Immigration and the GOP Is it still the party of Reagan, or of Tom Tancredo?

Wall Street Journal ^ | 3/31/2006 | Review and OUtlook

[pageonetoo]

As Congress battles over immigration, the consequences are likely to be far greater than the details of border walls or green cards. The most important political outcome may turn out to be the message that Republicans send about the kind of the party they are and hope to be.

To wit, do Republicans want to continue in the Reagan tradition of American optimism and faith in assimilation that sends a message of inclusiveness to all races? Or will they take another one of their historical detours into a cramped, exclusionary policy that tells millions of new immigrants, and especially Hispanics, that they belong somewhere else?...

...The immediate danger is that Republicans will ignore their longer-term interests by passing a punitive, and poll-driven, anti-immigration bill this election year. Any bill that merely harasses immigrants and employers, and stacks more cops on the border, may win cheers in the right-wing blogosphere. However, it will do nothing to address the economic incentives that will continue to exist for poor migrants to come to America to feed their families. And it will make permanent enemies of millions of Hispanics, without doing anything to draw illegals out of the shadows and help them assimilate into the mainstream of American culture and citizenship.

This is not Ronald Reagan's view of America as a "shining city on a hill." It is the chauvinist conservatism usually associated with the European right. How Republicans conduct and conclude their immigration debate will show the country which kind of "conservative" party they want to be.

[pageonetoo]

View from the Right

Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004

We learned of the death of Ronald Reagan yesterday in an unusual and touching way: at the seventh inning stretch at Yankee Stadium. The announcer asked everyone to stand up, and then told us of the passing of Reagan. A large photo of him was displayed at the billboard, and, after a moment of silence, a recording of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" was played.

This is a sad day for America. While I wouldn't say that Reagan had the stature to be called a great man, I believe he had true greatness. And a mark of his greatness was, he saw things and possibilities that other people did not see, and he led the world toward those possibilities. Unlike his supposed intellectual superiors, who thought the best we could do was adjust to Soviet Communism in an ever darkening world, Reagan, to his everlasting credit, never accepted détente. Because of his grasp of truth and principle, he knew that Communism was evil and, for that reason, unsustainable. He saw that if the Communist system was resisted and challenged instead of coddled and compromised with, it would collapse from its own falsities. He saw this, and he made it happen. He discredited not only Communism, but statism itself, and so helped give the world a new birth of freedom--direct freedom from Communism for hundreds of millions of people, and, in the West, abandonment of the faith in the softer forms of socialism as well. He pursued his goals with staunch determination and unfailing good cheer, despite the hate and contempt of much of the world. He was thus an enduring example of true leadership as well as the most important political figure in the second half of the twentieth century. Perhaps he was a great man, after all.

In seeing that the ascendancy of leftism is not inevitable, in seeing that leftism, despite all appearances to the contrary, can be not only delayed or contained but turned back and defeated, Reagan offers the greatest model of hope to us today as we look at an America and a Western world that, under the control of a seemingly unstoppable liberalism, is rapidly committing moral and cultural suicide.

Reagan's greatest failure, and it was the flaw of his virtues, was his uncritical embrace of open immigration as the symbol and proof of America's worth. In upholding American freedom as contrasted with Soviet tyranny, he advanced the neoconservative project of changing America from a specific historical country into the incarnation and agent of a universal ideology--an ideology of radical freedom that now threatens the very existence of our culture, our nation, and our civilization. He was not a neoconservative per se, because, unlike the neoconservatives, he loved America as a nation and not just as a set of abstract principles. But he was a neoconservative in significant part, and we are paying the cost of that today. And so, as is so often the case in history, the good brings the bad, the bad brings the good.

I don't consider him a failure. He is a hero...

[Luis Gonzalez]

Those are excuses, and pretty weak ones at that.

We don't work 24-7.

We don't care enough to take action.

[conservativecorner]

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Do you see any assimilation in this photo?"

All the signs are in English.

Not bad for a bunch of people who "refuse" to learn the language.

[JCEccles]

This is not Ronald Reagan's view of America as a "shining city on a hill." It is the chauvinist conservatism usually associated with the European right.

This is first and foremost Mexico's problem--not ours. I don't recall Reagan saying to the corrupt Mexican gvernment, "You're off the hook. The American taxpayer will take care of your people so you don't have to."

[chris1]

People by are large view their actions as futile since no matter what we do, it gets overturned. Remember Prop 187?

Plus, most people also know that these disgusting politicians are going to do whatever they want anyway and just call us vigilantes and racists if we speak up.

