Rand Paul: The GOP needs to “evolve” on immigration
“You can’t have open borders in a welfare state. We’ve got a pretty significant welfare state, so it’s not just about normalizing the 11 or 12 million here, it’s whether or not while you’re doing that another 11 or 12 million come in, and I think that will bankrupt the country,” Paul said. “So I am concerned, but I’m also open-minded enough to say that it is an issue that we do need to evolve on. But I’m not willing to be so much in adapting that I believe you allow people to come in without having a secure border and…letting people get to the front of the line.”
Paul’s twin concerns – a secure border and an exhaustive path to citizenship that doesn’t allow illegal immigrants to leap-frog those who have already applied to come here legally – are the foundation of the argument Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has pitched to allay the concerns of skeptical conservatives. …
Paul on Wednesday took that idea further, proposing a yearly review of border security, so that if certain metrics are not met, Congress could vote to suspend the “normalization” process. Paul said this was necessary because in the past Republicans have traded amnesty for border security, but never received what they asked for.
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RINO
Flapjackmaka on January 31, 2013 at 9:44 AM
Shocking.. A libertarian holds a libertarian position on immigration. Also, water is wet and the sky is blue.
Illinidiva on January 31, 2013 at 9:47 AM
What a surprise! Another Republican in the mold of W, Perry, Palin, Rubio and others who when pinned down and basically water-torchered to stop spinning end up saying the exact same thing. Well, except Romney and look how well he did with all the Gonzaleses and Rodriguezeses across the nation.
Marcus on January 31, 2013 at 9:48 AM
Sorry, Rand, but you’ll never succeed in closing the barn door once you’ve propped it open.
Bitter Clinger on January 31, 2013 at 9:49 AM
This is disappointing.
Vince on January 31, 2013 at 9:51 AM
It’s beyond ridiculous to think that “evolving” on illegal immigration will ever be the touchstone for Hispanic support forthe GOP. “Free stuff” trumps everything.
Bitter Clinger on January 31, 2013 at 9:51 AM
How about this?
Take the laws on the books and enforce them.
“We can not enforce the laws we have” is not an argument for more laws, and besides which, I reject that assertion out of hand.
gryphon202 on January 31, 2013 at 9:52 AM
The problem isn’t that the door’s open. The problem is the amount of honey that’s in the hive.
Notorious GOP on January 31, 2013 at 9:53 AM
Cue every furious wingnut with a sockpuppet account coming to rant and rave that Paul dare state the obvious fact that a bunch of ball-less RINO’s are not going to build a border fence overnight or start massive roundups.
Ayeah, this is good for people to remember.
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 9:54 AM
Meh, he’s trying to thread a needle here and satisfy both sides of the argument. I’m not ready to toss him under the bus just yet. Note that he said legalization risks national bankruptcy, something I haven’t heard the pro-amnesty crowd admit yet.
Doomberg on January 31, 2013 at 9:54 AM
How about evolving into men, and throwing the illegal aliens out!
OldEnglish on January 31, 2013 at 9:54 AM
Disappointing, but not a surprise. As was the John Kerry confirmation.
Jeddite on January 31, 2013 at 9:55 AM
The really disappointing part was that Mr.Swiftboat was the least awful choice. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel THAT much.
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 9:55 AM
I don’t really like to hear, “Well, amnesty is inevitable so we’d better get on board with the amnesty plan,” any more than I like hearing “Well, tax increases are inevitable, so we’d better get on board with the Obama tax increases” or “Gun control is inevitable, so we’d better get on board with gun confiscation.”
Usually this talk is a sneaky way by supporters of said amnesty/tax increases/gun control/etc to advocate for such issues and encourage conservative surrender while pretending to be “realists.”
Doomberg on January 31, 2013 at 9:58 AM
Toss him under the bus? I say move him to the front of the line. These people are facing reality and can add 2+2 when it comes to national elections.
Marcus on January 31, 2013 at 9:58 AM
There go the Rand Paul fanclubs that were popping up last week.
thebrokenrattle on January 31, 2013 at 9:59 AM
Sorry, but in no way, shape, or form is adding between 12 million and 30 million Democrat voters going to help Republicans win national elections.
