After the shutdown, it didn’t take long for President Obama to start beating the Amnesty drum. But the real problem is that the Republican Party seems set on helping him.

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, no-one ever went broke underestimating the political intelligence of the Republican Party. As I pointed out on VDare.com, the Republican “Hara-Kiri” during the shutdown debate has weakened their position. It alienated millions of people who would have listened to the Republican Party’s conservative message on fiscal restraint and the rule of law. But instead, because of the GOP’s lunatic fringe, they are now engaging President Obama from a position of weakness, even though Obamacare itself has revealed itself as a disaster.

But maybe the Republican leadership doesn't care about any of this. Maybe it just wants more donations.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who destroyed his political movement by shutting down the federal government to spite a Democratic President in 1995 and 1996, gives the game away in his latest appeal, received in my Inbox on October 24.

Dear ______

American families have been under attack for the last five years from the Obama Democrats' liberal agenda of higher taxes, reckless spending, and job-killing regulations.

Wages have stagnated, unemployment remains unacceptably high, food, gas and health care prices continue to rise - all thanks to President Obama's radical "fundamental transformation" of America.

But our nation is poised for a major breakout led by conservative Republicans who believe more freedom, smaller government, lower taxes, and protecting individual rights is the right path forward.

The only way we can enact our positive vision for America is to elect more Republicans from the county courthouse to the statehouse to the corridors of Congress in 2014.

And there is only one national Republican organization that is building the grassroots infrastructure to grow our Party and elect GOP candidates up and down the ticket: the RNC.

President Obama is desperate and determined to bring back Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and keep Harry Reid in charge of the U.S. Senate. With a Democrat-led Congress to do his bidding, America will continue to have schools that fail our children, an economy that kills jobs and a system that breeds hopelessness.

It's up to you, me and the RNC to ensure Obama DOES NOT succeed!

Please contribute $15 today to help our Party register new voters, energize our base, and help Republicans win in 2013, 2014, and 2016!

Sincerely,

Newt Gingrich

I'm sure Newt simply paid one of the GOP's army of consultants to write this for him. But I think he deserves a reply:

Newt (can I call you Newt?),

If you really want to stop Obama's radical "fundamental transformation" of America, then tell the Republican leaders in the House to stop the sham "immigration reform" that would inevitably let in millions more immigrants per year needing and voting for government care.

Surely you realize that your party has alienated Latino voters by being the anti-ObamaCare party. Latino voters care more about the welfare state than they care about amnesty. How can you claim the GOP must avoid being the pro-enforcement party on immigration because you don't want to alienate Latino voters?

Your party should be defunding Obama's illegal and unconstitutional amnesty for young illegal aliens. It should be defending America from the Democrats' demographic re-engineering of our society by their incessant attempts to expand immigration, legalize people in our country illegally, and undermine law enforcement at every turn.

Polls show consistently that voters overwhelmingly prefer immigration law enforcement to amnesty and are opposed to any increase in legal immigration and foreign workers. The quickest and easiest way to protect American families from stagnating wages, unacceptably high unemployment, and rising food, gas, and health care prices is to enforce our immigration laws, stop chain migration, end birthright citizenship, and reduce the number of foreign workers.

By refusing to stop Obama's illegal amnesties, the RNC is throwing away its best chance to take back the Senate and White House. It's digging the demographic grave of the Republican Party. Most importantly, it is destroying – permanently – the principles of liberty and limited, constitutional government on which our nation was founded.

You're a political animal, so perhaps I won't appeal to the better angels of your nature. Instead, I'll just point out the blunt political reality. According to surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "When it comes to their own assessments of their political views, Latinos, more so than the general public, say their views are liberal."

Source: When Labels Don’t Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity , Pew Hispanic Center, April 4, 2012

Latino immigrants overwhelmingly - by over 4 to 1 - prefer Democrats. The longer they remain in the United States, they more they prefer them.

Source: Are unauthorized immigrants overwhelmingly Democrats? Pew Hispanic Center, July 22, 2013

According to the attached recent peer-reviewed study, "This study found no evidence that incumbent Republicans could increase their share of the Latino vote by embracing less restrictive immigration policies. In fact, doing so may cost them votes among non-Hispanic whites."

To win my home state of Virginia in the 2012 election, Mitt Romney would have needed 72% of the Latino vote. In the swing state of Ohio, he would have needed 92%. He would have lost the swing states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and New Hampshire even if he had gotten 100% of the Latino vote.

He didn't lose the election because of the Latino vote; he lost because he was not a strong enough candidate to unseat an incumbent. It had absolutely nothing to do with his stand on immigration.

I could go on and on with more evidence that Republicans should not cave on immigration in a failed attempt to appeal to Latinos. Please let me know if you want more.

I don't want to waste my time or yours. But they say you are an intellectual. I promise you that this is something worth careful study and research. After all – I can't think of anything more self-defeating than trying to save the GOP by following the advice of Barack Obama.

Signed by a FAIR board member

Of course, this isn't really about the Republican Party. It's about the country we share together. Bringing in more aliens under S. 744 will destroy America for both Republicans and Democrats.

Obama's flippant lies about immigration enforcement belie the reality that he knows he is plotting to “fundamentally transform” the country – and permanently destroy the Republicans. If any House bill, however good, reaches a House/Senate Conference Committee the result may well be a Son of S. 744. The amnesty that will be pushed through will essentially abolish the rule of law and endanger the future of our Republic.

It's not surprising that FAIR President Dan Stein joined over 130 pro-enforcement organizations in urging House Speaker Boehner to publicly reject going to conference with the Senate immigration bill, S. 744. [Letter to Boehner, PDF]

But do Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich care? Will they even fight out of self-interest? Or can they not see past their next fundraising effort? Americans need to make sure that their voices are heard – and that their dollars only support those who are willing to fight for patriotic immigration reform.

The ball's in your court, Newt. And the future of your movement, your Party, and our country is at stake.

Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.