BY: JORGE BONILLA
When ACU Chair Al Cardenas went on Telemundo’s “Enfoque” and talked about how CPAC would “stimulate” conservatives into taking a deal on immigration, I knew that it would not end well. I suspected that any discussion of immigration would wrongly focus on style and flexibility on immigration policy, rather than on a commitment to substantive outreach and adherence to First Principles built upon a healthy respect for the Rule of Law. As you’re about to see, I was sadly proven right.
Comes now my brief video summary of CPAC’s immigration panel, with its inordinate focus on “tone”, “harsh tone”, and “rhetoric”. Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID1) finally shut that mess down an hour into the panel, but by then it was too late.
As I’ve stated before, immigration should not, never, not in a million years be the tip of the spear on Hispanic outreach. Policy is policy and outreach is outreach. When we try to use policy as outreach, principle ultimately suffers. The inexorable end result is a fruitless pander which results in compromised principles and a loss of credibility.
Furthermore, conservative acquiescence on “tone” constitutes an automatic acceptance of the left’s narrative language…such as, for example, the term “anti-immigrant” as a descriptor of immigration legislation. And as is the case with conservatives and calls for a “new tone”, “new tone” is almost always synonymous with “submission”.
The other day, I discussed Congressman Steve Pearce within that context. If you haven’t already done so, follow the link so that you may also see an alternate approach that will likely yield better results than the old cave-and-pander approach. Pearce doesn’t do “tone”, and pulled 40+% of the Hispanic vote.
Do note the gentleman on the far end of the panel. That’s Daniel Garza of The Libre Initiative…who refused to get sucked into the harshtone narrative. Instead, Garza rejected those narratives and delivered a stout defense of economic freedom. It would behoove us all to go forth and do likewise.
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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker addressed the National Bloggers Club during a closed-door, invite only event on the last day of CPAC, in which he gave a recap of his speech in from the day before.
