I'm just sorry to see all this happening. What is happening here is a pure reflection of what's happening on the center-right to right all over the nation.
I'm in Nashville and I know 100s of rightists from all strata and I know none who want this Mexican (or any other) wave to continue. They want closed borders and limited immigration and designed for those fleeing persecution who are our allies or those who can contribute most....not wave after wave of purely economic migrants.
That is my reality. Folks here who want open or fairly open borders are far and few between amongst my peer group.
And this notion that we can't deport illegals is nonsense. Even in Denmark and Holland, they are deporting resident aliens and their families who commit crimes. If those social engineers can do it, then we can sure deport illgegals for starters.
I would like to know precisely how this forum splits on these issues.
Joe Hadenuf...whom I liked much more often than not....was open against electing W and that never endeared him to the power here. But there are many like myself who did a whole lot (I have proof as threads on this very forum) to get W elected and I have earned the right to disagree with W on La Migra issues or the Education bill or CFR or the Free Drugs bill etc.
However, JR may arbitrarily ban anyone he wants here. Anyone questions that is Quixotic.
PS: I only addressed the cultural implications....forget national security which looms even larger.
I watched a lot of the supposed "immigration" battles on FR last year, and the beginning of the purges, if that's what they can be called. The gripes and complaints about Bush's policy began about a year ago, early 2004, just as the presidential campaign was heating up. My observation was that the most egregious comments and opposition to Bush had little to do with his immigration policy. Oh, sure, the heavy-handed Bush-bashers used immigration as an issue to hammer Bush with, but by the tone of their remarks, and their underlying effort, their goal was to undercut Bush in general among conservatives through their incessant naysaying on FreeRepublic. Jim stepped in (which I think we have to admit is an exceedingly rare occurance), and 1) stated the FreeRepublic's management's support for Pres. Bush's re-election, and 2) started banning those whose agenda wasn't simply to oppose Bush's immigration policy, but whose larger intent was to undermine Bush's chances of re-election. At the time, I personally applauded Jim's two-pronged effort to silence those whose main goals were the defeat of GWB and to foment conservative opposition to Bush through the vehicle of FreeRepublic.
As I stated in an earlier post on this thread, my observation over the past year has been that those who have been banned from FR were purged not so much for their position on the single issue of immigration, but because they were jerks whose rabid dissent of Bush in general was causing turmoil on FR.