In their ongoing effort to pressure House Republicans into passing the kind of immigration reform that will create millions of new Democrats, the media have engaged in a unified concern-trolling narrative that claims the GOP must do this in order to stay alive as a majority political party. This narrative not only ignores the actual election results that show the GOP’s problem is with its base, not Hispanics, but a recent poll that proves the push for immigration has done absolutely nothing to help Marco Rubio’s standing with Hispanics.
Marco Rubio is not only Hispanic, he is the very face of the Senate’s immigration reform effort. And yet, after being that public face for months….
A poll of likely Hispanic voters in the 2016 presidential race shows Rubio trailing potential Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden 66-28 percent and 60-28 percent respectively. Clinton is also viewed favorably by a whopping 73 percent of Hispanic voters, while 17 percent hold a negative view of the former first lady and secretary of state; Rubio’s favorability rating is slimmer: 31-29.
Romney won 27% of the Hispanic vote. After months of doing exactly what the media says all Republicans must do, Rubio wins 28%.
This splash of cold water, though, has done nothing to dampen the media’s unified push to attempt to scare Republicans into voting for a bill that will not only create millions of new Democrats and likely do nothing to increase their percentage of the Hispanic vote, but is also likely to create even more problems with the GOP base.
Over two election cycles, Obama played to his base and the result was turnout, turnout, turnout.
Over two election cycles, the GOP have nominated presidential candidates who did not excite the base. And we all know how that turned out.
The lesson here is that whatever votes a Republican picks up by pandering to the center-left is not enough to make up for the base voters who stay home, probably, in part, because they are disgusted with that pandering.
If Rubio isn’t profiting from his role in the immigration debate, why would any sane Republican think they might?
The media are setting a trap with immigration reform, and in the process, they are ignoring facts.
Note: I made this same argument in a lengthier column published Wednesday, but thought it was worth singling out as the Zimmerman trial winds down and the media’s push to get immigration reform passed heats up into a Death Star.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC