, Columnist
Conservatives' Creed Now Requires Hard Line on Immigration
As with abortion, the issue has become a dividing line between the parties.
Party line.
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In some circles, Senator Marco Rubio is being labeled a “moderate” or “establishment” Republican even though his voting record is extremely conservative. It’s caused some puzzlement. The conservative writer David French thinks that if Rubio is the “establishment” candidate in the primaries, then “the term has lost any real meaning.”
Its meaning is certainly changing, and so is that of “conservative.” What the terminological dispute about Rubio suggests is that immigration is rapidly becoming a defining issue for American conservatism.