[SmoothTalker]

"Or will they take another one of their historical detours into a cramped, exclusionary policy that tells millions of new immigrants, and especially Hispanics, that they belong somewhere else?..."

What a load of crap. This isn't about immigrants. It is about ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. A huge difference. Maybe it doesn't bother the country club republicans who sit on the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal but it sure as hell bothers me that i'm having to fund schools, prison, and social services for people who aren't US citizens and who don't respect the laws of this country. They want people like me to continue to subsidize the cost of their cheap labor but i'm sick of it and i'm sick of a wave of immigrants who have no interest in becoming American and learning our customs and the English languague. I'm angry as hell about watching the American flag flown upside down and armies of young people waving Mexican flags in our streets.

[EternalVigilance]

And of a border doesn't exist if someone sneaks across it. Just like a stop sign isn't there when I run one. Correct?

Do try and be coherent.

[pageonetoo]

...If that holds true, then I must also reason that Americans support illegal aliens on our soil as evidenced by our inability to stage massive protests condemning illegal immigration.

Your reasoning is flawed. It is difficult to stage a protest, when you are working to feed your family. It is difficult to gather conservatives "en masse" for just about anything.

When sKerry was running against W, I went down to a rally by the Capital where the Swiftboat guys were presenting their anti-Kerry message. I was appalled at the lack of large crowds. But, W managed to overcome sKerry, I believe, largely, with their help.

Conservatives aren't normally considered to be rabble rousers. They vote, and spend political dollars. The Senators better remember that most, rather than a bunch of communists in the streets!

This face has been proudly displayed this week!

[SmoothTalker]

" I may not vote democrat ever, but not voting at all is a serious consideration, or maybe just voting at the local level and for my Congressman."

You aren't the only person thinking this. Their will be a price at the polls for Representives that sell America's interests down the river. Honestly I often times wish that we had a viable opposition party in this country. A moderate party that offered a reasonable alternative instead of the anti-american moonbat Dems. If the Republican party had to actually worry about losing races, I doubt you'd see them ignore and spit in the face of the base so often. They'd be a lot more responsive to us and a lot less responsive to the country club elites.

[JCEccles]

Your photo: a radical third-world socialist mob marching through the "shining city on the hill" announcing their intention to take over.

Many in the mob are here because Reagan, in one of the big mistakes of his presidency, grinned and said, "Come on in. I can't see what harm you can do."

[SmoothTalker]

"The WSJ speaks for people who can reap the profits of cheap labor but wall themselves off from the consequences that the rest of us have to bear. "

A very astute point.

[dennisw]

To purposefully muddy the waters between legal and illegal is frankly a cowards way of framing his losing argument.

Notice how all the skunks in Washington DC do this. Even GWBush has no shame in getting on TV and calling these illegal aliens, simply "immigrants". If they were legitimate (legal) immigrants we wouldn't be having this fight. The reason for these rotten bills is precisely because we have 12-22 million ILLEGAL ALIEN IMMIGRANTS! Not because we have 12-22 million "immigrants"

Both parties use this terminology with some laudable exceptions such as Tom Tancredo and few other Republican Congressman

[Wurlitzer]

"If that holds true, then I must also reason that Americans support illegal aliens on our soil as evidenced by our inability to stage massive protests condemning illegal immigration."

False reasoning Luis. The majority of Americans who would like to see our laws enforced are too busy trying to earn a living and paying taxes to support those in the "entitlement" boat.

The trespassers seem to have a lot of free time on their hands. I guess they are not that worried about paying for health care, education, roads, police protection etc as they know the rest of us will pick up the slack.

Seems we have strict laws for Europeans and very lax laws for others who can touch down with dry feet.

If we don't want to label these 11 or so million as criminal trespassers then remove the laws from the books otherwise those of us who believe in a legal method to enter this country will only have disdain for criminal trespassers.

[LibLieSlayer]

Paul, one cannot let FACTS get in the way of a temper tantrum rave!

LLS

[UNflagburner]

of=of course
According to you a border doesn't exist because someone illegally crossed it; and we've lost our sovereignty as a result. So my question is, if I run a stop sign, then does that mean it doesn't exist either? Oh and do you need me to stick to two syllable words from now on?

[Wurlitzer]

Not bad for a bunch of people who "refuse" to learn the language."

Try using English in Miami or southern CA. I saw more Mexican flags then signs in English.

[Mini-14]

The Wall Street Journal probably has racist managers who only hire legal Americans. I think it's time for them to step up to the plate in the name of tolerance and diversity, and hire some illegal Mexicans to write editorials at the rate of $3.00 an hour.