Republicans Admit Racism Is Big Obstacle To Immigration Reform

I have long maintained that racism is one of the primary motivators for today's GOP base which is increasingly comprised of angry white men and their subservient women who are enraged that their white privilege is being eroded by "those people."  Now, the GOP has finally had the honesty to tacitly admit that it is a racist party and that racism is behind the GOP opposition to immigration reform.  If one isn't a white preferably conservative Christian, today's GOP base doesn't want you in America,  End of discussion.  Think Progress looks at recent GOP acknowledgment of the party's racism.  Here are excerpts:

House Republicans have used a variety of excuses — citing Obamacare, sequestration, Syria, or the drug war — to explain their reasons for not passing a comprehensive immigration bill. But a Republican congressman cited one reason for the stalemate the GOP won’t admit publicly. The Southern congressman told BuzzFeed it is a matter of race. 

“Part of it, I think — and I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I hate to say it, but it’s racial,” said the lawmaker, who remained anonymous. “If you go to town halls people say things like, ‘These people have different cultural customs than we do.’ And that’s code for race.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted that race and demagoguery has always been a factor when it’s come to U.S. immigration policy, and it certainly is one now. “There’s nothing new going on today that’s gone on before,” Graham said. “This isn’t the first time that there’s been some ugliness around the issue of immigration.”

Ever since President Obama’s second-term push to pass immigration reform, the anti-reform caucus has used coded language and even racial insults to make a case against a path to citizenship for the undocumented. The GOP’s attempt to appear as a more welcoming party is still undermined by its nativists. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has spoken about young immigrants being “drug mules” with “cantaloupe-sized caves,” as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach continues the drum-beat for self-deportation. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) made a case against multiculturalism, saying, “there’s only one race here, it’s the American race.”

The opposition puts Republicans at odds with Americans’ overwhelming support for immigration reform and a path to citizenship.