Below-the-Belt Latino Politics

By James R. Edwards, Jr. on June 4, 2012

An independent political mobilization campaign is showing what its heart is really made of. While purporting to be "conservative" and Republican-leaning, its real purpose seems to be to pressure Republicans — and Mitt Romney in particular — to embrace amnesty and open borders.

The so-called "Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles" (LPCP) got headlines when its leader called President Obama "worse than Joe Arpaio", the tough Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff being harassed by the Obama administration for faithfully holding illegal aliens accountable under the law. Former Bush administration official Alfonso Aguilar is in charge of the Hispanic initiative. Aguilar called Obama "the most anti-immigrant president we've ever had".

Of course, the Obama administration has amassed a soft-on-immigration record. After installing former La Raza official Cecilia Munoz in the Domestic Policy Office, the president shackled the popular and effective 287(g) program for local police, pursued de facto amnesty by abusing administrative loopholes, repeatedly pandered to Hispanics on amnesty, and filed lawsuits against several states. Those states wrote laws enabling them to go after illegal aliens where matters fully under their jurisdiction exist, such as business licensing, or setting up parallel state laws for certain immigration-related violations. Obama clearly isn't half as tough as Sheriff Joe. In fact, the administration is demonstrably pro-open-borders. So, it's funny when LPCP criticizes even the Obama administration's meager enforcement of immigration laws.

Bad-mouthing Sheriff Joe also reeks like morning breath. It not only shows disrespect for a nationally known elected official of the same political party, it amounts to piling on. The Left and open-borders lobby have cheered the administration's intimidation litigation against Sheriff Joe. LPCP's mud-throwing puts the LPCP on the side of the Obama administration's actual record — and fully opposite the GOP's position in support of border security and the rule of law, and against amnesty.

Needless to say, such a smear tactic violates Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. And conservatives typically play fair and square, rejecting the uncivilized tactics of the Left. But LPCP seems comfortable pushing the tactical envelope — indicting its own claim of being "for" conservative principles. Such personalizing of the open-borders position in this ugly way sounds more like something that would ooze from an Occupy squatters' village.

We come to what this demonization of Sheriff Joe is truly about: "The only thing that Republicans need to do is engage Latinos, show up, and have a constructive position on immigration", Aguilar told CBS. He helpfully added that, "they [need] to move 'beyond enforcement-only solutions'". Aha. A "constructive position", from LPCP's wolf-in-sheep's-clothing perspective, equals amnesty and mass immigration. LPCP apparently promises a larger share of Hispanic votes going to the GOP if Republicans would only hoist a white flag on immigration and border security.

Of course that would turn off a wide swath of the voter base the GOP is depending on. Just ask Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, whose campaigns skidded once they tossed out the electoral anchor of going pro-amnesty. Or ask pro-amnesty John McCain about 2008. You can bet having your name entwined with open borders, as McCain has, caused many voters to sit on their hands, not write checks to campaign coffers, not man the campaign volunteer stations, and stay home on election day.

Following LPCP's advice would hardly guarantee more Latino votes, because open-borders Obama will obviously outbid any and all Republicans on amnesty and open-borders policies. And policy-wise, it perversely runs against the best interests of Hispanic Americans. Adding to the already massive, constant flow of new immigrants will doom most of those new arrivals and those who've come in the past 20 years to the lower rungs of the economic ladder, dependency on the welfare state, and longer retention of close ties to their homeland. Thus, LPCP promotes the leftist, big-government clientele of the welfare state. This misguided group is practicing the dark arts of identity politics, which freezes Americanization and patriotic assimilation.

Just what are those "conservative principles" LPCP claims to stand for? They aren't easily seen, even when you try to dig down to the group's core principles. It seems this scam is nothing more than practitioners of identity politics and advocates of welfare-state principles.



Topics: Politics