Submitted by Larry Rasczak, Dec 6, 2007 12:46

After Prop 187 California stopped being competitive and became one of the most solidly Democratic states in the Union. Gov. Schwartenegger is, to the best of my knowlege, the only Republican who has won a statewide election in the Golden State since Prop 187. (If some Republican has won a statewide election in California since I last checked, please free to correct me.)

Now the "know nothing" wing of the GOP has seen fit to take the same race baiting policy that so badly backfired in California national. As Count Metternich (or was it Talleyrand?) said "It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake".

Conservative talk raido is filled with callers, and hosts, who are, quite frankly, racist. The consequences of their rants will not just endanger the GOP in 2008, but also in 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024 and beyond. An entire generation of Hispanics is being taught that the GOP is a "whites only" club, and frankly it does not want them, their conributions, or their votes.

Had the rest of the GOP stood up to the racisit wing, this could have ended very differently. Hispanics tend to agree with the GOP more than the disagree with it, on issues of Life, Faith, and Family the GOP is a slam dunk. Many Hispanics own their own businesses, and entrepeneurs almost always find a home in the GOP.

Instead the GOP chose to cave in to a small but very vocal and highly unrepresentative minority, and will be still be paying for that in elections decades hence.

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