Really?
Barry said, “I do think that right now there are a lot of
white working-class voters who haven’t seen enough progress economically in
their own lives.” He went on to say, “They
hear about an immigration debate or they hear about, you know, debate
surrounding Ferguson, and they think, ‘I’m being left out. Nobody seems to be
thinking about how tough it is for me right now,’ or, ‘I’ve been downscaled,
I’ve lost my job.’” And he added, “I
think there’s a legitimate sense of loss, particularly among men, who have seen
manufacturing diminish; construction has been in the tank.” Both of which are a direct result of liberal
Democrat policies.
However, again according to Barry, the GOP should instead
focus its attention on Latinos, not on lower-income voters. He said, “We
[Democrats] have got to speak to those concerns. Now, the flip side is, you
know, nobody would be happier than me to see the Republican Party try to
broaden its coalition. Immigration reform, by the way, was a great opportunity
for the Republican Party to do so.” Ok,
so who among us, other than perhaps Boehner, McConnell of Priebus, is actually
stupid enough to believe any of what Barry says or that he only has our best
interest at heart? These naïve boobs
will believe just about anything Barry tells them.
Barry also offered tacit backing for the GOP’s
business-backed establishment wing, the same wing of the party that so many of us
oppose and not so fondly refer to as being RINOs, which strongly supports
greater inflow of foreign workers. The wing includes former President George
Bush, who minimized enforcement of immigration laws, and changed mortgage rules
to help win political support from lower-income immigrants. Barry said, “George Bush — I disagreed with a
lot of issues, but he was absolutely right in his position on promoting
comprehensive immigration reform, reaching out to the Latino community, and, as
a consequence, did pretty well.”
Multiple polls would seem to indicate that American
voters want immigration policy to aid Americans, not illegal immigrants. For example, a September poll by Paragon
Insights showed that large slices of the Democrat coalition would be “much more
likely” to vote for a GOP candidate who says that “the first goal of immigration
policy needs to be getting unemployed Americans back to work — not importing
more low-wage workers to replace them.”
Such a sentiment would seem to flying the face of the advice being
offered by Barry to the Republican Party.
But our leadership has demonstrated time and again that what the people
think and want is unimportant.
Thirty-eight percent of African-Americans, 39 percent of
Democrat women, 36 percent of Latinos and roughly 47 percent of Midwesterners
said they would be much more likely to support a GOP candidate who favors the
employment of Americans. Gee, what a
freakin’ concept, and yet many of those in our newly minted Republican majority
in Congress seem unable to grasp what’s right in front of them. Instead of listening to the people, our supposed
party leadership choose to listen to the Democrats offering up this kind of idiotic
advice. If Republican wish to maintain their
majorities beyond 2016 they need to decide to whom it is they’re going to
listen.
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