Yes. But what the U.S. is undergoing is an illegal invasion, not "immigration".
Bush is lying through his teeth on this issue, and he knows it. More importantly, we know it as well.
Posted on 06/04/2007 6:14:33 AM PDT by theothercheek
In an interview aboard Air Force One last week with Ron Hutcheson of McClatchy Newspapers, President Bush said:
"I'm deeply concerned about America losing its soul. Immigration has been the lifeblood of a lot of our country's history. And I am worried that a backlash to newcomers would cause our country to lose its great capacity to assimilate newcomers. And I believe that a newly arrived adds to the vigor and the entrepreneurial spirit, and enhances the American Dream."
These sentiments, coupled with Bush’s suggestion that opponents of his compromised immigration compromise "don't want to do what's right for America," are driving conservatives to apoplexy. The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan contends that Bush broke faith with conservatives, not the other way around:
Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place. …
You don't like endless gushing spending … Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.
But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."
Noonan makes the case that it’s déjà vu all over again:
[T]he Bushes, father and son … are great wasters of political inheritance. They throw it away as if they'd earned it and could do with it what they liked. Bush senior inherited a vibrant country and a party at peace with itself. … Mr. Bush won in 1988 by saying he would govern as Reagan had. … [H]e raised taxes, sundered a hard-won coalition, and found himself shocked to lose his party the presidency, and for eight long and consequential years. ….
Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. …
There’s only one thing conservatives and Republicans can do now, says Noonan: “[W]in back their party.” She adds that “breaking from those who have already broken from [you]” and “letting go … will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.”
The question is, how?
Deep down – maybe not so deep down – conservatives always knew Bush was a pretender, mouthing the right words and making the right gestures. But conservatives voted for him anyway, the first time to pre-empt a third Clinton term and the second time because the thought of Kerry as a post-9/11 Commander in Chief was nightmare-inducing.
This was a shot-gun wedding and after eight years of Bush, conservatives are understandably gun-shy. But holding out for an imaginary ideal of ideological purity is not the answer. And allowing Hillary Clinton to capture the White House by staying home on Election Day is not an option.
There may be a third way: A new conservative coalition that crosses party lines to include anyone who considers himself center-right. Such a coalition could as easily support a conservative Republican as a “Blue Dog” Democrat. Since neither party would be able to count on the bipartisan bloc’s vote, both will court these voters and neither will take them for granted. As an added benefit, the sheer size of this bipartisan bloc may be an equal and opposing force against the inexorable leftward pull the moonbats are exerting on the Dem party platform.
Of the 19 declared presidential candidates as of this writing, Rudy Giuliani is the most logical choice to forge this new coalition of conservatives. He is enough of a social liberal to attract Reagan Democrats, and tough enough on crime and terrorism – with the added bonus of being fiscally conservative – to attract conservatives who are putting social issue on the back burner this time around.
Over the next 18 months, several home-grown Muslim terror plots are likely to come to light - such as the thwarted plan to blow up aviation fuel tanks and feeder lines running underground from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport through surrounding residential neighborhoods in Queens. