Posted on 05/22/2006 7:06:35 AM PDT by wcdukenfield
05/21 07:44 PM According to today's Washington Post:
Hispanic voters, many of whom responded favorably to President Bush's campaign appeals emphasizing patriotism, family and religious values in Spanish-language media in 2004, are turning away from the administration on immigration and a host of other issues, according to a new survey.
At the same time, separate polls show that conservative white Republicans are the voting group most hostile to the administration's support for policies that would move toward the legalization of many undocumented immigrants.
More here .
For all the talk about Karl Rove's brilliance, it was a blunder of monumental proportions to force a confrontation on illegal immigration now—a relative few months before the midterm elections—in a way that enrages both the conservative base and a liberal constituency against Republicans. The president has endangered scores of Republicans, some of whom are excellent public servants. And depending on how this turns out legislatively, he may have done lasting damage to the Republican party.
But Rove and Bush are not alone. John McCain has spent a decade undermining the GOP and thumbing his nose at the conservative base. The McCain-Feingold bill had as one of its primary purposes the weakening of the party structure, which was never of much use to McCain especially after the party rejected his presidential run in 2000. On issue after issue, McCain has led the so-called Senate moderates to undermine and ambush the Senate's thin Republican majority and even thinner conservative plurality, positioning himself as some kind of independent and progressive. He uses the media to draw attention to himself, and the media use him to highlight his anti-conservatism. And here he is again, pushing the most radical transformation of our society in recent history.
The Senate Republicans have never figured out how to put McCain in box. And so their ranks are splintering even more. We now get lectures from the likes of Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham, who in past Senate's would have been rightly seen as light-weights. Arlen Specter humiliated himself among his conservative colleagues to persuade them to support his ascendancy to head of the Judiciary Committee. He uses that post to trash the president's commander-in-chief powers. In 2004, Lincoln Chafee announced that he wouldn't be voting for the president, and he votes repeatedly with the Democrat minority. If Rove and Bush hadn't supported Specter in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, conservative Pat Toomey may well be filling the seat. Today, Bush's RNC is backing Chafee in the Republican primary in Rhode Island against Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, a conservative. And there are others.
So now the Republican president and the Republican Senate are cobbling together an illegal-immigration bill that will badly damage both the Republican party and the country. The bill would make permanent so-called temporary guest-workers as they wouldn't have to return home (so much for going to the back of some imagined line); it would expand greatly the number of legal aliens invited to come to our country by tens of millions (apparently there's no end to the number of jobs Americans won't do); it would legalize virtually all of the 11 million illegal aliens currently in our country (the number is probably much greater); it would apply Davis-Bacon union wage requirements on jobs performed by so-called temporary workers (so much for cheap labor and cheap lettuce); it would confer Social Security benefits on immigrants for the period of time they were working using stolen or fake Social Security numbers (but it's not amnesty, they tell us); and it wouldn't recognize English as the nation's official language (so much for promised assimilation). And, of course, the same federal politicians and bureaucracy that won't and/or can't enforce the current law assure us that they'll manage and enforce a far more complicated, multi-tier, multi-level system involving far more people.
Meanwhile, we're supposed to accept all of this and more in exchange for what is essentially a sound-bite about using a few thousand National Guardsmen on the border—who are not going to be doing border enforcement. A 370-mile fence will supposedly be built, leaving about 85% of the southern border without a physical fence. But there will be sensors and gliders that will presumably get an accurate count of the number of illegal aliens crossing our border since there won't be enough physical barriers to stop them or border agents to apprehend them.
And the primary culprit in all of this—the Mexican government—will continue to insist that America isn't doing enough and America is not a friendly neighbor. It will continue to send its lawyers into our courtrooms to challenge any effort to stem the mass exportation of Mexico's poor to our country. And why not? Let Americans pay for the public services Mexico refuses to confer on its own people. And the illegal aliens in the U.S. send billions of dollars back to Mexico, which helps prop-up its socialist economy. Besides, so much of the United States really belongs to Mexico, doesn't it? But for American imperialism under the presidency of James Polk, we'd all be speaking Spanish now. The Mexican government is playing a nasty game with its people, and our government is complicit. There’s nothing compassionate or humane about our government’s timidity in dealing with Mexico’s ruling class.
So, what motivates Rove and Bush? It can't be politics, can it? Surely they don't honestly believe that securing 40% of the votes of a growing ethnic minority is a path to continued majority status? And surely they're aware that despite Ronald Reagan granting amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal aliens, that wasn't enough to ensure the political allegiance of a majority of Hispanic voters. In recent decades, Republicans have had a difficult time figuring out how to convince minorities to support them. Apparently Rove and Bush, not to mention McCain, et al, have decided the best approach is to parrot liberals. Therefore, they support making that which is illegal legal, pretend to care about border security, and are spreading around benefits and entitlements.
Yes, we’re a nation of immigrants, like every other nation. But our government has never acted so irresponsibly. In the past, our country decided what kind of immigrants it needed and wanted. Today, illegal immigrants and foreign nations bring pressure on our politicians because they know it will respond favorably to their demands. America’s political class has never been so frivolous about U.S. citizenship and sovereignty, and so contemptible of the will of the American people. This is why the Republican majority will likely pay a severe price in November, even though conservatives like Jeff Sessions and Jim Sensenbrenner, among many others, are fighting the good fight and trying to save the day, while liberals get a free ride.
The first indication of this that I saw was an interesting news report within the last few months about a mayor in suburban Long Island, New York, who was instituting a "severe crackdown" on illegal aliens at the behest of the overwhelming outpouring of concern by the people in his town.
