Republican Short-Sightedness

This was obvious to everyone but the GOP.

Today, a new NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo poll shows a similar trend at the national level, where “Latinos, once a semi-swing group of voters, now have swung overwhelmingly for President Obama and the Democratic Party, and younger Hispanics are moving to the Democrats in even greater numbers.”

For example, 68% of Latinos approve of Obama’s job (compared with 48% of overall respondents and 38% of whites), and they view the Democratic Party favorably by a 54%-21% score (versus 41%-40% among all adults and 34%-48% among whites). And their views of the Republican Party? In the poll, the GOP fav/unfav among Latinos is 22%-44%.

What’s more, Latinos think Democrats would do a better job than Republicans in protecting the interests of minorities (by 58%-11%), in representing the opportunity to move up the economic ladder (46%-20%), in dealing with immigration (37%-12%), and in promoting strong moral values (33%-23%). The only advantage they gave Republicans was in enforcing security along the border (31%-20%). And Latinos remain a sleeping — yet growing — political giant: 23% of them aren’t registered voters (compared with 12% of whites and 16% of blacks).

Live by the tea, die by the tea.  And since when is alienating (no pun intended) an entire constituency sound political strategy.

Benen ends the post with this prediction:

For what it’s worth, Hispanic support for Democrats may fall if immigration reform fails this year, and voters blame the White House (even if it’s Republicans and conservative Dems who are responsible for killing the bill).

It creates a very strong incentive for the GOP — fight like hell to prevent immigration reform from succeeding. If voters blame the president, Republicans win. If voters blame the GOP, they’ll be largely in the same position they’re in now.

Perhaps, but I doubt it.  Republicans have moved past the policy of immigration and into the personal.  What they’ve done is grudge-worthy.