Karl Rove: 'More white voters alone won't save the GOP'

Political guru Karl Rove had a very interesting article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal that basically laid out the reason why the Republican Party must reach out to minority voters:

As immigration reform grinds its way through the U.S. Senate, the main focus has rightly been on the legislation's policy consequences. But there are important political implications, especially for the GOP, that are worth examining.

He backs up his statement with facts and figures, and notes:

The reality is that the nonwhite share of the vote will keep growing. As the American Enterprise Institute's Henry Olsen pointed out in a recent speech, the nonwhite vote as a share of total voters has increased in every presidential election since 1996 by 2% (much of it Hispanic) while the share of the white vote has dropped by 2% each election.

If the GOP leaves nonwhite voters to the Democrats, then its margins in safe congressional districts and red states will dwindle—not overnight, but over years and decades.
...
Immigration reform is a top issue for Latinos as it is being debated in Washington, according to a March Latino Decisions poll. But their other major concerns—the economy and jobs, and education reform—are the same as the rest of America.

Nor will support for immigration reform solve all of the GOP's challenges in appealing to Hispanic voters. Republicans also need compelling messages on jobs, economic growth, social mobility and education. They also must show up. GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen's focus groups found a major Latino complaint is that they never see Republicans in their communities to make the GOP's case.

Will the GOP listen? Time will tell.

Immigrant Song

In 1970, the government of Iceland invited Led Zeppelin to give a concert in its capital of Reykjavik. Shortly after the band arrived, Iceland’s civil service workers went on strike threatening the concert.

During the wait, Zeppelin’s lead singer, Robert Plant, wrote “Immigrant Song”.

If you are like me (and I sincerely hope the good Lord has spared you that), you don’t know the title of many songs – especially the ones whose words do not appear in the actual lyrics. This is to say nothing of the nausea inducing lyric free music of today.

The “Immigrant Song” begins with Plant famously singing (screeching?) Ahhhhhhhhhh…… Ahhhhhhhhh….

Right. That song. My second favorite song to request from lounge singers and wedding bands. Right after, naturally, Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Love doing that – “Okay…do we have any requests?”

“FREE BIRD!”….”Not funny, sir”….”yes it is.”

So. Zeppelin gets invited to Iceland on a cultural mission to perform a concert and a strike almost kills the deal. Plant writes song. Immigrant Song.

This is not unlike the immigration laws of the United States. Invite people here to work, people protest, and things bog down. The creative ones adapt based on the reasons for their presence.

Many will say, “But we didn’t invite these immigrants!”

Yes. Yes, we did. We allowed millions of people to enter the country for a whole host of reasons and very few people, in the beginning anyway, seemed to mind.

The problems began when some of the uninvited guests (guests nonetheless), started doing bad things. Very bad things.

Remember back in school when someone said, “Hey, let’s go over to so and so’s house. He’s having people over. His parents are out of town.” And what happens? The whole school shows up looking for free booze.

If that kid realizes, before the cops show up, that his behind is going to be in a sling, he will end up kicking everyone out. Right? You remember this?

Of course you do.

Our immigration problem is a bit more problematic because we cannot simply kick people out of the house. In fact, they live here now and many of them are not breaking the laws other than the one to actually be here – but we turned a blind eye to that and evvvvvvveryone knows it.

It’s time to be honest – on both sides of the aisle – about immigration.

Set up a process for an orderly, fair, and humane transition to becoming a US citizen. That means not lowering the bar, it means raising it. If people have been here and have been contributing to the development of our society, culture, and civilization they should be welcomed as such.

For those who have broken the laws, your stay here is no longer welcome and you will be returned to your country of origin. If you have done something so terrible that your home country will not accept you back or if you still owe our civil society some more time, you will be put to work.

Don’t want to work? We can be creative with folks like you. We’ll come up with something, but you won’t like it. And you’re going to miss the show.

The show must go on. The band was booked. The concert hall was scheduled.

The tickets have all been sold.

The people are here.

And they’ve been chanting for a long time, patiently, “We. Want. The Show.”

Let the band play.

The Immigrant Song has always been America’s song.

The last lines of Immigrant Song?

So now you’d better stop and rebuild all your ruins/ For peace and trust can with the day despite all your losing.

Led ahhhhhhhh…….ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Cross-posted at ChrisSaxman.com

Immigrant Song

In 1970, the government of Iceland invited Led Zeppelin to give a concert in its capital of Reykjavik. Shortly after the band arrived, Iceland’s civil service workers went on strike threatening the concert.
During the wait, Zeppelin’s lead singer, Robert Plant, wrote “Immigrant Song”.

If you are like me (and I sincerely hope the good Lord has spared you that), you don’t know the title of many songs – especially the ones whose words do not appear in the actual lyrics. This is to say nothing of the nausea inducing lyric free music of today.

