Posted on 11/14/2007 11:15:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
New York Governor Spitzer's back-down on drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants just cements illegal immigration as the Great Elite Back-Down Issue.
It was noticed years ago that the gap between elite opinion and public opinion on immigration issues is extraordinarily wide, as these gaps go. Some of this is naked self-interest: wealthy business types liking cheap, docile labor forces, rich folk of all stripes appreciating cheap & meek domestic servants. Some part arises from the guilty conscience that rich people always have, even in the U.S.A., known that all wealth and success is to some degree a product of dumb luck. From this you get patronizing noblesse oblige attitudes directed most particularly at those who are obviously poor. (The lower-middle classes don't seem to get much noblesse oblige directed their way.) Some comes from the "diversity" indoctrination that most elite types got while passing through their elite colleges and law schools. A big part arises from the simple and inescapable fact that elites don't share the anxieties of ordinary folk. They don't worry, as the rest of us do, about property values, losing a job, or affording health care. And then some is just that elites are better traveled and more "world-conscious" than the rest of us, and correspondingly, they are less attached to their own nation and its citizenship.
Whatever the reason, the gap is huge, and elite types keep falling headlong into it. It's hard not to smile at the spectacle. On this topic, our ruling classes are just simply clueless. It's a huge, major case of not getting it.
We saw this most wonderfully—I cherish the memory— last year with those big ¡Sí se puede! marches. The first round of demonstrations was addressed by a raft of big Democrat panjandrums—Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, etc. The second round, a few weeks later, was addressed by... nobody. The Kennedys and Clintons all had pressing engagements elsewhere, it turned out. I was smiling about this for weeks. Elite Back-Down One.
Same thing with the various congressional attempts at "comprehensive immigration reform." Our Senators stir themselves from their oak-paneled offices and antique-leather armchairs to cook up a new scheme to amnesty all those polite, nice folk who are doing their yard work for them. Seems like a great idea! Then suddenly they can't hear themselves talk for the roar of phone calls and faxes coming in from their constituents. Elite Back-Down Two. It's all totally baffling to them. Who are these people making such a fuss about a perfectly reasonable, humane proposal?
It's us, buddy, the great unwashed. This is still a democracy we have here. Try to keep that in mind, eh?
What’s Hillary’s stance du jour on the issue?
Who can keep track of her stances on the issues. You'd need a scorecard.
By the way, did everyone know that 6 to 8 other states DO already issue licenses to aliens? Michigan and New Mexico are two of them. That really needs to be fixed too.
hehe, nice.
“What’s Hillary’s stance du jour on the issue?”
The greatest agenda of the Democratic Party is Amnesty ASAP. Illegals turned legal will get Democrats enough votes, probably 10 million more then Republicans, to be able to lock in every election for the next 20 years.
I’m curious. What makes one part of the “Great Elite”?
Wealth?
Education?
Pedigree?
Wall Street hacks who want cheap labor.
In this particular context, one who would sell our culture down the river for cheap labor.
People attempting glibness need to understand their subject matter.
“Wall Street hacks who want cheap labor.”
Aren’t most illegal immigrants employed by elsewhere?
“one who would sell our culture down the river for cheap labor.”
What if it’s some guy with a grade 3 education who owns a landscaping business in Appalachia that’s not doing particularly well?
Would you count him as member of the Great Elite?
Fixed ;^)
A big part arises from the simple and inescapable fact that elites don't share the anxieties of ordinary folk.
Boy Howdy. A million bucks a month could relieve me of a lot of 'anxieties'.
Illegals with drivers’ licenses will accomplish the same thing. This is why I have marvelled at all the Republican support for sucking in the barbarian hordes, especially Bush. Why does he want to relegate his Republican Party to the dustbin of electoral history? With these people voting the Democrats have locks on all National offices for probably two generations and, given the shock that a sudden Democrat/socialist monopoly of power at the national level and in most of the states will give the system, probably forever. The Constitution will suddenly be rendered gibberish and we will leapfrog Europe in socialist development and in the drive for new third world status.
Wall Street hacks like Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic.
Yeah that guy who runs an airline, then complains about oil consumption. Yeah that guy who put all of his money in offshore trusts to avoid paying taxes anywhere, then preaches about global warming.
Is this the future?
Wide?
Not necessarily. He'd count as a Not-so-Great-Elite. Exploiting cheap labor does not make one elite: clothes and deodorant, however, can go very far in this regard.
:-)
Well put. This country could use more map readers like yourself. Unlike comprehensive immigration reform, I can comprehend what you're saying.
I got your six-pack, you ‘lil monkey!
“elites don’t share the anxieties of ordinary folk.”
OK, that sounds better than anything anyone else has come up with.
But, as you hinted with your comment about how many of your anxieties would be relieved if you were to receive a million dollars a month, most anxieties that ordinary folk share are related to finances, in one way other. So, on your view, the elites are the people with sufficient wealth they don’t have worry about paying the mortgage, putting their kids through college, getting layed off, etc etc.
Wouldn’t that mean most of the Great Elite are Republicans?
=))
Arrogance..
“Arrogance..”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve known plenty of people who are perfectly ordinary in every conceivable way, yet manage to plenty arrogant.
There are arrogant teenagers with little or no education pumping gas in Appalachia who think they look good with two missing front teeth, but I woulnd’t want to count them as members of the Great Elite.
