The Way Forward--Maybe

This assessment is by turns optimistic and sobering. Tony Blankley holds up Benjamin Disraeli, who used conservative principles to figure out how to ride the wave of change in England. That's the optimistic part, which shows it is possible to pull off something like what Republicans are going to need to do.

But he also warns there is no getting around addressing the burgeoning Hispanic population. This is sobering because even though there are strong conservative touch points available in this population--their family values are strong, their faith is strong, their strong work ethic is typical of immigrants of all sorts--the hard left has been at work these past decades here as well. La Raza has many Latinos thinking they are merely taking back what racist Americans took from them, and they do not recognize any such status as "illegal immigrant". I would expect an immigration bill in Congress fairly soon that recognizes a large percentage of illegal immigrants here now as citizens, which will buy their loyalty for generations. I don't know how Republicans can outbid Democrats on this while adhering to any notion of the nation state that we are familiar with. I wouldn't be surprised to see a new influx of illegals based on the prospects for citizenship--which in a down economy will prominently feature welfare benefits that far exceed what they can get in Mexico. The health insurance plan we get out of this Congress will absolutely include illegals--another magnet. Oh, and we'll be paying some substantial portion of the 5 million mortgages given to illegal immigrants during the past half-dozen years of the Fannie Mae bubble. If you're an illegal, it's all good with the Democrats.

Much depends on how long the Democrat hallucination of prosperity through expropriation will keep its grip on the country. For unless and until Latinos and substantial portions of the rest of the demographic groups under its spell of are jolted awake, conservatives can only try to prevent the worst excesses of an America seriously playing with socialism. Only when the narcotic wears off will conservatives have an audience again among those whose votes will be needed to turn this thing around.