Posted on 01/26/2004 1:47:29 PM PST by Reagan Man
The 2004 campaign season is well at hand. Following the dramatic turn-around from earlier polling results, the strong showing by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and John Edwards (D-NC) has brought renewed focus by the media on the possibilities of President Bush not only facing formidable opposition, but also losing his bid for reelection. A newly released Newsweek poll shows Kerry defeating President Bush if the election were held today. Of course, the poll is meaningless in the sense that President Bush has not yet begun to campaign, but it does add fuel to the fire that 2004 could be as close as the historic elections of 2000. With that in mind, it's time for conservatives across the country to focus on the big picture and realize that a Bush loss is far worse than a Bush victory.
The Newsweek poll garnering so much media attention shows Sen. Kerry defeating President Bush by 49%-46%. The result is understandable considering the endless attacks on President Bush by the Democrats challenging him for the White House. These attacks, levied during debates, stump speeches, and television commercials have largely gone unanswered by the president or the Republican Party. If the public is only getting one side of the story, then there should be no surprise when the president's numbers head south. The true test of public opinion will come once President Bush begins his campaign and America hears both sides of the story. Of course, the ultimate public opinion poll will be the 2004 presidential election itself.
In addition to the hits being taken by the president from the Democrats, President Bush has also sustained damage from those on his side of the political aisle: Republicans and conservatives who vote Republican. The anger expressed by conservatives toward President Bush is primarily focused on two issues: border security/immigration and federal spending.
President Bush's recent announcement of a "temporary worker" program has drawn harsh criticism from conservatives across the country. The volume of feedback I have received on this issue has been almost unanimously one-sided and in opposition to the president's plan -- a plan which conservatives feel is synonymous with "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. Under the Bush plan, illegal immigrants could apply for a 3-year temporary worker designation which would grant them legal status to remain in the U.S. provided they have employment or have a job waiting for them. In addition to the illegal immigrant being allowed to gain the benefits of residency in America, the worker's family would also be allowed to join the worker inside the U.S.
The other "stick in the eye" for conservatives is the massive increases in federal spending which have occurred over the past three years. Increases in the rate of growth of non-defense, discretionary spending in the current Bush administration are double that of the Clinton administration. Republicans have gone on a spending spree, and there appears to be no end in sight. Despite the fact that smaller, limited government is one of the tenets of conservative, Republican philosophy, congressional Republicans have shown over the last several years that they can spend with the best of them. To President Bush's credit, the budgets presented to the Congress by the administration have included modest increases in non-defense, discretionary spending by most observations. However, the budgets returned to the president for final approval have shown no restraint and are loaded with excess pork.
As a conservative, I share the philosophical concerns of friends and colleagues. Following the events of September 11, 2001, border security should be of the utmost concern, and promoting programs that not only potentially weaken security but also reward illegal behavior is just plain wrong. In addition, one of my core beliefs in which I identify myself as a conservative and as a Republican is my belief in smaller, limited government. If one of our core values is no longer being observed by our elected officials, then feelings of anger and betrayal are understandable and justified.
The key question going into the 2004 presidential election is "What is a conservative to do?"
The answer to this question is simple: conservatives must wake up and smell the coffee. The best choice for conservatives; the best candidate to advance our agenda; and the best person in which to put our hope and faith is President George W. Bush.
On the two previously mentioned issues of immigration policy and federal spending, conservatives only need to look at the alternatives to see that President Bush is the right person for the job. Regarding immigration policy, if Sen. Kerry were to become America's next president, there would be no need to debate the merits of granting legal status to a portion of illegal immigrants, because wide spread amnesty would be the policy of choice. Both Kerry and Edwards favor amnesty for illegal immigrants and would open the flood gates on America's already porous borders. According to campaign information, both Kerry and Edwards favor legalizing the status of illegal immigrants who have worked in the U.S. for a certain period of time.
The best hope for the immigration issue and border security is for conservatives to work diligently for President Bush's reelection and to demand sensible immigration reform from members of Congress. The real work on immigration will be done in Congress. Conservatives must push for meaningful reform, while working to ensure that the candidate who most closely shares our views wins in November. That person is President George W. Bush.
