Hispanic vote. Both candidates’ showingsrnwere probably due not so much tornthe actual record of the candidates on immigrationrnissues as to the generally lacklusterrncampaigns that the candidatesrnmounted. President Bush and SenatorrnDole lost Hispanics for the same reasonrnthey lost most other voters —they werernsimply bad candidates.rnBut another likely reason for the declinernof Hispanic support for Republicansrnis the consolidation in recent yearsrnof an Hispanic bloc, mobilized by leftwingrnorganizations like the Mexican-rnAmerican Legal Defense and EducationalrnFund (MALDEF), the League ofrnUnited Latin American Citizens (LULAC),rnand similar groups. Such leftwingrnlobbies gain power from immigrationrnand want it continued and evenrnincreased, and they are increasingly radicalrnand anti-white in their rhetoric andrnpolitical-racial appeals. The Clinton administration,rnand particularly Al Gore,rnhave worked closely with these lobbiesrnfor the explicit purpose of mobilizingrnvotes for left-liberal Democrats.rnBut the emergence of a radical Hispanicrnbloc does not mean that the votes itrndeliers can’t be dropped on the Republicanrndoorstep as well. Indeed, Hispanicrnactivists would be foolish to emulate thernblack “civil rights” power structure byrnlocking themselves into a single party.rnTheir goal should be to make both partiesrnas dependent on them and their blocrnas possible, and Governor Bush’s ownrnrecord on Hispanics as well as the responsernof some Hispanic leaders to himrnsuggests that may be happening.rnThe governor makes much of campaigningrnin Spanish and using Spanishlanguagernads, as well as boashng of hisrnearlier record of opposing immigrationrnrestrictions, supporting bilingial education,rnand staging photo ops with MexicanrnPresident Ernesto Zedillo and MexicanrngON’ernors across the Texas border. ThernTexas governor has also opposed usingrnU.S. troops to protect the border from illegalrnimmigration and has refused to takernaction against die Texas border town ofrnEl Cenizo, which last year enacted an ordinancernforbidding cooperation withrnstate and federal immigration authorities.rnThe town’s law is an open violation ofrnfederal law and an open declaration thatrnit will not enforce border security againstrnillegal entries. To date. Governor Bushrnhas done and said nothing either to bringrnthis town into line with I’exas and federalrnlaw or to indicate what action, as president,rnhe would take against it.rnAs for immigradon itself, earlier thisrnyear the go’ernor announced that he notrnonly opposes efforts to curb it but believesrn”we ought to increase legal immigrationrnfor our country’s advantage. The hightechrnworld we are now dominating is dependentrnon educated folks, but we’rernshort . . . of workers.” Repeahng his oppositionrnto using troops on the border, herntold editors of the Cedar Rapids Gazetternin January, “Eorget it. Mexico’s ourrnneighbor and friend.” Mr. Bush’s remarks,rnlike those of most adherents of thern”universal nation” ideology, ignore thernfact that most Mexican immigrants arernnot highly “educated folks” and thatrnMexico, so far from being our “friend,” isrnan empire of gangsters, drug-pushers,rnand murderers who encourage emigrationrnto rid their country of deadbeats,rncriminals, and troublemakers they wouldrnotherwise have to lock up or kill. Therngovernor told the newspaper “we oughtrnto get rid of illegal immigration, illegalrndrugs, illegal contraband,” but he said absolutelyrnnothing about how “we” can dornso or what he would do as president to accomplishrnthose goals.rnIt therefore should not be too surprisingrnthat Mexican-American leaders generallyrnlike George W. Bush, and Mr.rnI ,ambro in his Washington Times articlernquoted favorable remarks about the governorrnmade by officials of LUL^C andrnthe Hispanic racist organization, the NationalrnCouncil of La Raza. As long as Republicansrnabandon immigration control,rnrefuse to use military force to protect thernnation against the Mexican invasion,rnpurport that Mexico is really “our friend”rn(the Wall Street ]oumal last year reportedrnthat Mr. Bush had asked a Mexicanrnnewspaper to refer to him as “Mexico’srnbest friend across the border”), supportrnbilingual education, and condone the refusalrnof Llispanics to assimilate b’ addressingrnthem in Spanish rather than English,rnthere’s no reason why Hispanicrnbloc leaders can’t support Republicans asrnmuch as they do L^emocrats.rnWhat the Stupid Party has begun torndiscover is the simple polihcal principle,rnknown to demagogues since the last daysrnof the Roman Republic, that if yon feedrnthe voters what they want, they’ll probablyrngive you their votes, ffa’ing learnedrnthat principle by giving up immigrahonrncontrol in order to win the support of arnradical left-wing ethnic bloc, the party isrnnow applying it not only to the politicalrnpositions it takes but also to the actualrncandidates it fields. Rep. Bob Dornan’srnfamous line —shortly before he lost to arncandidate who emphasized her Hispanicrnname and background-that “I want tornsee America stay a nation of immigrants,rnand if we lose our Northern Europeanrnstock — your coloring and mine, bluerneyes and fair hair—tough!” has been takenrnalmost literally by the top strategist forrnthe California GOP, State Sen. JimrnBrulte. Last year, Mr. Brulte exulted thatrn”My leadership PAC will give no morernmoney to Anglo males in Republican primaries.rnEver)’ dollar I can raise is goingrnto nominate Latinos and Asian Americansrnand women. We have to expandrnour outreach.” More recently, the WashingtonrnTimes quoted Lance Tarrance, arnpollster for the GOP, as saying, “We havernnow moved from the Southern strategyrnwe pursued for the last three decades,rnsince Richard Nixon, to a Hispanic strategyrnfor the next three decades.” It doesrnnot occur to stupidos like Mr. Brulte andrnMr. Tarrance that they are also abandoningrnthe ver)’ ethnic, regional, and socialrncore of their own party, as well as the beliefsrnthat distinguished it from the partiesrnof the hard left.rnNor does it occur to them, or the libertarian-rnneoconservative apologists for uncontrolledrnimmigration who feed themrntheir lines, that their polihcal strategy ofrnappealing to the Fiispanic bloc contradictsrnand undermines the entire neoconservativernargument for immigration.rnThat argument has always been that immigrantsrnwould assimilate and would notrnform political and cultural enclaves thatrncontribute to the Balkanization of America,rnas immigration restrictionists haverngenerally predicted. In fact, bv campaigningrnin Spanish, supporting bilingualrneducation, appealing to ethnicracialrnbloc organizations like LULACrnand La Raza, refusing to enforce evenrnlaws against illegal immigration, andrnsnuggling close to Mexico’s governmentrnof criminals and t}’rants, polihcal leadersrnlike George W. Bush and his emulatorsrnare admitting that assimilation has notrntaken place, that Mexican-Americans dornretain their linguishc, cultural, and politicalrnallegiances, and that only by oiurnadaptation to them rather than facilitatingrntheir adaptation to American societyrncan their votes be won. Maybe Mr. Bushrnwill ride the myth of his appeal to Hispanicrnvoters into the Wliite I louse. But ifrnhe does, it will be at the expense of thernAmerican nation he will pretend to lead.rnAPRIL 2000/33rnrnrn