Chill Out Dude

That's Matthew Dowd's message to Republicans on the immigration issue. Here's portions of his memo to Republicans:

RNC senior adviser/BC04 senior strategist...Matthew Dowd urges Republican Nat'l Committee members to favor a "comprehensive" solution to immigration, which the public believes is "unifying, not polarizing."

Dowd: "Furthermore, majorities of Hispanics back it. Therefore, it is imperative for the Republican Party to talk about immigration effectively and comprehensively and demonstrate leadership on this vital issue as we move toward the mid-term elections."

This makes all the sense in the world for several reasons. First, it's the smartest policy in terms of stopping the problem. This isn't a specific endorsement of the Senate's McCain-Kennedy immigration bill. Quite the contrary. That bill's numerous atrocities will be cleaned up in conference, based on Jim Sensenbrenner's comments the past couple days.

Secondly, policy that's both tough on illegal immigrants and is supported by "majorities of Hispanics" is proof that smart policy makes the best politics. We shouldn't be supporting comprehensive immigration reform simply to gain Hispanic votes. That's been Rush's biggest complaint this week. That said, if we can get a cleaned up bill out of conference, which I think is likely, and we win majority support from Hispanics, then that's a win-win situation. Not only is there nothing wrong with that; that's the most desireable situation to find yourself in.

Dowd's memo says that an internal RNC poll conducted by Jan Van Louhuzen finds that "overwhelming support exists for a temporary worker program. 80% of all voters, 83% of Republicans, and 79% of self-identified conservatives support a temporary worker program as long as immigrants pay taxes and obey the law."

More, from the RNC internal poll: "When voters are given the choice of other immigration proposals, strengthening enforcement with a tamper-proof identity card (89% among all voters, 93% among GOP), various wordings of a temporary worker program (the highest at 85% among all voters, 86% among GOP), and sending National Guard troops to the border (63% among all voters, 84% among GOP) score the highest among both all voters and Republican voters."

Also: "Voters don't consider granting legal status to those already here amnesty."

Based on this polling, I'd say it'd be political suicide to not take all of the President's proposals seriously. The weakest support for any issue is 79 percent. It seems to me that people that are saying that the President is ignoring his base are left without an argument after reading this polling.

I. Public Polling Summary

Public polls show that Americans want the government to solve the immigration problem. The public strongly supports a comprehensive approach. For instance:

Expanding the Border Patrol. Eighty percent (80%) in the FOX News poll (4/4-4/5) support increasing the number of officers policing the border, and Gallup (4/6-4/7) shows 81% believe increasing the number of Border Patrol agents will be an effective way to reduce illegal immigration.

Creating a temporary worker program. More than two-thirds of voters, and equally large numbers of Republicans, support creating a temporary worker program. FOX News (5/16-5/18) found 63% of all voters support a temporary worker program and 63% of Republicans supporting it too. Similarly, CBS (5/16-5/17) found 61% of Americans and 62% of Republicans support a temporary worker program.

Make no mistake: Staying true to one's beliefs is important. That said, when overwhelming majorities disagree with you, then it's time that you reconsider your positions by asking: (a) What are they seeing that I'm not? and (b) Are their beliefs logical and reasonable?

---

Posted Saturday, May 27, 2006 10:03 AM

No comments.