Tony Snow lives in a dream world when it comes to illegal (that dirty little word that Tony and all the limousine Republicans are reluctant to use) immigration.
Tony's single focus on the issue, hidden in all his detritus on these current immigrants being wonderful people who are just like our forebearers, is that these ILLEGAL aliens will become Republican voters and guarantee electoral success for generations to come. Votes trump all else. In this he differs in no way from the Democrats, who stand for nothing except getting votes to get in power.
For Tony, it's all politics - legality is a minor nuisance. Camouflage the unpleasant aspects of illegal actions in an Emma Lazuras poem and it will all feel good. Ironically, Snow limits his accolades to the hispanic illegals - what about the Sudanese, Nigerian and Bangladeshi that would love to come here - not reliable Republican votes?
Snow will weakly try to back it up with highly selective extracts from pro-illegal exploiters like the Chamber of Commerce and the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, and conveniently ignore any facts to the contrary. For example, you will not hear him mention today's contrarian column in the WSJ by George Borjas that proves illegal immigration is depressing wages on all income groups of Americans, most especially those in the lower income brackets. Nor will he mention the other fact revealed in that column, that illegal immigration is resulting in a transfer of wealth from working class Americans to high income employers and corporations by increased margins of profit due to lower illegal worker wages.
Tony is not even consistent in his defense of illegal immigration. On yesterday's show, he smugly told us "neo Know-Nothings" (I guess that's even worse than some of his other appelations used on us, like "nativists") that we might be surprised that less than half the illegal immigrants are Mexican, while in his March 31 column (http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/tonysnow/2006/03/31/192005.html) he states "the vast majority of whom hail from Mexico". What is it Tony?! And in the same column he tells us ignoranti "shouldn't we at least spend a little time trying to get our facts straight?" Right, Tony.
Like so many in the inside-the-Beltway crowd, Tony thinks those of us outside his circle are uneducated boobs who couldn't possibly know as much as they. It is this closed mindset that results in Republican Senators congratulating themselves on their amnesty program when the overwhelming majority of voters have already weighed in with a resounding "NO!".
Yesterday, Tony did his best to put down those who disagree with him, countering with false premise arguments like "do you want to send back the products of their labor?". Every argument Tony makes on illegal workers was used by his ruling elite predecessors in the era of child labor and slavery - they do the menial jobs we won't; our economy would suffer without them.
Tony is reluctant to do any real debate on this issue. His invitees are like minded insiders. Too bad. He might actually learn something besides the pap he gets from his buddies at the think tanks.
Do you listen to the same show I do?? Tony is one of the few "talking heads" who DO "listen to their listeners". He is NOT surrounded by those who hang on his every word and agree with all he says. He does, however, give people every opportunity to give him their thoughts, and is respectful in doing so.........a way of doing things you might want to emulate. More is accomplished when we respectfully disagree, and actually try to listen to the other side. Might even learn something.........
Don't listen much to Tony's show, huh?