Ben Shapiro: Amnesty Won’t Create Conservative Victories

The transcript and video of Ben Shapiro’s new production, “Amnesty Won’t Create Conservative Victories,” are below:

 

After the last election cycle, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, wrote what has now become the conventional wisdom in conservative circles with regard to Hispanic immigrants:

“They should be a natural Republican constituency: striving immigrant community, religious, Catholic, family-oriented and socially conservative (on abortion, for example). The principle reason they go Democratic is the issue of illegal immigrants.”

This argument has driven many conservatives – including the entire upper echelon of the Republican Party – to push for legalization of millions upon millions of illegal immigrants. The solution Krauthammer suggests to the problem of shifting demographics is this, “Border fence plus amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Use the word.”

Reality Check: There are individual Hispanic immigrants who are conservative, but to suggest that conservatives are one piece of amnesty legislation away from victory across the broad swatch of Hispanic immigrants just ain’t true.

So, are Hispanics in America a Immigrants to the United States a striving immigrant community, religious, Catholic, family-oriented and socially conservative are no longer a natural conservative constituency?

Let’s look at the numbers.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 57% of new immigrant households with kids were using at least one welfare program in 2009. Over all, 37% of immigrant households are on a welfare program compared with just 22% of native-born Americans.

So yeah, immigrants are dependent on government by a far larger margin than native Americans. Which means they tend to lean left on the question of big government.

By the way, polls show that Hispanic immigrants lean left on the issue of big government. An April 2012 Pew Hispanic Poll showed 81% of Hispanics want bigger government with more services. Only 41% of Americans overall want bigger government with more services. Just 12% of Hispanic immigrants want smaller government with less services. Exit polls in 2012 showed that 61% of Hispanics wanted Obamacare expanded or left as is. Which makes sense. Virtually all of the countries from which Hispanic immigrants come are socialist in orientation. Many of them are socialist dictatorships, and America no longer bothers to push ideological integration into a small government philosophy.

How about the notion that Hispanics are a burgeoning religious class who agree with conservatives on social issues? Not so much. 53% of Hispanic children are now born out of wedlock. According to 2012 exit polls, 59% of Hispanics wanted same-sex marriage legalized, and 66% abortion should be legal in “most  or all cases.” And in their own lives, Hispanics are becoming less religious: one-in-four Hispanic adults, according to Pew, are now former Catholics. Rising numbers of Hispanics are non-religious. Overall, the Catholic share of Hispanics has dropped 12 percentage points over the last four years alone. And even so-called religious Catholic Hispanics tend toward leftism – the poll shows that 49% of Catholic Hispanics favor same-sex marriage. Overall, 58% of Catholic Hispanics identify as Democratic or leaning that way.

Does this sound a like a naturally conservative constituency just an amnesty away from voting for the right?

And yet that seems to be the conservative plan. Which is absolute lunacy. As Mark Steyn wrote after the 2012 election regarding amnesty notions, “So, if I follow correctly, instead of getting 27% of the 10% Hispanic vote, Republicans will get, oh, 38% of the 25% Hispanic vote, and sweep to victory.”

Amnesty is not the answer to wooing Hispanics voters to conservatism. Treating them as individuals with life stories and life experiences with deeply held principles, as opposed to broad stereotypes, is. Let’s teach both immigrants and native-born Americans why American values are important rather than pretending that a green card is going to buy conservatives love.

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  • Bamaguje

    I totally agree with you Ben.
    Krauthammer got it absolutely wrong.
    It’s not immigration that drives Latinos to Democratic party, it’s handouts.
    A Pew poll actually showed immigration is not a major issue for Hispanic Americans.

    See: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/02/top-issue-for-hispanics-hint-its-not-immigration/

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    • A Disqus User

      If diversity isn’t forced, why is there affirmative action & racial employment quotas?

      If diversity isn’t forced, why aren’t White people allowed to vote to
      stop mass non-White immigration in EVERY & ONLY White countries?

      If diversity isn’t forced, why is assimilation of non-Whites in EVERY & ONLY White communities forced?

      “Diversity” is a codeword for White geNOcide.

      Anti-Racist is a codeword for Anti-White.

      • Clive

        And you’re clearly not even brave enough to say you’re a racist from an anonymous internet profile.

  • adumbrate

    Ben – love your videos, well researched and spoken – question – what software do you use for your backdrop? The squares/circles is a very subtle and professional method of driving your point.

  • Larry Larkin

    Australia has had 2 elections fought in this century with border protection and illegal immigration as major elements.
    In both cases the conservative Liberal Party won the elections because they were categorically opposed to open borders and lots of illegal immigrants. The illegals that come to Australia vote for the leftard Labor Party and live on welfare, so the Labor Party regards them as their natural constituency.

    The Republicans should take note of that. A significant majority of legal immigrant Australians voted for the Liberal Party because of their border protection policies.

  • cree

    Ben makes the point well. Whether McConnell and Boehner get it or cave to Obama’s illegal move of usurping immigration law (making them accomplices) is in question. Any form of amnesty violating existing law and low or nonexistent border security will devastate the country further. A brilliant progressive move to put another minority class into the welfare plantation system. No worries though; the middle class will take care of the system’s support. Almost forgot: Jihadis and the drug cartels are welcome too.

