Illegal Immigration

Mickey Kaus writes:

It seems like only months ago we were told the immigration issue was splitting Republicans. Now it’s E.J. Dionne wringing his hands about the

worry among Democrats that Republicans are ready to use impatience with illegal immigration to win back voters dissatisfied with the status quo.

What’s changed? Well, President Bush–the main politician doing the GOP-splitting–is leaving the scene. The Republican electorate seems to have decisively turned against his illegal-immigrant semi-amnesty. Result: No more split! But the powerful GOP anti-legalization sentiment was obviously latent even in 2006. The MSM just chose not to notice.

…Dionne eventually dismisses anti-illegal-immigration sentiment with a classic paleolib device:

Yet at a moment when the electorate is very angry, it’s not surprising that some voters are channeling their discontent through the immigration issue. It’s happened before in our history. [E.A.]

Of course, pre-Clinton Democrats also dismissed voter anger on the welfare issue as displaced discontent about economic stagnation (when they weren’t dismissing it as plain old racism). Welfare recipients were "scapegoats," we were told. Then it turned out that the voters who were angry at welfare were angry at welfare. It’s just possible, as Michael Barone suggests, that the voters who are angry at illegal immigration are angry at illegal immigration.