The most spectacular evidence of this is the disastrous damage the Republican Party did to itself in California in 1994 with its support of Proposition 187.

ECONOMIST: Special-interest groups

The Republican Party in California has been a permanent minority party since 1994 when it backed Proposition 187, a law nearly identical to the Arizona Republican adopted last year.

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The Supreme Court found a similar Texas law unconstitutional in 1982, and a comparable California law, Proposition 187, was passed in 1994 but got tangled up in the courts.

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And they remember back in California when Governor Pete Wilson put in Proposition 187 and drove Hispanics out of the party by the thousands, and California hasn't voted Republican since.

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California's immigrants also include a growing number of the elderly, who reach retirement without having paid into the system, poverty-stricken refugees, and illegal immigrants who are eligible for benefits until Proposition 187 has been endorsed by the courts.

ECONOMIST: Immigration