The Clueless Consultant Class * Also read this related article **
Members of Congress are back home in their states and districts for the August recess. But before they left Washington, congressional Republicans got a hard sell on the Senate’s quasi-amnesty bill.
Led by Karl Rove, the donor wing of the Republican Party, including the Chamber of Commerce and many business interests, launched a full-court press to convince House Republicans to support the notion of “comprehensive immigration reform.”
The letter, signed by 100 major GOP donors and former officials, calls on House Republicans to support, among other things, “a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.”
If you poll Washington elites, they overwhelmingly agree with this advice. If you poll Democrats, they too strongly support this approach. But if you poll Republicans, the results are quite different.
Last week the Pew Research Center released the results of a survey asking Republican voters how they felt about the GOP and what they wanted it to do. A majority of Republicans (54%) want the party to “move in a more conservative direction,” while 40% said the party should “move in a moderate direction.”
On the immigration issue specifically, by a two-to-one margin (37% to 17%) Republican voters felt that the party’s position “was not conservative enough.” Thirty-eight percent felt the party’s position was “about right.” Yet Rove & Co. are trying to push the GOP to the left.
Moreover, when you poll the American people you quickly discover that there is no great clamoring among the masses for amnesty. A June CNN poll asked Americans, “What should be the main focus of the U.S. government in dealing with immigration policy?”
Only 36% said “creating a path to citizenship for many immigrants” illegally in the country.
The overwhelming majority — 62% — said the main focus should be “increasing border security to reduce or eliminate the number of immigrants coming into this country without permission.” That is the traditional Republican position.
A Fox News poll conducted in May found similar results: 73% of voters felt that improved border security measures “should be completed before other changes to immigration policy go into effect.”
On “Face the Nation” this weekend, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan criticized the GOP establishment, saying that the GOP’s “consulting class” is “not in touch with the ground in American anymore.”
The irony is that while Rove and others are chasing after Latino voters, many of them are also telling the party to avoid values issues. But which issues resonate more with middle-class Americans: capital gains rates or the breakdown of the family? Amnesty or the sanctity of life?
There is tremendous grassroots discontent. Rove and others pushing amnesty are sticking their fingers in the eyes of the GOP’s most loyal voters. If the party blows up, it will be due to the cluelessness of the out-of-touch consulting class.
* Reprinted in its entirety with permission. Visit Campaign for Working Families PAC and subscribe to the e-mail newsletter End of Day Report for daily feeds from an organization with grassroots authenticity. Bold typeface represents our emphasis. Graphic not in original.
** Check this link at Godfather Politics regarding Rove, the establishment and comments regarding their attitude toward Tea Party Republican voters. R Mall
Wasn’t this also the same exact sceniro in 06-07 on this issue? The only difference now the tables being turned with the President being a (D) and the Congress being a Republican majority? Obviously though the Democrat establishment wasn’t freaking out on Pelosi and her Congress for coming out against Bush at every turn on his push for immigration. The Republican establishment just sucks. Hopefully Congress doesn’t listen to them.