Reporter, editor, bon vivant, and all-around douchebag Robert Stacy McCain has yet another in what promises to be an infinitely extended series of ludicrous explanations for why the GOP is currently a-swirl in the porcelain Maelstrom: Insufficent Doctrinal Purity on Anti-La Raza Demagoguery.
One of the big reasons for the 2006 disaster was that John McCain's amnesty bill alienated many blue-collar voters who had been voting Republican in recent elections. Yet not only did McCain try to pass amnesty again in 2007, but then the Republican Party nominated the La Raza-loving author of this anti-American legislation as its 2008 presidential candidate.
It was President Bush himself who, in January 2004, proposed guest-worker status and amnesty for "undocument workers." In his second term, Bush pressured Republicans in Congress to support such legislation. No doubt other factors are involved in the collapse of the GOP coalition, but it's imp0ssible to ignore the role of Bush, McCain and amnesty in this disaster.
Yeah, there really is no doubt about that, since there is absolutely no evidence that "blue-collar voters" were ever especially worked up over the "amnesty" legislation. ("Illegal immigration" does not poll well, duh, but that's different from the question of support for the legislation -- see especially in that last link the November 2007 LA Times/Bloomberg poll). More to the point, there is no evidence that immigration is much on the minds of American voters at all.
Everyone hates the war because it's been a pointless disaster, and the GOP has run the economy into the shitter, and Greater Wingnuttia has nothing to offer as far as answers except dumbass demagoguery. Their chief error lies in their ridiculous belief that their pet obsessions resonate with anyone but their own captive audience of intellectual shut-ins, moral cripples, and policy-ignorant fuckheads.