I've read this about 20 times, and it still blows my mind:
King, the Long Island congressman, said that in terms of social issues, the raging controversy over the Arizona border laws is providing more than enough ammunition for Republicans in key districts.
“The Arizona immigration law is there, there’s no reason to be raising an issue of gay rights” as a wedge, he said.
At least King is being open about the fact that the GOP's playbook is to divide the country for short-term political gain. Instead of appealing to hope and a vision for a better, more prosperous country, King and like-minded Republicans are appealing to hate and a offering a message that fuels bigotry and pits Americans against one another.
The most pathetic thing about this is that even though King is embracing bigotry in the name of political expediency, he's making a political mistake. As kos argued in April, Republicans should embrace immigration reform, not nativism. The GOP base is already fired up; declaring jihad against the nation's fastest-growing ethnic group is just plain dumb.
As things stand now, polling shows that Latinos are more supportive of Democrats and the Obama administration than most Americans, but like other supporters, their enthusiasm is tepid. So King and like-minded Republicans are doing Democrats with their fear-mongering. It won't win them any votes they didn't already have, but it will drive up enthusiasm among Latinos and other non-nativist Americans to vote against Republicans.