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What's going to hurt Republicans most of all is that the party will be defined by pseudo-Nazi rhetoric and "normal" voters -- middle-of-the-road voters who make the difference -- will vote for the 'Rats. |
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.
Mark Levin is wrong about this just as he was wrong on the ports issue. That is why he has lost me as a listener.
Rove and Bush did not force a confrontation on immigration...you can thank Savage, Levin, Gallagher, and a ton of other conservative talking heads for this confrontation.
As for the other Republicans, it is the responsibility of each representative to make his own views known, and represent his constituents. Many Republicans in the house arrived on GWB's coattails to start with. Remember 2000,2002, and 2004?
It is certainly premature to be screaming about the damage to Republicans until we at have a final bill.
Exactly correct, they did not implement the enforcement part of the 86 amnesty, no reason to believe the open borders crowd is ever going to take enforcement seriously.
*****No comment*****
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What's going to hurt Republicans most of all is that the party will be defined by pseudo-Nazi rhetoric and "normal" voters -- middle-of-the-road voters who make the difference -- will vote for the 'Rats. |
Anyway, we need to start deportations because of the huge numbers of illegal aliens in this country - an invasion.
Republicans are being turned off here by the thousands by Bush's stand and by the weakness of congress and illegals will be voting like crazy. They were being signed up at the rallies, they were openly chanting they would vote and they will. All it takes is a drivers license (purchase on any street corner for $100) or a utility bill and you're all set. Don't kid youself, the GOP is well on their way to losing AZ for good. Why do you think McCain is sucking up to them?
All they would have to do is to start deporting the felons, and then only deport people as they run across them (driving irratically or drunk, turned in at their employment, just a few at a time). If they made it known that voting in an election before you become a citizen would disqualify you from EVER getting citizenship, that might make a difference.
I've never heard Levin pander to an audience simply for ratings ... he speaks his mind, based on reason and the law.
Have fun being completely political irrelevant. For all yourself laudatory supposed adulation for Ronald Reagan, funny how not of you screamer know anything at ALL about the Real Reagan. Regan understood how to use incremental ism, all you people know how to do is cry because you don't only get 100% of what you want right NOW.
Curious "Reagan man" how come all you perpetual bitchers never ever, even for a heart beat, bother to think about Reagan's 11th Commandment?
You people are no Reagan men. He knew how to win, you all just know how to bitch about EVERYTHING.
Bush isn't running. As for Congress, I think ppl vote on their race, not on the collective. If I am satisfied with my guy, I vote for him, even if the other 99 don't thrill me. I can't believe someone is arguing that it's a bad thing to get politicians on the record before an election. That's absurd.
and illegals will be voting like crazy.
This has nothing to do with this fall's election. I mean, the policy being debated, even if enacted before the election, wouldn't impact the number of illegal voters in AZ, would it? Anyway, I still don't get how this hurts to do it now.
I don't see how tripling or quadrupling migration to this country is 60% of anything. It's a huge step in the wrong direction, not a small step in the right direction.
I'd give it a -300 to -400 percent.
You did it again. You highjacked this thread. You're "on the list" buster!
"Take it one step further...there will be a downturn....alot of unemployed people,and a lot of[unemployed]illegal immigrants."I agree.Economic downturns are cyclical.We've been in an unprecedented period of growth and prosperity(contrary to what the dims say),and it's just a matter of time before what u predict happens.Just think of the impact on(already stressed) state and local governments when the newly unemployed begin drawing benefits.What will happen when formerly employed citizens begin competing with illegals for available jobs?
Bingo! No one I know can argue with your assessment.
Why do I get the feeling this has more to do about McPain in 08 then it does about Bush?
Bingo! No one I know can argue with your assessment.
Gee for all the screaming about being the "Base" the "Real Conservatives" managed to move President Bush's number from 45% to 35%. Seems they are NOT a signinficat force in American politics at all.
I think the ultimate source of that hype is the DNC talking points, amplified by the mainstream media, and now accepted far and wide, even by the right. Rove (like Cheney) is the evil genius, masterminding the simpleton Bush.
Curious "Reagan man" how come all you perpetual bitchers never ever, even for a heart beat, bother to think about Reagan's 11th Commandment?
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