I too find the Dennis York Rule applies to Democrat Blogger Xoff at Wisopinion, which means that occasionally he produces a 100% correct thought. What catches my attention is not the self congratulatory analysis of Democrats maintaining elective offices they already control, but rather the understanding that Republicans will not help their cause by going negative on immigration. Keep in mind Xoff is a professionally trained political analyst.
The northern Virginia suburbs which have been the focus of much of the analysis have been reliably Republican in the past, but didn't deliver as expected for the GOP this time. One reason the immigration issue didn't work may be that there are a fair number of immigrants living in Virginia, including Latinos and Asians. Wisconsin has growing populations of Latino and Hmong voters who may be turned off to immigrant-bashing as well.The take home point for the Republicans is that “immigrant-bashing” is the wrong way to approach the immigration issues facing the United States. As a non-professionally trained political analyst, I am confident in saying that American voters are really tried of all the negativity. I am constantly frustrated by the Republican Party because they are only focused on winning close elections through masterful micromanagement of known voters. I keep waiting for them to understand they are right about the issues facing the country and should be in all out positive blitz mode.
Citizenship is a national membership with Political Rights granted in addition to the Human Rights of individuals. When Xoff discusses the immigrant effect on the Virginia Governorship election, I don’t believe even he believes the result is due to non-citizens voting. There is no doubt that many Democrats desire to extend government social services to non-citizens, but I don’t believe any Democrat has yet called for granting foreign nationals the right to vote in American elections.
Just like the Republicans have screwed up election reform by calling for Voter ID (a negative) rather than Accurate Voting (a positive), they are showing every predisposition to prevent meaningful immigration reform by accentuating the negative. This is my amateur advice to the Republicans: We are all immigrants in this country. Even the Native Americans are immigrants from the Old World. We are not, however, all citizens. This discussion needs to focus on the positive benefits of citizenship. Citizenship needs to be something desirable and obtainable for all individuals seeking social and economic freedom under the physical and constitutional protection of a limited government.