In regards to federal spending, one can only imagine the budgets that would be submitted by Kerry, Edwards, or Dean. A score card of liberal votes in Congress maintained by Americans for Democratic Action shows that Sen. Kerry actually has a more liberal voting record (93%-88%) than his Massachusetts counterpart: Sen. Ted Kennedy. Thus, a Kerry presidency means spending restraint by the Executive Branch goes right out the window. Conservatives have a right to be angry over spending, but the way to fight for our cause is to demand that our Republican legislators trim the pork. It is also up to us to push for presidential leadership in this area. We should support President Bush in his call for fiscal responsibility. We should also call on the president to unleash his veto pen if fiscal responsibility is not what he gets.
Much has been written in recent weeks in op-eds, letters to the editor, Internet discussion boards, and so on regarding conservative dissatisfaction with the current administration. The Bush administration should listen to their concerns, and the conservative community should work for positive solutions. Staying home on Election Day is not the answer. Voting for a third party candidate is not the answer. Writing in a protest vote is not the answer. Had just a small percentage of liberal voters stood with Al Gore in Florida rather than voting for Ralph Nader, the entire outcome of the 2000 presidential election could have been different. Conservatives cannot stay home in November. We must be on the ground working for President Bush and advancing our agenda in the process.
The conservative movement needs a voice, and it needs a leader. President Bush is that leader, and he has stood by conservatives on many of the issues we hold dear. The president is a stalwart on life issues and has been unwavering in his support of a ban on partial birth abortions. The president has been equally strong in putting forward judicial nominees who respect the Constitution and who will not legislate from the bench. The president is a leader in the war on terror, and I can think of no one better suited to occupy the oval office in this time of turmoil. The best way to fight for the conservative agenda is to fight for the reelection of President George W. Bush.
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Bobby Eberle is President and CEO of GOPUSA (www.GOPUSA.com), a news, information, and commentary company based in Houston, TX. He holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Rice University.
No, 125,000 articles that made the newspapers and web logs (and it's safe to say that not every raid makes the news).
| Searched the web for INS raid. | Results 1 - 10 of about 125,000. Search took 0.20 seconds. |
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I just posted valid URL's to the first 25 or so. Need I post all 125,000 to satisfy you, or would even that fail to make a dent in your preconceived notions?
Perhaps then another solution would make sense. Something akin to a carrot rather than the stick approach of INS raids.
Something that would somehow encourage massive voluntary compliance.
...Something like a plea bargain, perhaps...
Yeah, brilliant. People who have managed to avoid doing anything legal with regards to immigration will suddenly fork out $1,500 and face deportation in 3 years. Makes sense to me, especially when you combine it with the fact that the prez has all but said we are not going to round up illegals and deport them.
Now you tell me if it takes fewer law enforcement resources to find someone who has registered with the government, or someone who has always lived here anonymously.
Unless they announce themselves at a Dunkin Donuts to be illegal, and it's no where near quittin' time, then I would not count on law enforcement to catch them. I think the only real way to handle the situation is (as others have suggested) for the feds to put a bounty on illegals and let the market go to work.
On the other hand, I don't send form letters or form emails. I take the time to hand write each note personally. I also send in checks with a few of my notes.
In response, I get personal letters sent back to me. I get personal phone calls from Senators back to me, and I get personal visits from my House rep. I even get published in various regional and local newspapers.
So your letters only get back form letters?! Who woulda thunk it?!
Rubbish. There are two options:
1. Illegal Aliens Get Registered With Our Government, or
2. Illegal Aliens Remain UnRegistered (i.e. the status quo).
You are bashing the *only* published plan, i.e. Bush's Immigration Reform plan, that has a chance to register all 8 million illegal aliens. That's a fact. That's what you are bashing.
If you succeed, then those 8 million illegal aliens will remain anonymous, unregistered, underground illegals.
On the other hand, if Bush's plan passes, most of the 8 million illegals will volunteer to register themselves with our law enforcement agencies.
One wonders just how much that would irritate you, to actually see such real progress being made.
Will you fight all attempts to register illegals?
Will you propose your own plan to register illegals?
Or will you simply whine and beg for the status quo to continue, albeit with "increased" enforcement against all 8 million illegals??
"Yeah, brilliant. People who have managed to avoid doing anything legal with regards to immigration will suddenly fork out $1,500 and face deportation in 3 years. Makes sense to me, especially when you combine it with the fact that the prez has all but said we are not going to round up illegals and deport them."
Actually, it is brilliant. We aren't going to go door to door with new INS SS-style agents rounding up 8 million illegal aliens in some super-monstrous variation on the Germans' efforts to round up 6 million Jews back in WW2-era Europe. The costs in monies and bad publicity prohibit such folly.
