TPM Reader JK thinks there’s a logic to the thinking, as long as you focus on members of Congress …
I agree with you [see earlier post] that Republican politicians who are thinking about running for President need to have the GOP engage on the issue of immigration reform, but for Republicans in the House and Senate, I don’t see that need as much. It wasn’t the 2010 election that resulted in the GOP hysteria about Latino voters, it was the presidential election of 2012.
There are two different electorates in the United States. There is the electorate that votes in the off-year elections and the electorate that votes in the Presidential elections. The issue of immigration reform is much more important to the presidential electorate than it is to the off-year electorate.
I think that thoughtful Republicans may be coming to the conclusion that they are destined to be a regionally based party which can control the legislative branch of government and a lot of state-houses, but not the presidency. If they are coming to that conclusion, which they will never admit publicly, then scuttling immigration reform makes much more political sense.
