"I Have Evolved..."
As discussed in class talk radio is quite popular and can have a
large influence on its audience. Talk radio is also largely political with half
of all shows being about politics.
Talk radio show host Sean Hannity is well known for his conservative
views; one can say he sets the standard for conservative voters on his popular
radio talk show. However, there are
signs of change within the republican party as Sean Hannity ‘evolved’ on his
views of immigration.
According to the Huffington Post, in
the past few years democrats and republicans have been divided on the issue of
immigration - republicans take a hard stance on immigration while President
Obama is stopping the deportation of immigrants under thirty who had arrived in
the US before the age of sixteen. This makes republicans unpopular among Latino
voters which leads to republicans losing a large (a rapidly expanding)
demographic of the country. This is cause for concern for republicans and they
are deep in thought on how to fix it after their recent loss of the white house.
This
is where Sean Hannity comes in, after stating on his radio show that 70% of the
Latino vote went to democrats in this election he was brainstorming ways to
sway the Latino vote for republicans and offered this solution, “We've gotta
get rid of the immigration issue altogether. It's simple for me to fix it. I
think you control the border first, you create a pathway for those people that
are here, you don't say you gotta home. And that is a position that I've
evolved on. Because you know what--it just--it's gotta be resolved. The
majority of people here--if some people have criminal records you can send' em
home--but if people are here, law-abiding, participating, four years, their
kids are born here... first secure the border, pathway to citizenship... then
it's done. But you can't let the problem continue. It's gotta stop.". You
can listen to the radio excerpt here.
This statement led to a segment on Fox New that
can be found here. In the segment, Fox news political analyst Juan Williams stated
that in 2004, when George W. Bush tried
to reform immigration Sean Hannity was among the conservatives strongly against
it and for this popular conservative figure to now want to take a second look
could have an impact on conservative voters. Mary Katherine Ham,
editor-at-large for hotair.com, strengthened Williams point by stating that
Sean’s statements could indicate to conservatives that they should be more open
about immigration. They brought up the point that Governor Romney’s stance on
immigration was a turning point in the election. Marco Rubio had a plan for
immigration similar to President Obama’s that Romney did not agree with and
this hurt his campaign. Williams brought up the point that GOP members might be
looking to politicians like Marco Rubio for advice on immigration policy and
could even make Rubio a contender for president in 2016.
Is conservatives change on the issue
of immigration also a sign of change among the Republican Party? Are
politicians like Marco Rubio going to be a ‘new’ kind of republican for a new
generation? These questions do not have
easy answers and will be debated again and again. I am glad that republicans
are taking steps to try and reach out to people and will be interested in
seeing where the debate on immigration leads the Republican Party.
posted by Unknown | 12:55 PM
3 Comments:
Hannah, thanks for informing me on these immigration issues. Something I felt was not discussed in this past election much was immigration (maybe I missed it...), but it is something I remember distinctly in the 2008 election. I think you're right that an evolution of sorts will be necessary to regain the Latino population's vote in favor of the Republican Party. When your home is at stake, of course you would vote for the party that is going to allow you to remain in the country that you call home.
As the United States is a country of immigrants, it would only make sense that we reform our policies related to immigration. However, this issue has long been avoided in campaigns and always seemingly pushed aside. This country is huge and there is a great number of people wanting to move here. So why isn’t there more being done about the immigration issue? Sean Hannity says, “We've gotta get rid of the immigration issue altogether. It's simple for me to fix it.” However, if it truly were that easy to fix, wouldn’t this system been revised years ago? There is no doubt that it is difficult to get anything passed in Congress with partisan gridlock, but we must be realistic about the issue. Yes, there are many different ways it could be approached, but it is necessary to first set aside partisan sparring if we want to see anything actually get accomplished. It may seem like a sudden flip flop on positions, but Hannity is realizing that a noncompromising “solution” to immigration is not going to win the GOP many votes, especially among the growing Latino population. Certainly, Latinos aren’t the only group worried about and affected by immigration policies, but their status as the largest and most recent wave of immigrants puts them in this tough position. To win back more Latino vote, as well as that from other minority and immigrant groups, Republicans must reform their policies, even if it means moving away from their old ideas, so that there is hope that something can be done in Washington with regards to this complicated issue.
After the 2012 election, it will be very interesting to see how the Republican Party will evolve on issues, including immigration. I think many within the party are realizing that they need to reevaluate how their platform can include such large and powerful voting demographics, such as the Latino vote. Figuring out new ways to address important issues needs to start with politicians not with pundits, but hopefully if the media begins to talk about this, politicians will listen and realize their needs to be an evolution in Congress as well. Evolving positions on such hot-button issues such as immigration can hopefully lead to action, change and resolve and I look forward to this.
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