But we can offer a nationwide plea bargain. We can offer enough in incentives that most of our 8 million current illegal aliens will choose to voluntarily Register themselves and their employers with our law enforcement agencies.
Perhaps you think that Bush hasn't offered them enough to get most of them to Register, but the difference in that view from mine is only in the quality of the deal being offered.
For me, I hold that Bush has offered them enough. This plea bargain will get most of them to Register, something that we don't currently have and something that we certainly want.
But, I tell you, to the Latino communities, and I hear from the northeast, Florida, Texas, Georgia and California personally, the INS is a joke.
All I can do is speculate, but if the threat of the Sword of Damocles was hanging over the heads of these illegal aliens, and there were 125,000 raids across the U.S., there would not be some unknown number (between 8-13 million) of illegal aliens in this country again since Reagan granted blanket, onetime Amnesty. They would be afraid to come here.
I am especially angry that our borders and immigration laws have not been enforced subsequent to the Reagan Amnesty as we were promised.
However, all that said, I agree something has to be done, it's not practical to believe we can deport all of them.
In a generic way, a temporary worker program makes some sense.
But, it has to have some teeth as well as rewards.
The borders must be enforced, no more empty promises, 9-11 and national security demand it.
While here, no more endless entitlements to free programs, pay your way in hospitals and schools.
If a Temp Worker has a kid while they're here, the kid is not a newly-minted U.S. citizen, becoming an anchor for his parents' automatic citizenship.
Prosecute U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens.
Deport lawbreakers, without mercy. Prosecute felons and punish them appropriately, then deport them, unless we execute them first.
In short, a temp worker is just that - a temp worker.
They come, they work, we pay them, they pay their bills, and then they go home.
Just because I hire a kid to mow my lawn, doesn't mean I have to adopt him and nurture him to adulthood with a college education.
A Temp Worker should not be a burden on society, they should be a contributing asset.
You mean like prosecuting the *employers* of illegals *after* we convince 8 million illegal aliens to register who they work for?!
You get injured on the job, you're entitled to workers comp, but you go home and draw the payments there.
There is a registration deadline, you don't register by then - you NEVER get a Temp Worker permit, and you NEVER gain citizenship.
You pay enough quarters into Social Security, you earn the benefit, just like a U.S. citizen - and not one minute before, no SSI, no SSDI, no medicare, no medicaid until you earn it.
You work here 3 years, you don't get back-to-back work permit renewals, you go home for a minimum of 6 months, then reapply.
Temp Worker status is not de facto citizenship, you gotta go home once in awhile to understand temporary means temporary.
You don't get to vote, federal, state or local elections.
Citizenship is not automatic, you must apply against a quota system. The ones who have worked the longest, with excellent records, obeyed our laws - you get selected first.
Even the suspicion of gang activity, that's a free and immediate ticket home. No trial, its an admin board hearing, their decision, no appeal. Bye bye, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Domestic abuse, child abuse, you're outta here.
You get the picture - model behavior, no burden or you're gone.
Actually, it is brilliant.
You're easily impressed. But then again, idealists usually are...
Then impress me. It should be easy, right?!
You could start by answering all of the questions that I posed to you in Post #466.
Impressing me may be easy, but avoiding such piercing questions won't cut it. You'll have to try harder, and any honest answers will probably shake your fragile worldview...
If it's an *idea.* After all, you are an idea-man... Reality isn't nearly as impressive as an idea... At least, not to you.
I am a bit more circumspect, because I know better. Idealism is wonderful, but life is not about the idealistic little fantasies that so easily impress and control you...
You could start by answering all of the questions that I posed to you in Post #466.
Why bother??? According to you, I'm a Nazi, demanding the deportation of all illegals, at the point of a gun. But, for the sake of discussion, I will politely answer your questions with one statement. If you're too myopic to get it, then it's not my problem: I expect the President to UPHOLD the laws he swore to uphold. If he refuses to do the job he swore to do, then he deserves to be fired.
Several other FReepers have asked that I treat the less intellectually gifted with kid gloves... And where you're concerned, I have made great efforts to do so... But I don't tolerate fools and liars easily. So, I will dispense with the pleasantries.
