The Lesson of Uno de Mayo

The American Thinker ^ | May 2nd, 2006 | J.R. Dunn

[Tolik]

Uno De Mayo has come and gone with none of the predicted effects – no drastic plunge in retail sales, no nationwide economic earthquake, the only businesses shut down the ones that agreed to do so beforehand.  But still we’re assured the marchers have “made their point”.     We can probably be excused for thinking that the point would have been made if only three marchers had bothered to show up. This is one of those issues where the media has made up its mind and is going to shove the correct interpretation down the throats of the booboisie no matter what it takes. That being the case, the stories and headlines could have been written a week ago – and possibly were.

Three conclusions can be drawn about the events of  Monday:

- that the campaign has very deep and so far unidentified sources of funds and organization;

- that the usual-suspect Leftist organizations (E.g., International ANSWER) are involved up to their ears;

- that the fight is eminently winnable.

The Left usually does well with issues that remain distant from the daily life of the average voter. Take global warming and related environmental issues – the topic is esoteric, the data opaque, none of it is easily understood without advanced training. So the average citizen feels comfortable repeating even the most outlandish conclusions. Now take a look at something closer to home: Iraq and the war on terror. Many people know someone directly affected either by terror attacks or the war itself. The information is processed on a gut level, involving the most deeply held convictions. As a result, the Left, despite massive efforts, has been unable to push support much lower than an even 50%. The same is true of immigration. There is not a element of daily life that it fails to touch: jobs, the economy, the neighborhood, crime. It matters in the most basic sense, and for that reason is not easily subject to manipulation by opinion elites. 

Virtually every move the crowd and its supporters have made – the flags, the debased anthem (it was actually made by a Brit) and this Peronist general strike – seems designed to antagonize this country’s middle class, which must be persuaded before anything can be accomplished. Do these people ever learn?

So now the line is drawn. A nation has a right to ask three things of immigrants:

- that they obey the law;

- that they learn the language;

- that they respect the citizenry.

We have a large illegal immigrant population in which many feel obligated to fulfill none of these.

No one seriously wishes these people ill, or wants to deny them an opportunity to better themselves, particularly considering the social and economic conditions many of them have fled. But it cannot be denied that guests, particularly uninvited ones, are not in a position to make demands. The sooner we get that straight, the sooner we can move on to a just and fair solution. 

[MarDav]

Yes, I think I heard that! Also, "Demelo! Necesito un medico! Deme tu dinero. No hablo ingles. Cervezas para mis amigos. No trabajando hoy." And as we were reminded in image form further on up the thread, "Green Cards? We don't have no Green Cards. We don't need no steenkeeng Green Cards...We don't have no..."

[hershey]

The smear...you're racist if you oppose open borders, which is yet another euphemism. They're invading, coming here to take over. They won't go home, ever. It's not a two way street. If we let the MSM define the argument, we'll see more doctored TV, where they show only American flags and chants of I love the USA. Then, when the camera's turned off or away, you don't hear the shouts in Spanish, which aren't fit for children's ears, and you don't see those massed Mexican flags. Well, that's the game plan.

[auntyfemenist]

No, the lesson to be learned yesterday was pretty much if you don't help us, we will help ourselves to yours whether you like it or not.

[auntyfemenist]

They don't want what is here, they want it to be just like the country they left, but with more money and jobs.

[tumblindice]

If politics is the art of compromise, what's wrong with arresting and deporting any illegals who were waving Mexican flags? They were obviously coached to wave more American flags, but just couldn't let it go.
It's a good start and they must be `home-sick'. Also, this was May 1st, not Cinco de Mayo, and this is America, not Mexico.

[hershey]

On top of all the horrors you mentioned, think about Mexico. It's being depopulated. Whole villages vacant. One quarter of the population (the ethnic cleansing undesirables, poor folk, some illiterate, mostly unskilled), already in the US, and that's just what they admit to. From a recent Mexican poll, half of everyone left said they'd head north in a heartbeat. And that's their middle class. Not good.

Now widen the view and include Central and South America, then the rest of the world. Anyone unhappy with his lot in life has to think about heading here or Australia or New Zealand. (NZ has already changed their law about anchor babies.)

[Plutarch]

The Left usually does well with issues that remain distant from the daily life of the average voter.

This is good, it needs to be made into Dunn's Law:

The more esoteric the issue, the greater the left's influence.

or...

The Left's success with an issue increases geometrically with that issue's distance from the voter.

[hershey]

Yup. That's it in a nutshell. Just like back home, please, but with butter and jam.

[MarDav]

Makes me wonder. Maybe they were just telling family and friends back home that they arrived safely (Did any of the flags have scribbled notes on them?)

I think they have pride in their nationalities. But doesn't that exactly prove my point. Their land is...well...back there. And here they are. What they want, what they seek after...cannot be found where they are from.

[I'm ALL Right!]

The other lesson we learned yesterday: Our government will willingly allow our tax money to be used to support an activity admittedly aimed at harming the U.S. economy (aka "terrorism") for the sake of political correctness.

Legals stay, illegals should go back. They should have no rights, (other than basic human kindness) if they sneak in.

[MarDav]

Sure, why not. Help yourself. Just close the bag (of money) when you're done. Oh, and turn the light out when you're done, all right?

Thanks to liberalism, this must be what people in other countries EXPECT when they get here.

(We must be some of the stupidest people on the face of the earth...sheeeeeeeeesh)

[devolve]

TO FROBL/LA RAZA/CAIR/ANSWER: (same bunch)

#1 - THEY ARE NOT "IMMIGRANTS"

#2 - THEY ARE CRIMINAL INVADERS!

