Your thesis that the Republicans sounded to harsh doesn't square with that data. More likely, Democrats often copied Republican retoric against illegal immigration, while saying nary a word about comprehensive reform (or as in the case of some newly elected democrats, completely dissavowing amnesty). Add to this the confusion of Bush's support for comprehensive reform. How many marginally politically aware voters knew if thier Republican candidate differed with Bush on the issue? With all these factors taken together, some voters might be forgiven for thinking a vote against the Republicans was a vote against amnesty, a guest worker program and porous border enforcement. If you think I am full of sh**, go read the percentages by which those initiatives in arizona passed one more time.

I like your comment, because it gets to the real issue. I don't think many anti-immigration conservatives care much about the macroeconomic issues, and I don't think many are really that upset over granting “amnesty” to the legal equivalent people who speed “illegally” [1]

I think there's a big concern over culture, and language. Conservatives defend what works, and for us that has been our English legal heritage. Official English laws get right to that. That's why I support them. [2]

But ultimately, our culture, our power, our language does best when we expand and do not sit in bunkers. [3]

The world is waiting. Our continent is waiting. Destiny is waiting.

Let's seize it.

[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/05/26/tony-snow-is-right-illegal-immigration-is-like-speeding.html
[2] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/06/15/an-economic-and-political-union-of-fifty-member-states-even.html
[3] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/04/12/the-manifest-destiny-of-the-american-nation.html