GOP immigrant bashing doesn't work and Dems shouldn't do it either

FireDogLake:

Immigrant bashing just does not move votes. The 2006 elections were a disaster for anti-immigrant demagoguery. Not only did the issue fail to stave off the Republican loss of the House and Senate, but leading Republican anti-immigrant campaigners such as Reps. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and John Hostettler of Indiana and Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania all lost their races. And in a telling portent of the future, Latino support for the GOP dropped to 26 percent from 44 percent.

Last November, Republicans trotted out their anti-immigrant dog again, trying to gain ground in Virginia and take advantage of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's botched attempt to grant driver's licenses to the undocumented in New York. The results: Democrats took the House of Delegates in Virginia and the Republican assault in New York was negligible.

Tancredo out - How his immigrant bashing strategy failed

Tom Tancredo's feeble run at the Republican nomination for president will come to an end today.

He thought he could ride one issue, and a wave of hate against brown people, to the Presidency.

But the funny thing is, despite all the fear and distortions about what Americans think, Tancredo was stuck at 1% in polling of Republican primary voters:

There are all sorts of news reports this morning that Tom Tancredo, who has based his entire campaign on an anti-immigrant platform, is ending his bid for the Presidency. As all of us try to make sense of the current immigration debate and how Tancredo's total rejection by Republican primary voters fits in let's consider these two figures: 1% and 62%. 1% is the share of the Republican vote Tancredo has been receiving. 62% is the share of Republicans who support an earned path to citizenship, according to a new LA Times poll taken two weeks ago. There really can be no other reason for Tancredo's incredible failure than to conclude that the Tancredo approach to immigration, "Deport Those Who Don't Belong, Make Sure They Never Come Back" has been overwhelmingly rejected by even Republican voters, and is just one more example of how the GOP's investment in the immigration issue has failed time and again to produce the results they had hoped for.

Today he will probably try to argue that the reason he never got traction is that the rest of the Republican field has adopted his position. But that really isn't true.

Simon is correct on this one. The numbers don't lie:

Immigration is one of the great early political tests of the 21st century. To date the Republicans have failed their test of whether they have what it takes to solve the emerging problems of the new century. For the good of the nation I hope the Democrats do not fail theirs.

Democrats shouldn't fall for the rhetoric of our noisiest, fear-filled opponents. And they shouldn't triangulate against a solid, traditional and reliable voting bloc without the facts. Tancredo tried it, and he got no where. Oh well, maybe he'll take that run at the Senate after all.