The “Immigrant Song” begins with Plant famously singing (screeching?) Ahhhhhhhhhh…… Ahhhhhhhhh….

Right. That song. My second favorite song to request from lounge singers and wedding bands. Right after, naturally, Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Love doing that – “Okay…do we have any requests?”

“FREE BIRD!”….”Not funny, sir”….”yes it is.”

So. Zeppelin gets invited to Iceland on a cultural mission to perform a concert and a strike almost kills the deal. Plant writes song. Immigrant Song.

This is not unlike the immigration laws of the United States. Invite people here to work, people protest, and things bog down. The creative ones adapt based on the reasons for their presence.
Many will say, “But we didn’t invite these immigrants!”

Yes. Yes, we did. We allowed millions of people to enter the country for a whole host of reasons and very few people, in the beginning anyway, seemed to mind.

The problems began when some of the uninvited guests (guests nonetheless), started doing bad things. Very bad things.

Remember back in school when someone said, “Hey, let’s go over to so and so’s house. He’s having people over. His parents are out of town.” And what happens? The whole school shows up looking for free booze.

If that kid realizes, before the cops show up, that his behind is going to be in a sling, he will end up kicking everyone out. Right? You remember this?

Of course you do.

Our immigration problem is a bit more problematic because we cannot simply kick people out of the house. In fact, they live here now and many of them are not breaking the laws other than the one to actually be here – but we turned a blind eye to that and evvvvvvveryone knows it.

It’s time to be honest – on both sides of the aisle – about immigration.

Set up a process for an orderly, fair, and humane transition to becoming a US citizen. That means not lowering the bar, it means raising it. If people have been here and have been contributing to the development of our society, culture, and civilization they should be welcomed as such.

For those who have broken the laws, your stay here is no longer welcome and you will be returned to your country of origin. If you have done something so terrible that your home country will not accept you back or if you still owe our civil society some more time, you will be put to work.

Don’t want to work? We can be creative with folks like you. We’ll come up with something, but you won’t like it. And you’re going to miss the show.

The show must go on. The band was booked. The concert hall was scheduled.

The tickets have all been sold.

The people are here.

And they’ve been chanting for a long time, patiently, “We. Want. The Show.”

Let the band play.

The Immigrant Song has always been America’s song.

The last lines of Immigrant Song?

So now you’d better stop and rebuild all your ruins/
For peace and trust can with the day despite all your losing.

ahhhhhhhh…….ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

A bipartisan path to immigration reform

Immigration is an area where pragmatic leadership is definitely needed. Those on either side of the issue are passionate about their viewpoints and often unwilling to budge on their demands.

Republican Senator John McCain from Arizona and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer from New York weighed in on the immigration issue in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. It is a complex issue that has taken years to get to the point where it will be discussed this week in Congress.

In their op-ed, the senators wrote:

This week, we join a bipartisan group of six senators to introduce comprehensive immigration-reform legislation. This is the first step in what will be a very difficult but achievable process to fix the nation's broken immigration system once and for all. The legislation's approach is balanced: It is firm in cracking down on illegal immigration but sensible when it comes to legal immigration.

Our group's effort included the active participation of some of the most conservative and liberal members of the Senate. We engaged in hundreds of hours of very tough negotiations, which nearly broke down at several points. But we forged consensus and now stand ready for an open, transparent process to move this issue forward in Congress.

Like all genuinely bipartisan efforts, this bill is a compromise. It will not please everyone, and no one got everything they wanted. The legislation we introduce on Tuesday has more support than any past effort. In a time of deep partisanship in Washington, groups that have been at loggerheads on a range of issues for years—from the AFL-CIO to the Chamber of Commerce, from the United Farm Workers to the American Farm Bureau Federation—have come together to support our bill.

It remains to be seen if there will be open minds willing to work together and compromise on what has taken hundreds of hours of meetings, discussion, and pounding out areas of concern about how to include:

These requirements include a criminal-background check; paying a fine and back taxes; learning English; and going to the back of the line to wait for the privilege of applying for American citizenship. In this way, we balance America's heritage as a nation of immigrants with the imperative of upholding the rule of law. When these formerly illegal immigrants become law-abiding members of society, it will improve their lives and the lives of their families—and it will strengthen the nation and the U.S. economy.

The column includes much more information that is a must-read for those truly interested in learning all sides of the immigration debate. Push-back has already begun with Senator Marco Rubio receiving criticism about his willingness to compromise. On Tuesday, tea party activists in Florida planned to protest outside his office, saying they were upset at the "closed-door" process that has led to the proposed immigration reform.

The senators conclude by noting, "A healthy, functioning immigration system is vital to securing the integrity of America's sovereign borders, advancing our economic growth, and protecting human dignity." Real reform will take a bipartisan effort with give-and-take from all sides.

More details of the immigration overhaul plans are at The Hill. 

Cross-posted at LynnRMitchell.com