Dick Morris' Mistake
By Allan Wall
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 19, 2004
Dick Morris is legendary for shrewdness and political acumen. But his analysis in “Hispanics :
Key to GOP’s Future†is erroneous and
misleading. Either (1) Morris wasn’t thinking very hard when he wrote it, or (2) Morris is
working for the Clintons again, who are paying him to
give suicidal advice to the GOP.
The Bush Immigration Amnesty Proposal would be a disaster. It will increase and encourage
further illegal immigration. It will drive down
wages for the American working class. It will expand the reach of the welfare state. It will cost a
whole lot of money. It’s a slap in the face to the
Border Patrol agents who put their lives on the line every day to protect our border. It will further
erode national unity, promoting divisive
ethnic identity politics and balkanization. It’s a bad proposal all the way around.
All these noxious effects are irrelevant to Dick Morris, who assures us, against all available
evidence, that an illegal alien amnesty (or whatever
you choose to call it) will save the Republican Party!
Mr. Morris tells us that Hispanics must be pandered to by making our immigration system even
more harmful than it is already. If we would just
do what Hispanic activists tell us to do, says Morris, then Hispanics will fall into the arms of the
Republicans.
This is sheer fantasy. There is no solid reason to believe that, even if the GOP does all the
misguided things Morris wants it to, it will gain the
majority of the Hispanic vote.
Not that all Hispanics support illegal immigration. Those who don’t must be insulted by Morris’
assertions. And for those Hispanics who
already vote for the GOP out of conviction, the amnesty proposal has nothing to offer them.
Why should we believe that the majority of Hispanics who vote for the Democrats will become
Republicans if the GOP supports an amnesty?
That certainly wasn’t the result of the 1986 Amnesty, also enacted under a Republican
administration.
Why would lower-income Hispanics support the GOP? Democrats can always outbid
Republicans in offering more public benefits. The only
way for Republicans to win that game is to be even more leftist than Democrats. And that would
destroy the party.
Dick Morris also peddles the conventional wisdom that Hispanics are social conservatives.
According to Morris:
“As Catholic voters, who take their religion seriously, Hispanics are a natural Republican
constituency.â€
The truth is most Hispanics are nominal Catholics, with the same social and moral pathologies as
whites and blacks. In fact, Hispanic women
have higher rates of both out-of-wedlock births AND abortions than white and black women!
The Hispanic rate of welfare dependency is higher than whites and almost as high as blacks.
(Don’t believe it? Check out this article).
Immigrants from Mexico hail from a country with a strong secular political tradition. There is
simply no evidence that the majority of Hispanic
immigrants are attracted to social conservatism.
And if “Hispanics are a natural Republican constituency,†why aren’t they voting for the GOP
already? Because they want “benefits for illegal
immigrants� Sorry Dick this just doesn’t add up! The evidence indicates, in fact, that even
Hispanic Republicans are more in favor of taxing
and spending than white Democrats! (
http://www.vdare.com/sailer/pew.htm)
Morris ignores today’s reality when he writes :
“As Hispanics follow the traditional paths of upward mobility that immigrant groups have trod
before them, they are likely to lean more and
more toward the Republicans - just as Irish and Italians do these days, abandoning the
Democratic orientation of their ancestors.â€
But the Irish and Italians came here when America practiced assimilation and Americanization.
Today’s ethnic pandering – of which Dick
Morris approves – encourages Hispanics NOT to assimilate and implies that Hispanic interests are
not identical with American interests, a very
dangerous idea indeed.
Are Hispanic interests the same as American interests? If they are, why not just treat Hispanic
voters like other Americans? If they aren’t the
same, maybe somebody should spell out the difference. Maybe all Americans, not just Hispanic
activists, should have a say in our country’s
future.
Dick Morris has an explanation as to why the GOP has heretofore failed to win the Hispanic vote:
“For decades, Republicans systematically alienated Hispanics by insisting on English-only
initiatives, opposing benefits for illegal immigrants
and demanding an end even to free public schools for the children of those who came here
illegally. These measures drove Hispanics into the
waiting arms of Democrats. Bush has now acted to reverse the legacy of these initiatives and to
welcome Hispanics into the GOP.â€
Morris is telling us that Republicans should abandon their principles and support lawlessness in
order to gain Hispanic votes. But the very
policies decried by Morris are proven vote-getters.
English-only initiatives are attempts to prevent the linguistic balkanization of our country. The
growing use of Spanish in politics, promoted
by both Republicans and Democrats, encourages politicians to say one thing in English and
another thing in Spanish. (For a detailed example,
click here ).
Immigration reduction is a proven vote-getter. Look at the recent California election. In a liberal
state, the majority of the electorate chose
candidates who were perceived to be tougher on immigration, and tossed out a governor who
followed exactly the policies Morris tells us will
help the GOP!
Near the end of the article, Morris falls into globalist pseudo-humanitarian claptrap: “America has
4 percent of the world's population but 25
percent of its wealth. It is incumbent on us to open our doors to those who seek upward
mobility.†So what are you suggesting, Dick? That we
open our doors to the entire 6-billion population of Planet Earth? Most countries in the world,
after all, are poorer than Mexico!
And speaking of Mexico, Morris informs us:
“ The only thing standing between subsistence and starvation in Mexico, and much of Central
America is the money sent home to needy
families by hard working men and women in the United States who tend our gardens, wash our
dishes and clean our floors.â€
On the contrary, mass emigration encourages the leaders of Mexico and other nations to postpone
economic reforms. Vicente Fox was widely
seen as a hope for change in Mexico when elected (with Dick Morris’ help) in 2000. Here it is
2004, and no substantive changes have been
made. But Fox is still agitating for the U.S. to open its border.
Emigration from Mexico to the U.S. breaks up families, encourages deadbeat dads to abandon
their children and gives Mexico’s leaders an
excuse to put off economic reforms. Do you really want to help Mexico?
Close the border and you’ll see Fox and the opposition get serious about reforms.
Not only will the Bush Proposal not win the Hispanic vote, it will likely lose votes among the
Republican base. American voter-taxpayers
outside the country club are fuming over this proposal. I’m not talking about the Hollywood Left
or other pathological Bush-haters. I´m talking
about ordinary Americans, faithful Republicans who voted for George W. Bush, who have
defended him, who supported the Iraq war. Many of
these people feel betrayed. They feel that Bush takes them for granted. Are their votes of no
value? President Bush believes they will vote
Republican come November because they have nowhere else to go. He might be surprised.
Morris is wrong. The Bush Proposal will not save the Republican party. It may instead help to
destroy it.
Allan Wall (
[email protected]) is an American who lives and works in Mexico, and writes
for VDARE.com
(
www.vdare.com ).
