Posted on 01/15/2004 7:07:05 AM PST by cricket
January 15, 2004 -- PRESIDENT Bush's im- migration/amnesty proposal will probably be remembered in history as the idea that saved a political party. By taking the lead in extending the benefits of legal protections to more than 10 million illegal immigrants now living in the United States, Bush has taken a bold and dramatic step to avert the extinction of his own party.
Until Bush acted, the grinding inevitability of demographic change was likely to doom the GOP to an early death. As America became 1 percent more Hispanic each year, the Republicans could not concede this growing group to the Democrats by 2-1 ratios without risking total annihilation down the road.
The Republicans have got to break the solid demographic phalanx that sustains the Democratic Party: Blacks, Hispanics and single white women. Together, this group cast 25 percent of votes in 1990, 32 percent in 2000 and will account for 40 percent in 2008.
But by embracing the cause of Hispanic immigrants and extending to them elemental civil rights and minimum-wage protections, Bush has struck a blow on their behalf that will resonate in their voting habits for generations to come.
His legislative proposals are akin to the sponsorship of a sweeping civil-rights bill in 1963-65 by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and will have a similar effect in binding Hispanics to the Republicans as the civil-rights legislation did in linking blacks to the Democrats.
For decades, Republicans systematically alienated Hispanics by insisting on English-only initiatives, opposing benefits for illegal immigrants and demanding an end even to free public schools for the children of those who came here illegally. These measures drove Hispanics into the waiting arms of Democrats. Bush has now acted to reverse the legacy of these initiatives and to welcome Hispanics into the GOP.
As Catholic voters, who take their religion seriously, Hispanics are a natural Republican constituency. Recent data that closely links the frequency of church attendance to party-voting habits supports the theory that this very religious voting group is likely to adhere to the Republican Party once its platform stops repelling them at every turn.
Republican efforts to win black voters have proven largely fruitless. Even the appointment of blacks to the two top jobs in the Bush foreign policy apparatus has failed to generate any significant African-American support for Bush in the polls. But candidates who appeal to the Hispanic vote - Gov. Pataki in New York, Gov. Rick Perry in Texas and the Bushes in Florida and Texas - have shown a real ability to get large shares of Hispanic voters.
As Hispanics follow the traditional paths of upward mobility that immigrant groups have trod before them, they are likely to lean more and more toward the Republicans - just as Irish and Italians do these days, abandoning the Democratic orientation of their ancestors.
Hispanics hold the key to the political outcomes in many major states. California, Texas and Florida are heavily influenced by their participation as are New York, New Jersey and Illinois. These are the key battleground states that hold the balance of power between the parties.
Apart from the politics of the issue, the merits also dictate the Bush initiative. America has 4 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of its wealth. It is incumbent on us to open our doors to those who seek upward mobility.
The only thing standing between subsistence and starvation in Mexico, and much of Central America, is the money sent home to needy families by hard working men and women in the United States who tend our gardens, wash our dishes and clean our floors. It is not American workers who they are putting out of jobs, it is American robots. The alternative to their low wage work is not American labor but machines.
The United States needs the skills, energy, savvy and willingness to work hard of our illegal immigrants. They are illegal only because our laws have been nativist and short-sighted. Now Bush is setting them right.
No, that is where you are wrong, it is spinelessness on the right that is the problem.
But if we show strenght by shuting down the (pro-socialist) press in this country, we can start fixing it.
But the problem is that it would take a armed revolution or a military couq to do that.
You want mathematics, most middle class families are living hand-to-mouth cereal dinners because they are paying high taxs that are given to the poor so that they can eat t-bone steaks and potatos for dinner.
We literally can NOT afford to add 8 to 12 million more people officially onto welfare because the hike in taxes would be the final push to send most of middle americans into bankrupcy.
Now we see in this article the unrelenting, unstoppable reality of the mathematics of Hispanics. Illegals don't vote. Repeat. Illegals don't vote.
You obviously don't know a danm thing about motor-voter laws. In some states, a licence to drive is a licence to vote.
P.S. The only reason I can think of for a conservative to vote for Howard Dean is in pure spite to screw-up Hillery Clinton's plan for the White House.
Extinction? Would someone please point out exactly where the GOP is losing overwhelmingly? Have'nt they done well for over 20 years and been the majority party in congress for a decade? Morris is exaggerating again.
Agree. . .have viewed the outcry of many of the Repubs as no more than a 'knee-jerk' response; think your hammer landed right-on !
Hello?
Okay, I missed your first point here. . .thought you were saying that the 'right-wing' was responsible for voting for Nader. . .so . . .'hello' back at myself!
I don't know if he did or not, but since everything else the website cites is true, I'll take their word for it, unless you or another person can prove he or his rep didn't invite Ozzie.
Ozzy Osbourne is set to meet with President George W. Bush informally at the Washington Correspondents Dinner on May 4. The dinner is traditionally attended by the president, members of his cabinet, members of Congress, and members of the Washington D.C. press corps.
A spokesperson for Ozzy told LAUNCH that the rocker hasn't been officially invited to the White House by the president, although he will most likely meet Bush and visit the White House while he's in Washington D.C. for the dinner. He was invited to the event by a member of the press.
The issue is: Does Bush act in a way that is consistent with Christian moral values? I believe that based on the facts of his own words and actions, that the answer is clearly NO. Can you defend his spending, his open borders, his praising a gay church, his appointment of an open homosexual, his abandonment of Taiwan, his refusal to openly support a constitutional amendment for marriage (instead he wants to waste $1.5 billion on a silly pro-marriage campaign)? Can you make a case that Bush is a social conservative?
Enough red herrings. Make a case from a conservative standpont for his open borders and social policies...if you can!
The website says the President invited him- you called them liars - but you don't have enough info to call them liars. Lying requires intent. Please stop the RED HERRINGS. IS BUSH A TRUE SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE OR NOT? yes or no? Address the issue or get lost.
Now you want something else? Look it up yourself! And try a reputable source next time!
If you bothered to read the website (which you obviously didn't! - so much for objectivity!), you would see that the sources are linked! Washington Times, Reuters, etc. ARe they lying?
Address the real issue or get lost.
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