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.
Big spending, big business, open-borders Republicans
What? Stepped up border security does not offset adding 20 million illegals to our country, nor does it pay for the further trashing of Social Security. The claims of the campensinos will only increase, now that there is blood in the water.
" About the worse I've seen at PR. Since Jan 20, 2005 Rove allowed the Rats and the MSM to define the agenda. They allowed a very weak White House Press Secretary to stay on the job too long.
The whole management of the CIA leak case, Katrina, Iraq, Immigration and the Dubai Ports deal PR strategy is/was a disaster."
So true, so sickeningly true . It is unbelievable that the low lifes in the media bested the WH and were able to define the war in Iraq, the WOT, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, the economy, etc. Just unbelievable.
..."AMERICAN CITIZENS were actually unable to find jobs?"...
The key words are "fair compensation", not slave labor wages. If that were done many, many American citizens would apply for those jobs in a heartbeat.
ping
I really appreciate your comments, especially those about lacking savvy and foresight to express differences. It's a very good way of putting it.
The USA is more than a job outlet for unemployed 3rd worlders.
In other words, no matter what Bush does, he is going to tick someone off. I guess that's why he's decided to just do what he thinks is right and not be swayed by polls.
I don't agree with Bush on immigration, but I admire him for being his own man.
Right.. The voteing demographics ARE changeing radiply as we post.. just because of that.. To think that Bush is clueless on this rididulous.. He knows... and IS complicit.. in it..
The poor Bushbots are whisling past the boneyard.. and when it happens, WILL blame someone ELSE.. or some other factor.. A Coup E'Etat is happening democratically.. kinda.. with illegal democrats and legal democrats.. In that sense the WAR(s) could be the diversion that make this possible..
The only question is; did Bush do this ON PURPOSE?..
Forget the Manchurian Candidate, Bush seems to be the Democratic Candidate.. that changed the voting demographics of this country for the foreseeable future.. by the votes of Undocumented Illegal and Documented Legal Insurgents(and their familys to be imported in the future).. The MAJOR threat to America NOT being the terrorists(over there) but the Insurgents(over here).. Fooled the republicans COMPLETELY..
Was it ON PURPOSE(Bush)?... or is he stuck on stupid?..
Be advised, HE IS NOT STUPID... its quite a BRILLIANT Coup D'Etat for the democrats.. The republican party(generally) is now just smarting from the wounds Bush has given it.. Could be deadly wounds too.. maleficiently brilliant..
Most on FR STILL havn't seen/noticed the Coup D'Etat in progress..
Now THATS STRANGE...
And I bet you want them to spend more to hire more border agents and build a wall. :)
It's 20 million now? Every time I see this number, it's different.
Please! Don't be so naive. Jorge has un hermano en el estadio de Florida de Azatlan y mucho familia en Tejas. Many other Bush's are involved or will be involved in electoral politics, based in heavily hispanic states. This is certainly one factor in his equations.
Yeah, I mean it's like an unbelievable whopper for him to now pretend otherwise, isn't it? I mean, cabal is a loaded word. Let's just say he was a vocal proponent of immigration reform. It's not the timing that stinks. It's the proposed legislation. But that's all much ado about nothing. We've still got the House to bail us out.
Poor George; danged if he does, danged if he doesn't.
And I bet you want them to spend more to hire more border agents and build a wall. :)
"...he may have done lasting damage to the Republican party."
PULEEEEZE!!!
I remember after Goldwater lost in a landslide in l964; everyone said the GOP would never recover. It was said that l964 was the demise of the Republican Party.
C'mon Mark; we may suffer some setbacks but it will not be "lasting". Nothing lasts forever.
Well, true, he could have used 9-11/terrorism to justify a flip-flop on immigration if he were so inclined, the way he used it to justify his flip-flop on nation building. But he doesn't seem to want to do that.
Horse - Barn Door - Opps, too late.
I doubt if they will but if the rats retake congress they may solve the immigration problem as follows: They raise taxes through the roof as usual, this will cause the economy to tank and unemployment to rise. Illegals always go home when we are in recession because we don't have extra jobs.
I think the security of the Nation comes before any of his visions for a new "Americas".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.