The GOP is a very different than the Dims on one point - the Dims are not trying to insure their electoral defeat in 15 years due to a massive, Dim-inspired demographic shift. That is a purely Republican brand of idiocy. I honestly believe the Dim leadership just has to be laughing their a$$es off behind closed doors at the prospect of guaranteed, California-style control in the 2020 elections.
I've been calling the Senate monstrosity the "Migration Explosion Act of 2006", perhaps "Permanent Democrat Structural Majority Act" fits as well.
"The GOP is a very different than the Dims on one point - the Dims are not trying to insure their electoral defeat in 15 years due to a massive, Dim-inspired demographic shift. That is a purely Republican brand of idiocy. I honestly believe the Dim leadership just has to be laughing their a$$es off behind closed doors at the prospect of guaranteed, California-style control in the 2020 elections."
Well said.
This legalization, aka amnesty-that-dare-not-admit-what-it-is, is bad public policy. It burdens taxpayers with billions in costs and liabilities; it is an insult to legal immigrants who have played by the rules; it will fail to stem illegal immigration flows but instead, like the failed 1986 amnesty, will make it worse. It is a surrender, not a solution.
Bad policy like that is never good politics, and the GOP RINO wing's pursuit of legalization/amnesty is also political suicide: It splits the GOP down the middle; it delivers a Democrat majority for the next generation made up of the 10 million illegal aliens, low-wage earning welfare and EITC eligible urban voters, that will be citizens in 10 years. Just as the 1986 amnesty made California a solid Democrat state in the mid 1990s, amnesty now means a Democrat majority in the country by 2016.
It's staring us RIGHT IN THE FACE. There is a reason the Democrats are for amnesty or no bill at all ... Screw 'em!
Anyone who stands up and says "it must include legalization/amnesty or nothing at all" is a real opponent of immigration law reform. We can only clean up this mess gradually, but NOT repeating the amnesty/legalization mistake is the first and most important rule to follow in whatever legislation we craft.
We got into this mess because of a failed amnesty in 1986 and 20 years of non-enforcement of immigration law. The only way out of this hole, in terms of both politics and policy, is a gradual, step-at-a-time approach to recover to a position of lawful immigration.
A TRUE compromise would NOT include amnesty/legalization at all, but would secure the border, get employment verification working 100%, and create enough legal avenues for employment-sponsored immigration so we can wean employers off illegal immigrant labor.
Let that be the 'compromise' from the House and Senate - leaving out the third rail of legalizing millions of illegal immigrants - and put it up for a vote in both houses. The only political victory for the GOP can be if we are united, and most conservative Republicans will never support a massive amnesty. Never. So drop it. Quit trying to 'compromise' around a Kennedy bill that gets a 'yes' vote from Schumer and "no" votes from 40 GOP Senators, and get serious about writing legislation that conservatives can rally around.