Pat Buchanan: Rise In Latino Voters A 'Crisis' For GOP, Party Needs 'Southern Strategy' On Immigration

Despite the Republican Party's failure to appeal to minorities, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan thinks that the GOP should focus on attracting even more white votes by returning to the so-called "Southern Strategy."

As Buchanan noted in an article for World Net Daily last week, "minorities, peoples of color - Hispanic, black, Asian - gave 80 percent of their votes to Obama" during the 2012 presidential election. However, instead of making an effort to be more inclusive of American voters, Buchanan argues conservatives should adopt a new version of the "Southern Strategy" revolving around immigration, as a rise in black voters and Latino demographics represents a "crisis for the Grand Old Party." 

The "Southern Strategy" was first adopted by Richard Nixon and aimed to galvanize Southern voters partly by appealing to racial tensions while avoiding overt racism. As a result, the strategy helped to alienate African-American voters from the GOP.

On the other hand, as Buchanan says, the strategy helped Republicans win the White House in 1972, 1984, 1980 and 1988.

While the Right-Wing thinker doesn't directly state that the GOP should revisit the strategy, he instead denotes that the bipartisan proposal for immigration reform currently being reviewed in Congress would increase the pool of nonwhite voters. Rather, he implies, the GOP should focus its attentions on hyping concerns about border safety.

"While the total Hispanic vote rose by 1.4 million between 2008 and 2012, some 12 million eligible Hispanics did not bother to vote. And when one considers that Romney lost Hispanics 71-27, any Democratic effort to get out the Hispanic vote is going to be problematic for the GOP," he writes.

"From these Census figures, white folks are losing interest in politics and voting. Yet, whites still constitute three-fourths of the electorate and nine in 10 Republican votes."

He continues, "Query: Is the way to increase the enthusiasm and turnout among this three-fourths of the electorate for the GOP to embrace amnesty and a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal foreign aliens? Or is it to demand the sealing of America's borders against any and all intruders?"