The Silent Majority

It appears that, despite anti-immigrant activists being the loudest, they aren't the strongest at the ballot box, at least in Virginia, where Republicans made their entire pitch based on hating the brown:

Voters across Virginia chose candidates in state and local elections yesterday not out of anger over illegal immigration but based on party affiliation, a preference for moderation and strong views on such key issues as residential growth and traffic congestion.

With a few notable exceptions, the trend benefited Democrats and not those who campaigned the loudest for tough sanctions against illegal immigrants.

Fairfax County continued its transformation into solid Democratic territory, with as many as five legislative seats poised to fall out of Republican control. In Loudoun County, Democrats who campaigned on a promise to slow residential growth took over the county board. Even in Prince William County, where the board's chairman, Corey L. Stewart (R), won easily on a vow to crack down against illegal immigrants, the volatile issue was tempered by the victory of state Sen. Charles J. Colgan (D-Manassas), who had been painted as soft on the issue.

The returns provided the sharpest evidence yet that Democratic gains in recent state elections represented more than a temporary dip in Republicans' popularity. Yesterday's initial results showed that a more long-term structural realignment may be occurring and that voters are increasingly drawn by Democrats' promises to improve schools and ease traffic and away from Republican conservatism on such issues as taxes and social policy, particularly in fast-growing Northern Virginia.

"I did not think that immigration in and of itself would carry the day," said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw (Fairfax), who would become majority leader under Democratic control. "The results are proving that, while immigration is a concern to people -- and it should be -- it is not returning the votes that they thought that it would."

This is a nation of immigrants. Thinking that the whole country would walk through the doors of citizenship and then decide en masse to slam it shut behind them was stupid. Not only that, but their policies are counter-factual; 45% of the undocumented enter this country on tourist visas and overstay them, not by jumping fences. Is the plan to ban tourism? Have you notified the economy on that one?

There are simply too many other issues that impact people's lives on a daily basis where Republicans have absolutely no answer and a demonstrated failure to govern. Hate is not a platform.

UPDATE: This is very much about housing worries, and I think that's trumping any worries about illegal immigrants.

UPDATE II: The most important thing any Democrat running for Congress can say about the immigration issue is this.

"My opponent doesn't want to end illegal immigration. He loves it. He can talk about it on the stump and pretend to get tough, and it keeps him from talking about the loss of good jobs abroad, or the soaring costs of healthcare and college, or our crumbling infrastructure. He can paint immigrants as a boogeyman without taking any steps to enforce the workplace, because that would hurt his friends at the Chamber of Commerce. Illegal immigration is the best thing that ever happened to Republicans. It gives them a place to hide."