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Why Rand Paul's Hispanic Pitch Is Doomed Why Rand Paul's Hispanic Pitch Is Doomed

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Why Rand Paul's Hispanic Pitch Is Doomed



Sen. Rand Paul speaks to a crowd at the Americans for Prosperity rally.  Can he get the tea party to back immigration reform? (Chet Susslin)()

It shouldn’t be entirely surprising that Sen. Rand Paul’s speech Tuesday morning to a Hispanic group called for comprehensive immigration reform. (If he made that speech at a tea-party meeting, that would be more interesting.) But illegal immigration is a part of him. His namesake, Ayn Rand, was herself an illegal immigrant, lying to get a tourist visa to escape Bolshevik persecution. Aside from the libertarian lodestar, free markets, free minds, and (pretty) free borders is a libertarian mantra.




As I noted this week in National Journal, Hispanics favor more expansive government, not Paul’s pinched libertarian vision of Washington’s responsibilities:



You can make a strong humanitarian and policy argument for immigration reform and a path to citizenship. But it’s harder to make the political argument. Republicans may not have much choice as noted by the RNC’s venimos en paz report that the party regulars are touting. But the idea that immigration reform is going to make Hispanics flock to the GOP seems dubious — it will take more than cosmetic touches, such as better Hispanic outreach, to really make a difference.


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