Would you?
Could be. First, finding a sanctuary from the gestapo IRS is 'unique'. But pointing a 'global warming' finger at those still under their thumb certainly qualifies as 'elitist', imo.
What's missing seems quite obvious: no pledge of allegience. I doubt that many in charge of our institutions have a true allegience to this country. If that's the case, the 'future' will not bear the kind of fruit our founders intended- warm globe or not.
>>What if it’s some guy with a grade 3 education who owns a landscaping business in Appalachia that’s not doing particularly well?<<
Ironically, a certain kind of competition is a danger to capitalism itself. As some companies lower their cost of doing business by hiring illegals, other companies feel compelled to follow suit to avoid going broke. This would not be the case if the feds made it unprofitable to break the law, but “the elites” don’t care about the law.
“’the elites” don’t care about the law.”
Is that what makes one part of the Great Elite? Not caring about the law?
The guy with a grade 3 education who owns a landscaping business in Appalachia might not care about the law. I fail to see how that makes him part of a Great Elite.
>>Wouldn’t that mean most of the Great Elite are Republicans?<<
“Republicans” like Kennedy, Clinton, Soros, Edwards?
>>Is that what makes one part of the Great Elite? Not caring about the law?<<
No, I said that the elites don’t care about the law. I did not say that was a definition.
Well, in all fairness to the dems, the lefties who want a new permanent underclass of voters would also qualify as immigration elites.
Not any more. Almost all of the tech millionaires are leftists. That influence is starting to show up in things like Google searches as non-politically correct sites are de-linked.
I suspect you’ve mentioned folks with “attitude”...not what I would recognize as “arrogance”...
However, on checking they’re pretty close to the same thing..
Attitude: a: a negative or hostile state of mind
b: a cool, cocky, defiant, or arrogant manner
Arrogance: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions
Nope. Once you are over $100,000 a year, the probability you vote D is higher than R and it keeps climbing the more you make. The R's have become the middle class party. The D's the party of the upper and underclass.
OTOH, a bunch of the elite are R's.
Jesus H. Elites are by definition those who place themselve 'above' everyone else. It hasn't anything to do with party. Barbara Boxer, Barbara Striesand, in fact, any ugly female democrat with the first name Barbara is probably an elitist.
In fact, a Republican with money has likely earned it the hard way; whereas the Democrat came upon it by virtue of birth. Both may seem elitist, yet what motivates them is critical. The one that empowers the individual rather than the state, gets my vote.
“I did not say that was a definition.”
I don’t understand what the phrase means, given how it’s used. If you or anyone else does, please do share.
And (conveniently) floated in La Opinion and Telemundo.
“lefties who want a new permanent underclass of voters would also qualify as immigration elites.”
So some guy with a grade 3 education who works pumping gas in Appalachia is part of a Great Elite if he wants so-called “immigration reform”? That can’t be right.
“Once you are over $100,000 a year, the probability you vote D is higher than R and it keeps climbing the more you make.”
I didn’t know that. Is this a post GW Bush phenomenon? Do you have reference?
“a Republican with money has likely earned it the hard way; whereas the Democrat came upon it by virtue of birth.”
What led you to that conclusion?
Money, power or FBI files...
You’ve picked four names. That’s hardly a good way to figure out whether wealth is correlates more strongly with Rebublican or Democratic sympathies.
If one the other hand, we look at which party wants to cut taxes on captitals gains, which party wants to lower taxes on the top income bracket, etc etc, that would provide a much better clue.
The American working poor are vastly hurt by this. Not only do illegals suppress his legal wages, he has to pay in taxes for the extra welfare, crime, decreased property. So, the person that hires labor gets a two fer, depressed labor bids by Americans, totally with out labor rights illegals bidding at low costs, and with the costs, crime and such carried by others.
>>If one the other hand, we look at which party wants to cut taxes on captitals gains, which party wants to lower taxes on the top income bracket, etc etc, that would provide a much better clue.<<
OTOH there is some point at which taxes on the wealthy are not good for anyone. Maybe there are more wealthy republicans than dems, but you have not made any convincing arguments to that effect.
There are certainly politicians in both parties who act like aristocrats, don’t care what their constituents think or want.
In the Democrat's propaganda world, yes. In the real world, the Republicans are the party of the middle class, and the Democrats are the party of the rich, posturing as the party of the poor. This can be seen not only in the tendency of the Democrats to be supported by a relatively few, relatively large donations as compared to the Republicans, but by the red-blue map broken down by counties - which reveals that the Democrats do best in the inner cities and also in the toney suburbs, while Republicans do best in suburban and rural districts.Democratic politics are the conspicuous consumption of the rich; the middle class can't afford them.
She will have to consult with her focus group first.
Your constant harping on this hillbilly stereotype of "Appalachia" is beginning to mark you as some sort of elitist, in your own mind at least.
That’s what I get for not hitting “preview.”
Arrocentricity! Which means I and my kind know better than the common people.
Why is there so much class envy, pessimissim, and talk of exploitation in these types of threads from conservatives, anyhow? What would Ronald Reagan think of us if he were still here with us?
I agree with you. I bridle every time I hear a politician, or anyone else for that matter, refer to our Republic as a democracy.
All the anti-elitist voters come from the Conservative ranks to split the Republican vote. Ross Perot and Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party are good examples.
Embrace cheap labor at your own peril Republicans.
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