It seems voters rejected anti-immigrant vitriol when it spewed from the mouths of candidates, but when that same rhetoric came in the faceless form of citizen’s initiatives that mixed fiscal austerity with xenophobia — voters swallowed the bait. Why should your tax dollars go to services for illegal immigrants? This was the message that anti-immigrant forces took to Arizonans. It was classic Lou Dobbs, class vs. race, and it worked.
Richard Kim examines the new face of Democratic populism. It’s not pretty.
[Conversely, John Nichols exercises his right to wish fulfillment. It’s fair to set aside trends in the Democratic Party since say 1984, but whatever! I mean, if you ignore Murtha and Ford altogether, his thesis is, well, completely implausible!]