I explained yesterday The secret of The Donald’s success: he is the GOP:
“The Donald” has a lot of company in the Tea-Publican Party, which has become the modern day equivalent of the xenophobic anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party of the 19th Century. I keep telling you, the GOP is now the Mass Deportation Party.
Dara Lind has a good overview of the polling that demonstrates that the GOP has become the party of mass deportations, and explains why that poses such a problem.
So this spells trouble for the J.E.B.(!) Bush campaign. Bush wants legal status for illegal immigrants:
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush wants the 11 million immigrants in America illegally to have a pathway to legal status, he told Telemundo Monday in a Spanish-language interview.
“For The 11 million people [undocumented immigrants in America], they must come out of the shadows, receive a work visa, start paying taxes and also pay a small fine, learn English, don’t receive government benefits, but they come out of the shadows and they receive legal status after some time,” he said in the interview. Excerpts of the interview aired Monday, while the rest will show on Sunday.
Bush promised that he would prioritize immigration reform if elected and panned President Obama for failing to do so when he had a super majority in Congress.
“He likes to talk about this as a political topic, because it wins votes. He thinks that way instead of solving the problem,” Bush said.
“I believe that a new president that’s committed to protect the border and to do everything that’s needed, so that there is more trust, that the laws can be complied with.”
He also criticized presidential rival Donald Trump’s recent comments on Mexican immigrants as “vulgar,” arguing that he has been counterproductive and shedding doubt on his status as the current polling frontrunner.
“I was hurt, hearing somebody speaking in such a vulgar fashion. This makes the solving of this problem much more difficult when we have politicians talking like that,” he said.
“And besides, that this offends millions of people that are here legally. It makes no sense. In a political sense, it’s bad. But it creates an environment where we can resolve the problem it makes it worse.”
Bush has received flack from his rivals over his more moderate stance on immigration reform. He previously supported a pathway to citizenship and backed the Senate’s 2013 immigration plan, also backed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), which included that plan. But he has since walked back that and supports legal status for immigrants in America illegally.
Bush doesn’t share that view with the majority of Republican voters. Sixty-three percent of Republican registered voters want the country’s immigration priority to be stopping illegal immigration and deporting those already in the country, according to a recent CNN/ORC poll. Just 34 percent of Republicans want that priority to be granting legal status to those in the country illegally.
Buh-Bye, J.E.B.(!)
rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. to little to late for immigration supporters and to much for the ignorant southern white trash racists.
While it is risky in the primary it is a shrewd move for the general. He is banking on being selected using his name in the primary, there are a lot of Republican voters who like the Bushes and feel comfortable with them. The risk for Dems is that one of Hillary’s biggest ada antages is that she endorsed a path to citizenship early. If Bush is the Republican nominee or even vice nominee then that cuts into one of her advantages. I should also say that Bernie is likely also for a path to citizenship (although I have to admit to not knowing for certain). In any case this is a Dem issue. He is thinking beyond the primary. Maybe he thinks that his big miney backers will ensure that he wins or at least that he comes in second and that therefore he will be able to cut into a Dem issue. Personally I don’t trust anyone on that side of the aisle, they WILL LIE to get elected. In addition if Bush doesn’t get selected this time he has set himself up for 2020.