AJ-Strata has an excellent post on why the Congressional GOP is lagging McCain.
The tone the right has taken on immigration has been shrill, declaring those who did not toe a hard line traitors repeatedly, as well as enemies of the Republic (Paul J. Cella is one of the more easily found ones, but you can see similar sentiments in some comments on threads at Free Republic). As I posted elsewhere, such comments have been counter-productive, to put it mildly, and arguably, destructive to the Republican coalition. Some of the comments, quite frankly, would only have been resolvable via the Code Duello.
The hard-liners on immigration have been akin to the people crying about global warming - with practically no proof for their dire predictions, and their response, is much like those of the global warming believers to critics, as described by Michael Crichton.
Some of this rhetoric borders on the fringes as well. In the age of Google, it is easy to find. It's why the "dirty pool" MacRanger describes can stick, as well, even when the specifics are false. Just glance at the immigration threads at FreeRepublic.com, or comments at Townhall (particularly those directed at supporters of President Bush on immigration, like Linda Chavez or Ruben Navarrette), and you can see just why the dirty pool works. The lies are believable.
Contrary to what Mac wants to believe, the MS-1 loss, as well as Hastert's seat, indicates that conservatives have lost touch with America in some respects. I can't speak for anyone else, but who wants to vote for someone who views them as a traitor over a disagreement - much less work with them?
Perhaps MacRanger can answer that question. Because the Congressional GOP needs to either answer that question - or they need to mend fences with the moderates they have been working so hard to alienate.
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2 comments:
It's interesting that you accept at face this person's claim that immigration was a deciding issue of the Davis-Childers race.
For one, this is Mississippi - not quite a focal point for the immigration debate. The economy, pork and Iraq all easily trump immigration as the defining issues for Mississipians right now. Why ignore, say Iraq, as the most important issue here? I mean Childers wants to start bringing troops home within the next administration’s first year, while Davis says that should be left to the military to decide. For a better (but certainly highly imperfect) picture of how the immigration issue plays in elections these days, look to races in border states.
Second, both Davis and Childers ran on enforcement-first platforms. Thus, you could spin the outcome as “Pro-Enforcement a Winning Position for Traditionally Pro-Immigration Party - Illegals Beware!”
Big Lizards has a different take. I think we need to face the fact that the GOP has been running some turkeys lately. All they need is someone to shot 'deport 'em all' and beat their chest crying that they are more conservative than God Almighty and they're in.
We also need to face the fact that every time a "republican" runs hard-line on immigration they lose. It is a loser for the GOP.
From what I gather Davis ran a repulsive campaign. I have a feeling it was so bad Republicans stayed home. Unfortunately we are going to be facing the same thing in NM-2 in a few months.
Somewhere reason needs to prevail.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
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