Monday, December 13, 2004

Working the Clutch: Most major shifts in party philosophy usually come when one political party is out of power for an extended time. We may be seeing the makings of such a shift with the Democratic Party moving to Bush's right when it comes to immigration policy. President Bush has been proposing everything just short of amnesty for illegal immigrants, likely to court the growing Hispanic vote. Sen. Hillary Clinton has openly criticized Bush for being too lenient on immigration, which should appeal to many heartland conservatives who are wary of open borders.

Granted, this doesn't signify a substantive change just yet. But if the Democrats can gain traction in the Red States on the immigration issue, they may be open to shifting on other issues. Of course, the party's biggest liability is still its weakness on the War on Terrorism. So you can expect the immigration issue to be framed at least partly as a national security issue.