NPR political analyst Cokie Roberts appears on Morning Edition on Mondays, and she put on her advocacy hat this week. Alarmed at Republican gains among minority voters as the Democrats were "shlonked" at the polls, Roberts insisted "The Democrats have got to do something fast on immigration to get back those votes because they're never going to get the white vote."
For backup (and not a debate), NPR brought in Latino pollster and advocate Matt Barreto, who insisted minority voters are looking for "relief" from deportations: "I think there's a huge opportunity here for the president."
STEVE INSKEEP: Cokie, why is the president acting now, assuming he does act?
COKIE ROBERTS: Because the Democrats got shlonked in the election. It's not more complicated than that. You know...
STEVE INSKEEP: Shlonked?
COKIE ROBERTS: Shlonked.
STEVE INSKEEP: Shlonked? Is that political jargon?
COKIE ROBERTS: Definitely. It's something that you - that happens in some election years, and it happened this year to the Democrats. Look, their white vote [for the House of Representatives] didn't change. It was about 38 percent, which is about what it was the last time. But with Hispanics, their vote went down nine points, from 71 percent to 62 percent. And with Asians, it went down 24 points, from 73 percent to 49 percent. The Democrats have got to do something fast on immigration to get back those votes because they're never going to get the white vote.
STEVE INSKEEP: Well, Matt Barreto, would this affect the Latino vote for the president to act alone like this?
MATT BARRETO: Yeah, we really think it would. You know, Latino Decisions did an election eve poll during this election cycle. And we found an overwhelming percentage - well over 60 percent said that if the president took action by the end of this calendar year, then it would make them much more enthusiastic about the president and about the Democratic Party moving forward. This was really something that was on a lot of peoples' minds. The president has overseen more than 2.1 million deportations. This is something that is being felt in the Latino and in the Asian-American communities. These voters are related to many of these undocumented immigrants and want to see relief. So I think there's a huge opportunity here for the president.
Barreto is a lefty, used as an expert by the ACLU in fighting voter ID laws, telling the networks that Republicans will "crash and burn" in 2016 unless they bow to amnesty proposals.