Doomberg on January 31, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Sadly, I expected something like this would happen. That he would say kick over the sand castles of the wanna-be Minutemen and lose a great deal of right-wing support. But wasn’t much I could do to stop it.
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 10:01 AM
If your boat springs a leak, you start bailing, but the strategy changes when the water gets up to the gunwales. Bailing is fine, but you have to start when the leak starts, and we NEVER did that. At this point, it’s more important to find out who, and how many, are here, and sift the factory workers from the drug dealers.
RBMN on January 31, 2013 at 10:01 AM
Wait…what? Congress can’t even pass a budget as they required to do by law, and we’re supposed to expect them to monitor themselves and accept blame for something?
Rand, Rand, Rand….what the hell.
Bishop on January 31, 2013 at 10:02 AM
Prediction: angered rightwingers form the “Anti-Illegal Party” for 2016. It gets less votes than the Constitutionalist Party, meantime Obama gets everything he wants anyway.
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 10:04 AM
Oh. Why can Republican candidates in Texas pick up to 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. I suppose the way to remove the reputation of the Republicans as the Lily-White only party with a Senator Cruz or Senator Rubio is to add more bleach.
Marcus on January 31, 2013 at 10:05 AM
rand showing his true colors early in the game.
no beating around the bush for this wannabe elitist.
guess what homey, you and rubio can go stand at the back of the for 206
renalin on January 31, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Nope — it needs to “devolve” — to the time of Abraham Lincoln and his views on free immigration, as expressed in his 1855 letter to Joshua Speed:
unclesmrgol on January 31, 2013 at 10:11 AM
Marcus knows that. That’s why he supports it.
xblade on January 31, 2013 at 10:12 AM
That’s an impressive job for Texas but ignores the overall national trend and the results of the Reagan amnesty. Remember, we tried it last time. It didn’t work.
Republicans need to get over this fantasy of buying a “captive minority” by legalizing them and putting them on welfare like the Democrats did with the African American vote. The Dems will ALWAYS outspend you. Always.
Doomberg on January 31, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Prediction: Angered rightwingers stay home on election day because they see no difference between demorat and demorat-lite.
Bishop on January 31, 2013 at 10:14 AM
And here I thought that I had one decent Senator in my state. I was ready to “go to work for Rand” in 2016. Back to the drawing board.
Clink on January 31, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Only slightly worse than head amnesty pimp Juan McCain?
Kataklysmic on January 31, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Nuance…….
tommy71 on January 31, 2013 at 10:17 AM
Shhh. You’re not supposed to mention that. It’s all because of “Republican racism!”
At this point I’m basically praying for Walker or Pence to get into the race, otherwise we’re probably sunk. Paul is barely acceptable; the others don’t even rate a mention.
Doomberg on January 31, 2013 at 10:19 AM
I don’t like using terms like “evolve” to describe a change in position in the direction of favoring amnesty. It is an unhelpful loaded term that suggests moving away from something outdated, close-minded and simpleminded to something more modern and sophisticated. It helps the left frame the issue in such a way that an insistence border security/immigration law enforcement is seen as stubborn and needing to be changed/dropped in order to fit in with current times.
bluegill on January 31, 2013 at 10:20 AM
Sure. And their hero candidates are going to be currently un-employed politicians who couldn’t be re-elected today to the office they once held in their own backyard.
Marcus on January 31, 2013 at 10:21 AM
I’m amazed at how many Romney voters in here are already giving up on Rand.
Notorious GOP on January 31, 2013 at 10:22 AM
I do believe that Senator Paul’s comments will evolve.
Vince on January 31, 2013 at 10:25 AM
Don’t be so sure, Lizard Man seems to be on top of things.
But what does it really matter at this point, the GOP caves so often that it’s a major story when they don’t. The time has come to pay the fiddler and the fiddler wants his money.
Bishop on January 31, 2013 at 10:26 AM
Yeah.. Texas Republicans have figured out how to get enough Latinos to win elections. Ditto with Marco Rubio (although Florida’s Latino population skews Cuban.) Republicans don’t need to get a majority of Hispanics, but they do need to get 35% to 40%. Showing some tolerance on this issue also helps ease the concerns of suburban independents.