While we have made numerous attempts to get you to actually think, you have conclusively demonstrated that your incapacity for higher thinking. You ignore facts which contradict your preconceived opinions, as has been demonstrated here, repeatedly. To any valid point made to you by anyone, you pretend to not hear or comprehend. When challenged to back up your ridiculous assertions, you evade, bob and weave, slither and slide... But never give a lucid (much less valid) answer.
You insist that black is white, and white is black... And when you become trapped in the box that you have so neatly painted yourself into, you attempt to escape by going back to the beginning, by starting the sensationalism and emotional arguments again...
From your homepage:
I am a diehard fan of the U.S. Constitution, Rule of Law, Crimson Tide, and Texas A & M (Aggies).
You now support the repudiation of the U.S. Constitution and the Rule of Law...
Care to restate your position???
And to get a Temp Worker permit, you gotta have a real job, full time employment.
You don't get a permit to come stand around the 7-11 hoping to find a day job.
The job ends and you don't have another full time position lined up (one of those positions Americans don't want) then you're outta here.
And you gotta report where you're working and where you're living, if it changes, that's OK - but, you gotta report, we gotta know where to find you all the time.
If you're supposed to be painting painting houses in NJ, we better not learn you're in CA picking artichokes, or you're outta here.
But, I have to agree with Eric to an extent, its not just Bush -- but a whole lot of bureaucrats and politicians for a very long time have done nothing more than give minimal lip service to enforcing our borders and our immigration laws. They all took oaths to do just that. Enforcing our border and our immigration laws are now, and always have been, the primary duty of our federal government, to defend our country against all enemies foreign and domestic - its absolutely fundamental, and they've just blown off that duty.
Now they want to create a smokescreen to make it look like we don't have a problem.
Even if we created the most draconian temp worker program, the problem is still here.
And there are no teeth in the proposal to actually enforce the program.
In essence, in an Animal Farm kind of world, the government has created a massive problem, rampant illegal immigration, so rather than actually FIX the problem, they just want to rename it, instead of 13 million illegal aliens, we now have 13 million legal temp workers, and with the stroke of a pen - the government no longer has a creditbility problem (in their eyes).
Its kind of like that Star Wars movie where Kirstie Allie (cute little pointy-earred Vulcan) is in the Starship simulator and gets creamed by the Kobyashi Maru. Spock tells her, the simulation was programed for failure, the good guys aren't supposed to win, that's the point of the lesson. Then Kirk walks in and says, I won the simulation and Kirstie asks how ?? He says, I redefined the scope of the exercise. She says, well that's cheating, he says no the point was to win, and I found a way and I won, that's not cheating. Kirstie IS NOT convinced.
Off they boldly go where no man has gone.
So, you can fix our illegal immigration program by renaming it to something it isn't.
The government created a problem contrary to their sworn duties, and now they're trying to cover it up with a great big facade.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
I have decided to let the LORD do the talking in this, my final post to you. That way, you can insult HIM and call HIM an inferior intellect because, He disagrees with you, too.....
Please read these verses from Scripture.....
The fear of the LORD is the beginnning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.....Proverbs 1:7
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.....Matthew 23:12 (the words of Jesus)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves......Philippians 3:3
Test me, O LORD and try me, examine my heart and mind; for Your love is ever before me and I walk continually in Your truth.....Psalm 26: 2-3
But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well......Matthew 6: 33
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life......John 3:16
For when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life......Romans 5: 10
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.......Philippians 4:8
It is for this last reason.......thinking on things that are excellent and pure......that I will be pulling back from my involvement in Free Republic for a while (while continuing with my commitments to the Prayer thread and the Dose).
This forum has become a place where despicable Bush-hating comments are commonplace, and the irrational rage, and calls to get him defeated in 2004 are rampant, and where many fine freepers are pulling back because of it, and most of us would never recommend FR to friends because of it.
The vile hatred on the right has become indistinguishable from the vile hatred on the left........and I admire the Mods for their ability to find the trolls. The regulars act the same way.
There are too MANY 'Capitalist Eric's' who are rude and condescending, and too FEW 'skip2myloo's,' who can disagree with class. (IMO, accusing the President repeatedly of treason should get you banned....or locked up?).
This nation is in a fight for its very life. We NEED this Commander in Chief. We NEED his strength in the War on Terror. We NEED his strength in fighting for the right in the culture wars raging in this nation.
And I am going to do everything in my power to work for the betterment of this nation by getting him reelected in November!
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