GOP's NY-23 Defeat Points the Way to Win Blacks & Latino's to the Conservative Cause

Dave G's NY-23 post mortem nails the broad political lesson:

What this shows is that neither running as Democrats-lite nor as talk-radio-style anarcho-conservatives will win the future for the GOP. What will yield a Republican comeback in 2010 and beyond is the McDonnell/Christie model, where Republican candidates ideologically appropriate for their states and districts run as pragmatic conservatives who are solutions-oriented and who are running to apply their conservatism to public problems. This is the type of Republicanism that can win, and it did win in purple Virginia and blue New Jersey. It did so by contrasting a GOP that was optimistic and problem-solving yet distinctly conservative with a corrupt, interest-group-friendly, tax-and-spend leftist establishment. This is the model that Republicans should emulate, not the Rockefeller-esque model of Dede nor the Palin/Beck model of Hoffman.

The above is completely on point and totally tracks with my attitude about the purpose of being a conservative in the first instance (superior problem solving to address the needs of our respective communities and country). It also tracks almost perfectly with what is required of the GOP to win blacks and latinos to its banner and the conservative cause, namely, ideologically and operationally superior solution sets and optimistic problem solving conservatism applied to the public problems of black and latino political constituencies.

The Lack of a Coherent Immigration Policy is Costing Us

Hispanics outpace African-Americans as federal prisoners

Hat tip - Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog 

NATIONAL: "Hispanics Are Largest Ethnic Group in Federal Prisons, Study Shows," by Solomon Moore, New York Times, 19 February 2009.

Annual number of federal offenders doubles from 1991-2007. Thank you War on Drugs. But the Latino numbers quadruple, with the vast bulk being immigration sentences, followed by drug sentences. Of the Latinos in our fed prisons, 72% are not citizens--nice. Most are sent there by the four border states (CA, AZ, NM and TX). Cross the border illegally and--thanks to our zero tolerance--we toss you in jail. The average sentence for Latinos is 46 months. This is a good use of our taxpayer money all right.