#3 - ENABLERS ARE COLLABORATORS!

WARNING

YOU WILL ANGER ILLEGALS BY EMAILING THIS POST #

MARXICAN  ILLEGALS

PINKO-DUH-MAYONNAISE

MUSLIM STUDENTS / CAIR MARCHING WITH LA RAZA
AL QAEDA IS IN YOUR FACE IN YOUR CITY NOW
WHILE CALIFORNIA & DC POLITICIANS CHEER THEM



ILLEGAL ALIENS KILLED 10,125 AMERICANS IN 2004
1 EVERY HOUR - 25 DAY - 84 WEEK - 750 MONTH
4,380 MURDERS - 5,745 BY DRUNK DRIVER/KILLERS

WILL YOU BE FLYING ON FLIGHT 94?

[Tolik]

"to reconquer Aztlan and expel the gringo."

I listened to a radio interview of some activists who were open and unabashed about this claim. (I was scanning the radio and can't recall who did that). A few probing questions from an interviewer only highlighted the revolutionary narrow mindedness of these college activists (speaking quite good English btw).

Nobody needs any commentaries after that. They dig the hole for themselves.

[hershey]

Put yourself in the place of an illegal alien. Escaping God knows what, poverty, illiteracy, joblessness, corruption, rampant violence, just wanting a decent life. The American dream. So you get to the US, maybe speak a little English, maybe not. It's natural to hold onto/long for the familar when you feel strange and inferior. Poor self esteem.

They look around, everyone else (gringos), have it easy, it's unfair. A Dutchwoman I knew some years ago emigrated to the US with her husband and children and became a US citizen. I knew her for years and every conversation we ever had began with "In Europe we did things (whatever), our way and it was so much better. We are so much smarter, wiser, blah, blah." She never got over being Dutch. But her kids were Americans. (When I asked why she'd left Holland if it was such a paradise, she admitted there was no room left. In fact, five years after they became US citizens, they went back to Holland on a visit, and their hooligan cousins threw their two daughters into a canal, calling them "Damned American whores!") I suspect this goes on in most families...the assimilation of the kids, if not the parents. Of course, with Mexico, we're talking another culture, language,and so many millions all at once. Assimilation is unlikely. My Dutch friend did learn English.

[Kimberly GG]

that's pretty much what their signage has stated, but unless pressed in interviews, little is admitted and IMO, now that the monster has been set free, they will stop at nothing, even if it take Revolucion to get it. I wonder if our lawmakers know this are that is why they are not willing to try and deport.

[abigailsmybaby]

Study: Most illegal immigrants had jobs

The research, believed to represent the largest-ever study of undocumented migrants, contends that the vast majority of illegal immigrants from Mexico were gainfully employed before they migrated to the United States, and failure to find work in their native Mexico did not seem to be the primary reason for their departure, said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the center and author of the report.
…
In fact, the majority of new migrants will look for work with higher wages in industries such as construction, hotels or sales, said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center.
…
Only 5 percent of the 4,836 migrants surveyed were unemployed in Mexico before moving to the United States - a significantly lower number than in past studies and theories about migrants, Suro said.
…
Ironically, Kochhar added, immigration status (in the United States) has little to do with finding employment. Migrants without identification had the same chance of landing a job as those with valid U.S. IDs

[roverman2K6]

Agreed. like the pali's now its too late.
The extremest have taken control and there is no way back but deportation, or we will have a permanent underclass of looters and bombers. Once the radicals take control they force the rest at gun point.

[texastoo]

Does it take mind-reading to think that they are here {illegally} and not in their homelands {where, according to existing laws is where they belong} for a reason? Does it take mind-reading to assume that those reasons may just have to do with living conditions in their own lands? If they had it so good in their own lands, why would they risk coming to this country {Illegally}, risk breaking the law for a job that {as we've heard ad nauseum}no American would want to do? It must be that what they are leaving is less desirable. That is merely deductive reasoning. Sorry if you can't see that {or hyperbole in my remarks--everything okay?}

Evidently, you subscribe to mind-reading quite well. However, I didn't hear any of this:

"{America, help us." Didn't hearit.

"Our own countries stink" Didn't hear

"They are rotten!" Didn't hear.

"They are full of lousy government!" Didn't hear.

"They are full of hopeless conditions!" Didn't hear.

"They are places with no futures!"Didn't hear.

"Our own countries don't have enough food to feed us, jobs to occupy us,l hospitals to take care of us, schools to educate us."Didn't hear any of this.

"They are cesspools reeking from wasted lives because those lives lack opportunity!" Didn't hear .

Help us America!Help us! Our own leaders, our own lands, our own homes are not worth trusting, are not waorth staying on, are not worth living in. Please help us".

I did not hear any of this. As a matter of fact, you might think about visiting Mexico as you don't know what you are talking about. I have lived on the border for the last 20 years and have never seen a starving Mexican. They like the USA because of all the freebies they get. They cross to have their babies here so they can get free health care and then go back home with WIC, FOOD STAMPS. They love American welfare. They pass by their own hospitals to come to American hospitals (FREE). Mexicans have always had a high drop-out rate in schools. Nothing new here.

[abigailsmybaby]

You bet where they came from had less to offer. Not only do they have a job here they also get welfare checks, food stamps, subsidized housing, free or reduced (in some states) education expenses because of the color of their skin, free medical care. Need I go on?

[potlatch]