Even Obama’s top political adviser, David Plouffe, seems to share the Coulter hypothesis: “The bigger problem [Republicans have] got with Latinos isn’t immigration,” Plouffe told Time. “It’s their economic policies and health care. The group that supported the president’s health care bill the most—Latinos.”
Earlier this winter, Ann Coulter brought her usual light touch to the question of the Hispanic vote. The author of Godless: The Church of Liberalism argued in a column that Republicans who support immigration reform in an effort to court Latinos are wasting their time. “It’s not clear that amnesty wins any Hispanics,” Coulter wrote, “apart from the ones who can’t vote (because they’re illegal) and their ethnic ‘spokesmen,’ whose power increases as the Hispanic population grows.” Hispanics gravitate toward Democrats, she insisted, because they believe in more government, and no immigration courtship will seduce them.
Leaving aside the gratuitous jab at Hispanic leaders, other Republicans share that assessment. National Review recently opined, “Republican immigration reformers with an eye to political reality should begin by appreciating that Latinos are a Democratic constituency. They did not vote for Mitt Romney. They did not vote for John McCain.” Some Republican members of Congress echo this sentiment. Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania commented on the GOP’s scramble to come up with immigration reform. “I hope politics is not at the root of why we’re rushing to pass a bill,” he told The Morning Call of Allentown. “Anyone who believes that they’re going to win over the Latino vote is grossly mistaken.”
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