  • Dan Knight

    Thank you Ben, but here’s the bumper sticker: The GOP Can’t Buy More Votes Than The Dems! And never mind the sell-outs in the GOP. As for the immigrants: Immigrants are not a block anyway. That’s why we keep talking about Hispanics – the way we talk about Whites. As if my starving, bipolar, alcoholic, Irish-Catholic turned atheist Democrat ancestors have anything to do with Bam Bam’s white commie ancestors. The same is true for the political lie-coction called ‘hispanic.’ If you’re not a Mexican, and you’re looking for the fake ID, the fraudulent claims offices, and other support – better hit the offices run by non-’hispanics’ – b/c you might as well be a ‘white’ if you’re not a Mexican.

    It’s blatantly obvious: The GOP and all conservatives should offer open borders to the Chinese, Vietnamese, Cubans, Filipinos, Venezuelans, El Salvadorans, Christians from Muslim lands, Koreans, Israeli’s, Swiss, anyone who belongs to UKIP, and Russians with engineering degrees … and watch the sparks fly. I know I’ve left off a number of groups, but this list is from: Immigrants I have known who were deported for no reason at all – including migrants with valid green cards. Why? That should be obvious, but I’ll spell it out: These migrants all belong to a demographic that sometimes votes over 10% Republican… Hello?!

  • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

    Yes, let’s teach American values to Hispanic immigrants, but also let’s slam the door shut just as quickly as we can to keep too many more of them from immigrating. They can vote Democratic a lot faster than we can teach them why everything they learned about politics in their home country was wrong.

    I would just modify one thing: Ben seems to feel that Krauthammer stated the Conservative view; I would say rather he has stated the Establishment view. John Boehner and Paul Ryan would agree, but they are like Krauthammer Establishment-men.

    • JB Ziggy Zoggy

      Mexicans and most other Latins don’t want to learn American values and they don’t care that the politics in their home countries are wrong. They don’t care about society and rule of law at all. They only care about their ethnicity and taking as much from the government and everybody else that they can.

      • Clive

        Kind of like American corporations, who get far more free money from the government than is spent on all welfare combined.

  • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

    The complete loss of California (no Conservative Republican can win any statewide office there, and no Republican, even a RINO, holds such an office now) should serve as a warning to open-borders Republicans, but apparently it hasn’t so it’s up to us to remind them.

    • Clive

      I wasn’t aware that the United States had ceded California back to Mexico.

      • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

        It might as well have as far as Conservative hopes of winning statewide office there or ever winning its electoral college votes goes. A RINO such as Arnold Schwartzeneggar could conceivably still be elected to some statewide office, but that would change nothing. No Conservative can be elected, because a platform of smaller, less-powerful government can no longer win against the number of votes the statists can take through bribery (welfare cases and government employees).

        California is now on a path toward bankruptcy and mini-dictatorship (i.e. it will become as much of a dictatorship as is possible in a Federated nation). It is possible that Conservatives could rebuild it after its collapse by basically marching in a militia and rewriting the State Constitution to forbid progressivism (massive control of the economy and welfare statism). Or just possibly when the Left completes its destruction of the middle class, the coastal population will be so depleted that the Republican areas of the State become a majority, but I think that is unlikely.

        • Clive

          Conservative Republicans are elected to state offices on a regular basis. You’re just mad that they’re not getting the majority.

          I actually live in California, in one of the numerous conservative counties. Where do you live?

  • Erudite Mavin

    Besides the Democrats, Libertarians such as Rand Paul and David Koch are pushing Amnesty along with bringing in the Hispanics voters

  • Nabukuduriuzhur

    One matter that is of extreme concern is how both parties lie about the numbers.

    In 2008, the official number of illegals was 30 million and some 6 million per year.

    Before the election, the number was reduced to 12 million for no logical reason. The other 18 million didn’t go home.

    California right now has more than 13 million, meaning the state of 36 million is actually 48 million. They are more than 20 million in the hole, plus more than 500 billion in public debt.

    And yet the claim this last year was “11 million” by the reps and dems.

    Why lie about it?

    There are at least 60 million here, plus their dependents.

    Mexico still has some 110 million within its borders, so that’s more than a third of the unoffical mexican population of 170 million now in the U.S.

    There has never been a move of so many people in the history of the world. Not even in WWII and it’s aftermath.

    • Unknown Soldier

      I’m inclined to agree with you, but I think the number is more like 30-40 million overall. There are large swaths of California that are occupied almost entirely by Hispanics, mainly Mexicans. And that doesn’t count the millions of Asians, many illegal, living close to L.A. and in O.C.

    • 11bravo

      Agree! When Bush tried Amnesty (2006-07) they were talking 22 million (low-ball), where the heck did the other 11 million go? They all lie!

  • Bob Sten

    Ben is completely correct. This American that lives in Mexico said all of the above and then more years ago. Mexican immigrants will NEVER overwhelmingly vote for conservatives. On average, they want big government and lots of handouts.

    Here is what the American in Mexico wrote:

    http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-187

    http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-169

  • Ginger Li

    Rrauthammer is a blithering idiot.

  • 11bravo

    Chuck said this stuff years ago. I wonder if he has read the Pew study since – and has maybe changed his views on the subject.
    Maybe O’Reilly can ask him.

  • http://marshallmotor.com/ James Taylor

    Amnesty Won’t Create Conservative Victories
    what’s the real story Salina car Dealer

  • johnnywood

    Amnesty will be suicide for the Republicraps and the end of

    America.