On immigration, Cook argues for more honey, less vinegar
As we look at the “Road Ahead” for the GOP, here is an interesting piece from Charlie Cook at the National Journal…
A Little Sensitivity Training Could Go a Long Way for the GOP
By Charlie Cook | Tuesday, January 29, 2013 | 06:00:06 AM
As they say, words matter. For Republicans seeking the long road back to being a national and broad-based party, the movement toward a bipartisan and comprehensive immigration plan is a start, but it doesn’t finish the job. GOP candidates got pounded in the November election among minority voters: Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans lost Latino voters by 44 and 38 points, respectively; and Asian voters by 47 and 48 points.
But the damage done among Latinos and Asians, the latter now the fastest-growing minority group, resulted not just from the substance of the immigration issue but from the rhetoric. While Romney can blame only himself for his “self-deportation” remarks, far earlier and far more often we saw shoot-from-the-lip remarks from various Republican candidates, conservative radio and cable television talk-show hosts, and guests who were seen by many as being, correctly or not, spokesmen for the Republican Party. Many Latino and Asian voters have come to see the GOP as a hostile force, a political movement made up of people who don’t want anyone who doesn’t look like them coming or staying in America.
Obviously, there are many Republicans, probably most, who don’t feel or talk that way. But those who do say such things do so loudly enough that they have become the face and voice of the party on many issues, thereby inflicting great damage on the GOP as a whole and the many Republicans who don’t feel that way. If a party could enroll its candidates, party officials, and, for that matter, members in one big sensitivity training class, it wouldn’t be a bad thing for Republicans to do so.