Earl Ofari Hutchinson contends in a piece at the Huffington Post that while the Grand Old Party helped pass the immigration-reform bill, Republicans still have a long way to go toward winning votes in the Hispanic community because they have not historically been viewed as supportive.
President Obama, Democratic Senate leaders, and immigration rights groups heaped praise on GOP Senate leaders for finally getting enough of their party members to pass an immigration reform bill. It was indeed quite a feat considering the long, relentless, and dogged fight by the GOP majority to duck, dodge, and bury proposals on immigration reform. The conventional wisdom is that the 2012 presidential elections was the icy slap in the face to the GOP when the party saw the faint chance it had to recapture the White House buried in the avalanche of Hispanic votes against it. This was chalked up to its implacable hostility to immigration reform.
Many in the GOP, most notably former George W. Bush political guru Karl Rove, have pounded away at GOP leaders to change their ways and actively court Hispanic voters or risk sliding into permanent minority party status in national elections. And backing immigration reform is supposedly the quantum step forward to get more Hispanic votes. But they are still far and away in the GOP minority.
Read Earl Ofari Hutchinson’s entire piece at the Huffington Post.
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