Since Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election, the dominant narrative among substantial segments of the GOP's "elite", aided by their "friends" in the Democratic Party and their allies, has been Hispanic panic.
The most straight forward articulation of this premise was voiced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in response to a question on Republican prospects in the 2016 presidential election. He answered, "[I]f we don't pass immigration reform, if we don't get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn't matter who you run in 2016. We're in a demographic death spiral as a party and the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community in my view is to pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don't do that, it really doesn't matter who we run in my view."
He's not alone in so thinking. Another GOP stalwart, Carlos Gutierrez, who served as Commerce Secretary in President George W. Bush's second term, gave an interview in a story titled "GOP Needs Immigration Reform to Survive".
Graham, Gutierrez, and other GOP stalwarts are joined in this view by such longtime GOP friends as Barack Obama, Jonathan Chait, Markos Moulitsas, and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the architects of S.744. He assured the GOP that, "[T]he road to the White House comes through a road with a pathway to legalization. Without it, there will never be a road to the White House for the Republican Party."
Theirs is a rare expression of partisan altruism and seems to underscore the bipartisan nature of the conventional wisdom that has dominated GOP thinking since November of last year.
Surely if senior leaders and pundits of both parties agree with this line of thinking, how wrong could they be?
Very.
As one of the architects of S.744, the Gang of Eight's massive immigration bill that recently passed the Senate, Graham might have made his pitch on the basis of good policy or public interest.
He didn't. Instead, he appealed to the GOP's survival instinct by arguing that if it didn't "get back in the good graces with the Hispanic community", it would go into a "death spiral" and it wouldn't matter who the GOP presidential candidate was in 2016.
And how could the GOP avoid certain demise as a political party? Why, to pass "immigration reform" and "get it off the table in a reasonable practical way".
And what is a "reasonable practical way" to get "reform"? Well, in his view, the "only way" to get back in the Hispanic community's "good graces" is to pass "comprehensive immigration reform".
What's questionable about his thinking?
Lots.
NEXT: What's Wrong with Immigration Policy Conventional Wisdom
