The fatal flaw of the Republican Party is its adherence to "Impossibly Pure Principles." Compromise is off the table. Just sitting down with "the enemy" (as Yahweh sits down with Satan in Chapter 1 of "Job") is unthinkable. In the GOP's mind, any policy that does not square with absolutely impeccable ideals is anathema, cursed - "damned to Hell" in the most traditional sense of Eternal Perdition. Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton, epitomizes American conservatism's essential vice which, ironically, masquerades as its highest virtue.
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton
More Merton: http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html
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“Is Perfectionism a Curse?”
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/paul-ryan-tells-truth.html
First Chapter, “Book of Job”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1&version=ASV
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Poll: Latino Vote Devastated GOP Even Worse Than Exits Showed
By Benjy Sarlin | TPM
RELATED CONTENT
Enlarge PhotoPoll: Latino Vote Devastated GOP …
Mitt Romney lost Latinos by unprecedented margins -- even worse than the initial exit polls showed -- according to a study by Latino Decisions.
An election eve poll of 5,600 voters across all 50 states by the group, which has researched the Latino vote throughout the campaign, concluded Obama won by an eye-popping 75-23 margin. Their research concluded that CNN's exit poll estimate of 71 percent of Latinos breaking to Obama likely undercounted their support, although they agreed with the assessment that turnout equaled 10 percent of the electorate.
"For the first time in US history, the Latino vote can plausibly claim to be nationally decisive," Stanford University university professor Gary Segura, who conducted the study, told reporters.
According to Segura, the Latino vote provided Obama with 5.4 percent of his margin over Romney, well more than his overall lead in the popular vote. Had Romney managed even 35 percent of the Latino vote, he said, the results may have flipped nationally.
The effect was at least as dramatic in swing states, most notably in Colorado, which Obama won on Tuesday. There Latinos went for the president by an astounding 87-10 margin, an edge not far from the near-monolithic support he received from African American voters. In Ohio, with a smaller but still significant Latino population, Obama won by an 82-17 margin.
"This poll makes clear what we've known for a long time: the Latino giant is wide awake, cranky, and its taking names," Eliseo Medina, Secretary-Treasurer of the SEIU, told reporters Wednesday on a conference call discussing the results.
Beyond the eye-popping margin of victory, the internal numbers helped explain why many of the Republican's efforts to deal with the problem fizzled in 2012. Romney tacked hard right on illegal immigration, recommending a policy of "self-deportation," but he hoped that by stressing his dedication to legal immigration he might mitigate the damage.
The reason that didn't work, according to the study, is that Latino citizens are too personally connected to undocumented residents to separate the issue. Some 60 percent of high propensity Latino voters say they know someone who is living in the country illegally.
"You're not talking about an abstract immigrant, you're talking about someone the respondent knows and cares for and may in fact be related to," Segura said.
For the GOP, his conclusion was simple: "The Republicans need to make this go away."
The starting point would be comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented residents, a move he says could at least chip away at Democrats' increasing strength with the community. But selling that to the conservative base is going to be a tough slog and could invite a damaging backlash all its own, leaving the future fraught with danger for the right.
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