The Washington Times Op-Ed
By all accounts, Republicans should be riding high. Elections in Iraq were so successful that even CBS and The New York Times was obliged to congratulate the Iraqi people, albeit grudgingly; President Bush's State of the Union address was both well-written and well-received; and the Democrats are about to elect Howard Dean to chair the DNC.
But there is one issue that could cloud the Republican Party's future: illegal immigration. It has the power to split the party ideologically, geographically and by socio-economic status. All Republicans understand that if it's mishandled, it could alienate more than a generation of Latinos. But there's another side to the equation that eastern Republican elites ignore: The party's approach to illegal immigration could likewise alienate everyday, hard-working, taxpaying Republicans in the Southwest.
Take California. Certainly, at the root of its problems is a far-left, profligate state legislature dominated by Democrats; their leaders include ignoble politicians like recalled Gov. Gray Davis, inept Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, and corrupt Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (who recently resigned amid burgeoning scandals).
But California Republicans' impatience with their ideological adversaries is now compounded by increasing disillusionment with those in their own party. Indeed, many Republicans nationally — especially those based on the East Coast — seem willing to tolerate illegal immigration because of its benefits to corporate America and the economy generally. The problem is that few of those same Republicans bear illegal immigration's costs.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal immigrants impose a net cost on California taxpayers of a whopping $9 billion per year in education, medical care and incarceration costs. And the spillover affects of dramatic population increase — one million in Southern California just between 2000 and 2003 — combined with governmental complacency on the topic have begun to elicit real anger among otherwise loyal Republicans.
Posted by Suzanne at February 11, 2005