1148 ★ CHAPTER 28 A New Century and New Crises
immigration. Some supporters advocated repealing the provision of the Four-
teenth Amendment granting automatic citizenship to all persons born in the
United States. For a time, some activists denied that Obama was legally presi-
dent at all, claiming that he had been born in Africa, not in the United States.
(In fact, he was born in Hawaii.) With their opponents energized and their own
supporters demoralized by the slow pace of economic recovery, Democrats suf-
fered a severe reversal. Republicans swept to control of the House of Represen-
tatives and substantially reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate. The
outcome at the national level was political gridlock that lasted for the remain-
der of Obama’s presidency. Obama could no longer get significant legislation
through Congress.
Tea Party– inspired conservative gains at the state level in 2010 unleashed
a rash of new legislation. Several states moved to curtail abortion rights. In
Wisconsin, the legislature and Governor Scott Walker rescinded most of the
bargaining rights of unions representing public employees. Workers and their
supporters responded by occupying the state Capitol building for weeks, and
then gathering petitions to force a recall election for Governor Walker in
2012, in which he succeeded in winning reelection. In Ohio, however, a similar
anti- union law was repealed in a popular referendum.
New conservative legislatures also took aim at undocumented immigrants.
Alabama, which has no land border with a foreign country and a small popula-
tion of immigrants compared with other states, enacted the harshest measure,
making it a crime for illegal immigrants to apply for a job, and for anyone to
transport them, even to a church or hospital. During the contest for the Repub-
lican presidential nomination in early 2012, candidates vied with each other
to demonstrate their determination to drive illegal immigrants from the coun-
try. Oddly, all this took place at a time when illegal immigration from Mexico,
the largest source of undocumented workers, had ceased almost completely
because of stricter controls at the border and the drying up of available jobs
because of the recession. Despite the fact that the Obama administration had
deported far more illegal immigrants than its predecessor, these measures asso-
ciated the Republican Party with intense nativism in the minds of many His-
panic voters.
The 2012 Campaign
Despite the continuing economic crisis, sociocultural issues played a major role
in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, as candi-
dates vied to win the support of the evangelical Christians who formed a major
part of the party’s base. The front- runner was Mitt Romney, the former governor
of Massachusetts. Romney had made a fortune directing Bain Capital, a firm that