Epic Speech by Freedom Caucus Member Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) on the Politics of Immigration a Must See – and Still True
A PBS “Frontline” documentary aired last night, entitled “Immigration Battle.” It captures how our country missed yet another shot at achieving a legislative breakthrough on immigration reform in 2013-14. After the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013, it died in the House of Representatives. The behind-the-scenes documentary depicts Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) as wanting immigration reform, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) working to make it happen – quietly – and, remarkably, Tea Party favorite Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) trying to get to yes with his very conservative supporters back home.
How things have changed. After that near-miss, the GOP has lurched far to the anti-immigrant right. Currently, the Republican Party is engaged in a relentless assault on immigrants – in the courts, in Congress, and on the 2016 campaign trail.
While the entire documentary is well-worth a look, we wanted to lift up one scene in particular. It features Rep. Nick Mulvaney speaking to a town hall audience in his conservative South Carolina district. He references an insult hurled at Dreamers by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), the anti-immigrant firebrand who depicted young immigrants as drug dealers with “calves the size of cantaloupes.” Mulvaney then schools his constituents on the hard facts about the nation’s demographic changes and the GOP’s alienation of the fastest growing groups of voters in the country. Watch the clip here.
Rep. Mulvaney says:
“At some point, we’re gonna have to figure out that if you take the entire African-American community and write them off, take the entire Hispanic community and write them off, take the entire Libertarian community and write them off, take the entire gay community and write them off, what’s left? About 38 percent of the country,” he says. “You cannot win with 38 percent of the country.”
Mulvaney also says that the Republican Party must “stop rewarding the outrageous and the stupid.”
Unfortunately, the Republican Party hasn’t taken Mulvaney’s advice to heart. Rather they seem intent on repeating – and exceeding – the problems the GOP faced in the 2012 election cycle.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, “Mulvaney’s remarks are as accurate and prophetic today as they were when spoken early last year. Following the 2012 election, the GOP recognized the need to modernize, to broaden its appeal with Latinos, Asians and others, and to embrace immigration reform as a means for doing so. That was then, and this is now. Trump leads the primary with a pledge to expel 25% of the nation’s Latino community and 7% of the Asian-American community; Republicans in Congress push anti-immigrant measures aimed at stopping President Obama from bringing a measure of relief to millions of immigrants; and GOP governors sue to block the President’s executive actions. Finally, it may well be that Paul Ryan will only become speaker by promising not to move forward on immigration reform or fails to do so because the anti-immigrant hardliners find his previous support for immigration reform disqualifying. Our hope is that on the other side of the 2016 election – when the lessons of 2012 will be relearned, and then some – the GOP’s survival instincts will finally override the nativist death spiral they find themselves in today.”