And that had to do with the economic crisis more than anything else. 2008 and 2012 were totally different elections.
Illinidiva on January 31, 2013 at 10:26 AM
You know, I don’t consider giving in to criminals “evolving”. Seems like most of what differentiates between civilization and what isn’t involves having laws and holding law-breakers responsible for their transgressions. To STOP doing that is reversing the evolution of civilization.
Socratease on January 31, 2013 at 10:29 AM
I got to hand it to Senator Paul. His nuanced positioning makes it possible to upset his supporters, without it being a deal breaker for most of them. A wee bit Presidential, methinks.
tommy71 on January 31, 2013 at 10:29 AM
The issue at hand is that if Democrats actually do ram another amnesty through, voting will become irrelevant even faster than we thought.
Rand is not going to dash into a closet, change, and come out as Supernativist because he’d run into Democrat-launched Kryptonite faster than you could say “Obama sucks”. It would end him as surely as proclaiming his father’s views on non-interventionalism.
At this point Rand is between a rock and a hard place.
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 10:29 AM
It’s amazing how none of these guys are talking about this.
The yearly review sounds nice on paper. But it depends on the congress reviewing it at the time. They could choose to do nothing.
Dongemaharu on January 31, 2013 at 10:31 AM
Umm.. what makes you think that Walker is anti-immigration reform? His BFF is working with Rubio on this one.
Illinidiva on January 31, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Remember how GHWB benefitted so handsomely from Reagan’s amnesty? Yeah, me either.
Kataklysmic on January 31, 2013 at 10:34 AM
Sorry, but a political party at some point has to deliver the goods to its base constituencies, this is how you win elections. Part of the reason the Democrats are so powerful if they keep the money rolling in to its voters. The Republicans, by contrast have consistently failed to enact conservative policy preferences since the early Bush era. The Republicans have spent the last decade or so telling the party base how much it hates them (this started with the social cons but more recently it’s spread to the fiscal cons). I’m surprised it took the base so long to start dissolving as it is.
The GOP’s current strategy of trying to create a “fantasy base,” first of independents in 2012 and now Hispanics in 2016, is a symptom of the cancer that’s rotting away the party’s innards. The GOP leadership needs to deal with reality instead of looking for a magical solution that will instantly fix all their problems.
Doomberg on January 31, 2013 at 10:35 AM
Hispanics, by nature, are GOP voters. Very family and religiously orientated. THere’s no reason for them to become Conservative voters. If you want a people like the Minutemen running the party, then go for it. But you can also thank the GOP for creating an atmosphere for illegals to get their hands on free money.
Notorious GOP on January 31, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Even if Republicans can split the Hispanic vote, it may not be enough. The Democrats understood that the battle would be won in the public schools, and in the universities, and they proceeded slowly…generation after generation..to mold the minds and characters of our children. Now, their harvest is at hand, and the US Constitution is in real trouble.
RBMN on January 31, 2013 at 10:41 AM
I like Rand Paul more every day. He’s exactly right about both normalization and border security, and articulates those concerns more clearly and succinctly than anyone else in the Republican Party by a long shot.
thirtyandseven on January 31, 2013 at 10:42 AM
Words. None of it has policy there.
Is evolve the same as progress?
He is right, but he does not seem to be willing to spell it out…
If you are not willing to allow illegals to leap frog those who have applied and are waiting to come to America, the ONLY SOLUTION is to send them back to their home nations. Otherwise, they have already leapfrogged in front of everyone else by nature of already being IN AMERICA. This stuff is not hard. It is not string theory on top of relativity attached to the lack of information on gravity. There are no twisty pairs.
As for open borders and the welfare state, the welfare state makes closed borders open because there is enough incentive to break through and risk your life, what tiny little risk there is.
astonerii on January 31, 2013 at 10:44 AM
No, they are welfare lovers. Their families are by and large subsidized.
astonerii on January 31, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Folks like Marcus ignore a lot of things. They have to. You know, like ignoring the fact that Cruz ran against amnesty during his senate race, and won…big. He even admitted that he did not support amnesty on Telemundo of all places. Maybe the way to court Hispanics is to treat them like adults instead of treating them like a number. Wow, what a concept.
xblade on January 31, 2013 at 10:49 AM
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