Posted on 05/18/2006 5:29:51 PM PDT by RWR8189
What the president's immigration speech and "The DaVinci Code" have in common.
What was missing in the president's approach the other night was the expression, or suggestion, of context. The context was a crisis that had gone unanswered as it has built, the perceived detachment of the political elite from people on the ground, and a new distance between the president and his traditional supporters. The president would have done well to signal that he knew he was coming late to the party, as it were; that he'd come to rethink his previous stand, or lack of a stand, and had begun to consider whether there was not some justice in the views, and alarm, of others.
Without an established context the speech seemed free-floating: a statement issued into the ether, unanchored to any particular principle and eager to use, as opposed to appreciate, whatever human sentiment flows around the issue of immigration. It was a speech driven by an air of crisis, but not a public crisis, only a personal and political one.
To acknowledge what he apparently thinks are the biases of the base, he used loaded words like "sneak"--illegal immigrants "sneak across the border"--as if to establish his populist bona fides. This was, not to put too fancy a rhetorical term on it, creepy, and managed to be offensive to everyone.
What was needed was a definitive statement: As of this moment we will control our borders, I'm sending in the men, I'm giving this the attention I've given to the Mideast.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
By the way, there are many scumbag Americans that do the same kinds of things that some of the illegals are doing of course the tend to "blend" into society much better than a foreigner does.
New, enforcable and comprehensive reform (law) needs to be written. If you are assuming the government won't enforce law, why are you asking for deportation? Let's have some consistancy, please!
I have to agree with you. Not just this Bush, but Jeb also. Remember, he recently stated illegals should be given in-state tuition. I may have to don a flame-prevention suit, but I am beginning to believe the entire Bush clan does have a disconnect with their base.
I am not so opposed to a one world government as long as it is run along American principles and line of thought. However, I am opposed to it as we make concessions and the other nations do not.
Noonan has gone sour on Bush and so has Ann Coulter. I think other pundits will soon be switching.
Peggy Noonan is a good woman. But her writing of late is best described as: sniffingly obtuse.
Where does she get off calling this president "flinty"? What is that anyway?
I appreciate the DaVinci Code portion, but I am sick of her telling me how stupid Bush is.
Everyone who claims this is "amnesty", please answer this. What do you call the penalties they are required to pay, along with all the back taxes they will be required to pay, getting in the BACK of the line, ot at the fron. What about all the years they are required to be there in line to prove their status, backgrounds, etc???
That is not a free pass. That is not amnesty.
Do you consider all crimes punishable by fines, not paid penalties either then??
One has to wonder what the Bush administration did to Pi$$ Peggy off....she sounds like she isn't getting the attention and admiration she thinks she deserves from them for her self-important analysis. After all, wasn't she someone important sometime back in another administration? Hmmmm?
She needs to stick to writing those sickly sweet little "feelings" pieces she is so good at.
Coulter is not much of a loss, given her stridency.
Is that you, Peggy?
Have we made concessions in this country since our founding fathers framed the US Constitution? You bet and this decay has accelerated in recent decades. It only goes one way, and that is away from principles rooted in God's Word. Only a fool would believe otherwise.
Well said Peggy.
The third is intentional.
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