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Hey Ann Coulter: The Real Lesson of Prop 187 Is Republicans Are Doomed if They DON'T Support Immigration

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ann coulterJust one more thing about the CPAC conference that took place this last weekend: on Saturday, conservative commentator Ann Coulter made an appearance that Politico called “a stand-up comedy routine more than a speech,” in which she attacked Marco Rubio and other Republicans for supporting immigration reform.  As Coulter said:

If amnesty goes through, America becomes California and no Republican will ever win another national election.  I can see why Democrats would want amnesty, but why on earth are Marco Rubio and these endless Bushes supporting it? Even Shemp and Zippo Bush are supporting amnesty for illegals.

Um, what?

Coulter is likely referring to how blue a state California is—there are no Republicans holding statewide office, Democrats hold supermajorities in both the state Senate and Assembly, and party registration has fallen below 30% statewide.  The reason California swings Democrat by such a huge margin is because of immigration legislation.  But it’s not because California pursued immigration reform—it’s because California Republicans did the opposite, and passed an incredibly stringent anti-immigrant law that led the state’s Latino voters to flee in the other direction.

Here’s a history lesson for Coulter: in 1994, then-California Governor Pete Wilson (R) led the push for Proposition 187, an initiative that barred immigrants from accessing health care services, prohibited undocumented children from attending school, and required state and local agencies to report suspected immigrants to the INS.  The wedge issue worked for Wilson: Prop 187 was passed, and Wilson was reelected that year.  But the gambit was horribly short-sighted, as the state’s changing demographics began to swing hard Democrat.  By 2004, the Latino backlash against Prop 187 and the Republicans who supported it was making the state’s GOPers an endangered species.

Today, state Republicans either have learned from Pete Wilson’s mistakes—or are taught the lesson the hard way.  Arnold Schwarzengger, who won two terms as state governor, was considered a moderate on immigration.  Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who ran to be Arnold’s successor, tried to tack hard right on immigration in the primaries—and crashed and burned.

Some Latinos still refer to Pete Wilson as “El Diablo”—but it’s his fellow Republicans who should be calling him that, for the way he drove the state GOP into the ground.  For Ann Coulter to willfully misunderstand Prop 187 and its aftermath is a blatant misreading of history. Luckily for Republicans, however, some in their Party DO appear to understand history and the Latino vote, and are at least trying to save the GOP from future irrelevance.