Only on immigration. I think Republicans are fed up with their fruitless persuit of hispanics and will close the border the next time they're in power, if only in order to save themselves from destruction.
Their courting of hispanic voters has actually been pretty fruitful. After all, GWB would not have become president if it weren't for latinos putting him over in FL. Bush 41 carried 30% of hispanics in a landslide win 20 years ago, McCain matched that number in a landslide loss. Republicans have made huge gains in latino communities, and as they become more integrated into America, their voting patterns will become more transient, and immigration will not be the only issue that concerns them.
Non-Cuban Latinos are not integrating into America. No evidence for "huge gains" either: in 1988 they were 29 points more Democratic relative to whites, in 2008 24 more points. And even a 40% vote share is still disastrous.
Maybe the GOP should move leftwards economically to attract more Latino voters. I think the main reason that many Latinos vote for the Democrats is due to economic policy. Even when the Republicans were in favor of amnesty for illegals (1980s) or when it was not an issue (before the 1980s), Latinos still voted for the Democrats by huge margins most of the time.
No.
Why not? Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford were all pretty left-wing on economics, and they were much more fiscally responsible than Reagan and both Bushes.
Why would I want my party to be more like that?
Aren't you a fiscal conservative?
Left-wing economics is not compatible with fiscal conservatism.
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