If I were a wealthy Democrat looking to destroy the Republican Party, there is one senatorial campaign I would donate as much as possible to: Chris Simcox’s Arizona Republican primary campaign against Senator John McCain. Simcox is the co-founder of the Minutemen Defense Group, the anti-immigrant organization that has volunteered to watch the U.S. -Mexican border and build walls that do a better job of keeping Hispanics out of the Republican Party then they do keeping illegal immigrants out of country.

A few years ago, in the midst of the immigration debate that was tearing Hispanics away from the Republican Party because of a small but vocal segment of the party with overtly racist messages and intentions, I wrote my personal thoughts on the minutemen. These thinly disguised bigots who portrayed themselves as patriots for deciding who had the right to call themselves American, these people who thought that having the last name Roberts made them more deserving of the American Dream than someone with the last name Rodriguez, these people who thought a wall would solve our problems as if Jericho’s, China’s, and Berlin’s did any good, these people made my blood boil. I’ve always been teased and even ridiculed by my liberal friends for being a Republican but the only time I ever felt ashamed to call myself a Republican was when the anti-immigrant wave swelled through party ranks.

My faith in the party was restored thanks to a few brave Senators who supported what they knew was right even when they knew it would fail and that they would almost assuredly face consequences in the future. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Mel Martinez-himself an immigrant, let me know that some very influential people were fighting from within the party to make sure it would not go the way of the bigots. McCain especially, had plenty to lose back in 2006 and 2007, when a pro-immigrant record could have easily cost him any chance of winning the Republican Presidential primary. But he stood up for what he believed in.

No doubt Chris Simcox is now standing up for what he believes in. He believes we are in serious danger because of our lack of border security. It is hard to argue with him given recent events in Mexico. But Simcox misses the point completely. If you want to fix the immigration problem, the drug problem, the human trafficking problem, and every other problem, the solution starts in Mexico, not the US. And if you want to stop terrorists, you are paying attention to the wrong border. Even if you build a 20 foot wall across the Mexican border, the only thing you will get is plenty of twenty-one-foot fences.

Beyond my philosophical disagreements with Simcox’s stances, Republicans should look at this practically. Arizona was blue enough to elect Janet Napolitano its Governor. Its population is 30 percent Hispanic. Senator McCain won reelection in 2004 with 77% of the vote, due in large part to his support within the Arizonan Hispanic community. If Simcox somehow manages to beat McCain he has a snowball’s chance in Hades of winning in the general election.

Looking at this from a national perspective, the more attention Simcox gets the next two years, the worse Republicans will look in the eyes of Hispanic voters. And if President Obama manages to pass comprehensive immigration reform without the support of Republicans, the GOP can forget about winning the Hispanic vote for decades. Anyone with a grasp on U.S. demographics knows that no party or candidate will succeed nationally without Hispanic support. As I’ve said before, Hispanics should be a natural constituency for Republicans but because of Republican mistakes, they are not.

It would be an absolute shame to see such a principled public servant like Senator McCain go down in his own party’s primary for a state he has served honorably. But beyond being a shame, it would also be political suicide for any Republican who actually wants to win elections.

Last 5 posts by Abel S. Delgado

• Let’s Support the Cantwell-McCain Bill - January 6th, 2010
• Deeds Gets Dirty, Doesn’t Win Anyway - November 2nd, 2009
• Obama & The Berlin Wall - October 25th, 2009
• The Nobel Prom King - October 11th, 2009
• Bureaucratizing Interrogations a Horrible Idea - August 28th, 2009