On Friday, the House of Representatives finally passed an emergency spending bill in response to the humanitarian crisis at the border. The bill was a reworked version of the one that was pulled off the floor Thursday after it was obvious that it did not have enough votes to pass. House Republicans also pushed through another bill that would effectively end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which the President put into place in 2012 to provide a reprieve from deportation to certain undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children prior to 2007. Neither bill is going anywhere as President Obama has already said he’d veto both and the Senate will not even bring them to the floor for a vote.
The spending bill that the House Republicans were finally able to agree on Friday evening provided a fraction of the funding the President requested weeks ago and less than half of what Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) had initially proposed. The bill essentially just provides more resources to southern states to send the National Guard to the border and helps deport detained immigrants at a faster pace. It does nothing to actually address any of the actual issues surrounding the humanitarian crisis. However, due to an extreme portion of the House Republican Caucus, along with a couple of meddling GOP Senators, this was the best that the House Republican leadership could get.
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Of course, even before the votes took place Friday night, they knew both bills were DOA and would never even make it to the President’s desk. But, for Boehner and House Republicans, at least they could say that they finally got something passed, even if it were only to appease their most conservative members and a way to toss red meat at their ‘base,’ which is apparently made up almost entirely of racist, old white people. In the end, while Congress is on a five-week recess, President Obama will see what executive actions he can issue to address the situation at hand. It is also likely that he will look into further expanding DACA as the House continues to completely avoid touching comprehensive immigration reform.
And therein lies the problem for today’s Republican Party. In their continued effort to appeal to the most conservative portion of the American population, and embrace the ugly racism that bubbled to the surface during and after Obama’s election, they’ve essentially told those who are not white, heterosexual, Christian males, “We have no use for you.” By allowing the Tea Party to basically set the platform for the Republican Party these past few years, the GOP has turned its back on its own long-term solvency. With the party’s actions these past few weeks, Republicans have sealed their fate. Moving forward, they will be nothing more than a regional political party.
In 2004, President George W. Bush captured 40% of the Hispanic vote in that year’s Presidential election. The fact is, despite all of his shortcomings, Bush did embrace a temporary guest worker program and wanted to see comprehensive immigration reform pass during his own presidency. However, when John McCain ran in 2008, he only captured 31% of the Hispanic vote. He decided to go further right on the immigration issue and it cost him a lot of support. When Romney ran in 2012, he was only able to get 27% of the Hispanic vote. Of course, Romney had to appeal to the far-right base during the GOP primary and he did his best to cast himself as extremely conservative on immigration reform.
This downward spiral will only continue for Republicans when it comes to Hispanic voters. Much like with African-Americans, the GOP can pretty much kiss off this group of voters forever. Once the GOP embraced the ‘Southern Strategy’ following the Civil Rights Era of the ’60s, they essentially wrote off the black vote forever. By embracing ugly rhetoric regarding the border crisis and their own intransigence on comprehensive immigration reform, Republicans are doing the same thing with Hispanic voters. They are telling them, in no uncertain way, that they are not welcome in their party and that their vote is not wanted.
The GOP has allowed the craziest and most hateful of their party to be the voice on immigration and issues surrounding the border. Due to the complete lack of leadership within the party, the most radical members of the party are the ones who are always heard. People like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) are finding microphones and spouting out racist rhetoric whenever possible. And they are spurred on by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who revels in his ability to create mass chaos in Washington. Every time one of these hateful extremists speaks, and they speak loud and often, the GOP loses more potential voters.
While it may be good for the conservative media entertainment complex, it is destroying the GOP. Oh well, they did it to themselves.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