I tuned in to the report, very interested as I was to see what this "severe crackdown" would entail. They started with a bunch of interviews of local residents who were "outraged" and "finally had enough" with all of the illegal aliens in the town. They all said the mayor and police had to "do something about it."
As it turns out, the "severe crackdown" was just a matter of preventing the local pool of day laborers from hanging around in front of the local convenience store and the train station waiting to be picked up for work. No arrests on immigration charges, no threats of deportation, etc. In fact, the vast majority of these "outraged" people were perfectly comfortable with the idea that landscapers and contractors were hiring illegal immigrants to work all over the town -- and many of these "outraged" people were adamantly opposed to any suggestion that homeowners and/or private employers should be prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens and paying them cash for their work.
In other words, these "outraged" people really didn't give a sh!t at all about the illegal immigrants at all. They just didn't want them hanging around in plain sight where people driving through the town from other places could see them. So the "severe crackdown" involved nothing more than the enforcement of anti-loitering statutes that had been on the books for a hundred years. And these illegal immigrants still work in this town just as they always did . . . they just hang around in front of the convenience store and the train station in the NEXT town waiting to get picked up.
I keep posing this question, so I'll ask it again: if, in 2006, the debate is about amnesty/citizenship, rather than about expulsion/deportation, where will the line be drawn 20 years from now?
Aside from the Civil War, this country is entering its greatest period of, as the Chinese proverb alludes, 'interesting times'. WWII, WWIII (Cold War) & WWIV (WoT), while seemingly representing grave threats at the time, have nothing on illegal immigration as to the potential impact on the country itself.
And it ain't even a world-war; it's just a repeat of history as all civilizations have fallen from within.
I don't want to believe it but Occams Razor demands it or part of it is true..
Multi-millions of brand new democrats(Illegal and legal aliens, they are NOT Cubans) will do WHAT to the voting demographics?.. send them to right politically?..
ALL bogarded by the White RINO House.. with almost universal democrat support and some republicans.. Only ONE thing democrats and the White RINO House agree on is a wide open Mexican Border.. Sure he was dragged kicking a screaming to the speech last week..
Multi millions of VOTING Illegal and Legal aliens(Insurgents) will do exactly what to the voteing demographics?.. Answer that question and the "trick gambit" gets more obvious.. Coup D'Etat is what exactly it will be.. 85% of Americans(some polls) are against it.. BOTH PARTYS..
Brilliant really.. Bush has enacted(signed) legislation NO democrat could have possibly got thru a Republican Congress.. Brilliant.. I say.. maleficent but brilliant..
Bush is not crazy OR stupid it is ON PURPOSE.. unless Bush is merely a craven coward.. same result..
Probably, they won't be illegal by then, and what's the problem? They will qualify for all sorts of govt assistance.
susie
Actually, perhaps all this *talk* will get us a better bill.
susie
He would have to have a HUGH number of Republican Congresscritters that are ALSO wanting to go along with a Coup...giving DEMOCRATS power...
Now, does that make sense to you???
Do you know how many Republicans, especially in the Senate want LESS restrictions on the illegals than President Bush does??? A LOT..that is the answer....
I think your Occam's Razor is dull...
Whether that's so is another discussion altogether. The fact remains, they are taxpayer funded in the here and now.
Re your post #101 -- are you saying Americans don't care if illegals are here or not, as long as they aren't "seen"? If so, you'd think the idea of camps a la WWII would have more traction politically. Surely some talented pol (or speechwriter) could come up with a P.C. way to make it palatable.
What you don't get is that many of us feel pretty politically irrelevant now. Oh, and isn't it time you got some new talking points?
susie
Well, if your assessment is correct, what he doesn't seem to understand is that the Latino vote is not the same across the board. My legal immigrant Latino friends are at least as conservative as I am and don't appear to feel much connecction to the illegals pouring across our borders. So, he must believe he will get the illegal immigrants who will soon be American citizens (thanks to the Republican party, thank you) as republican voters (which I very much doubt). I can't see how much sense THAT makes, since the demographic would appear to be a democrat voting base.
susie
No, it's not. Upholding and maintaining poor policy decisions by pretending that they are good idea as long as they only accommodate American citizens is a delusional approach to the issue. Americans are quickly learning -- albeit in an indirect, roundabout way -- that deluding themselves into believing they can live beyond their means in perpetuity is going to come with some serious costs.
An excellent point. Thank you.
susie
Rush was eloquent about this today.
An excellent point. Thank you.
susie
If there ever was an excellent tagline, that is it!
susie
There is spending the feds are SUPPOSED to do, and spending they aren't. Spending on border security would come under the heading of SUPPOSED to.
susie
Actually, most wouldn't have seen it as a flip flop, but rather as an epiphany.
susie
Some believe there's a conspiracy of 2004 sign-ups (SU), seminar posters (SP), Democratic operatives (DO), paid opinion shapers (POS), and general run-of-the-mill minions of Hillary (MH) that are whipping up emotions against illegal aliens.
While I dismiss that notion, Johnnie does warrant further attention as a mole for the those opposing the rule-of-law. Imagine if there WAS a poster like him that was anti-illegal; he can't be real, can he?
You make a valid point, however things are as they are, and unless and until that is changed, it is part of the debate. Not the the sum total, but it figures in. (I happen to believe that if there were no taxpayer funded services there would be millions upon millions fewer illegal aliens here today, and most people wouldn't care much about those who were here.)
susie
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