A new low, and a new beginning.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

The presidential primaries are upon us, and rightwing demagoguery has reached a fever pitch.

In December, during the Republican debate on CNN, the candidates vied to prove their superior toughness, promising to carpet-bomb Syria (Ted Cruz), kill innocent children in that country without qualms (Ben Carson), and murder the family members of terrorists (Donald Trump).

Rand Paul, the Republican voice of reason, rained on his fellow candidates' parade by bringing up the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, to which Trump replied: "So they can kill us, but we can't kill them?"

This campaign season has not brought out the best in our country. It has been a particularly scary time for Muslims, Latinos, and recent immigrants.

On the bright side, a growing immigrant-rights movement is standing up to bigotry (see "On the Line," page 12). And the Republican Party, having gone all in to win the angry white vote, now finds itself on the horns of a dilemma.

As Kirk Nielsen reports ("Marco Rubio's Florida Problem," page 14), winning Latino votes is crucial to the Republicans' electoral prospects in 2016. Yet the party has been, perversely, doing everything it can to drive Latino voters away.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both Cuban Americans, advertise themselves as the solution to this problem. But Cruz is widely despised within his party. And Rubio, Nielsen writes, is having trouble building support in his home state. Neither man seems likely to turn out a significant Latino margin.

Jud Lounsbury, an Iowa native, spent time on the ground with several Republican candidates ("The View from Iowa," page 24) and came to the conclusion that the Republican Party is split into two camps. "The first camp believes that if they nominate a minority who is critical of his own community, it's a genius twofer: They have the perfect vessel to point out the truths that would be considered racist by a white candidate; in addition, many minorities will...