Despite living in Connecticut, I often read the Atlanta Journal Constitution website. I may have moved away two decades ago, but I'm still a Braves and Falcons fan.
They have a "blog" about immigrants living in Gwinett county. The comments are revealing.
You can get a sample here:
http://www.ajc.com/...
A few things struck me.
1) As a history teacher, I know that there is absolutely nothing new about this. All the things they are saying about Hispanics were said about the Irish, the Italians, the Eastern Europeans. What makes this different is that for the first time, you have an immigration wave sweeping the South. Whereas the "Coasts" have more experience with pluralism, the South has been ethnically binary (Anglo-American and African American).
So the dynamic of this debate is going to be quite different in the South than it is in, say, California or New York. And then of course, you throw in Southern racism and, well....
2) I was quite critical of the Democratic Party's refusal to embrace a pro-Hispanic position in the immigration debate. I felt it was the "right thing" to do, given our nation's history. I also felt it was politically savvy because over time the Hispanic vote is going to be crucial for fashioning electoral majorities.
Suddenly, the silence from the Democrats seems smarter, at least in the tactical sense. Hispanics have not registered to vote. Many of them are "Birds of Passage" who have no desire to establish citizenship. While many have, it's not clear that the groundswell of voter registration people expected last spring has happened. Secondly, the inept handling of this issue by the GOP has allowed the Democratic party to gain advantage without tying itself down to a position.
But hopefully, this January we will be in a position to govern and we will have to deal with this issue. When LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act he said, "We have lost the South for a generation." Been more like two and counting, Lyndon.
No one can doubt that the Voting Rights Act was the just, moral thing to do. You can make the same argument for the amnesty bills being considered. But if the South is lost (and I think the Ford race has shown that to be true), we need the Mountain West. Can the Democratic Party pursue a course of social justice without relegating itself to permanent minority status?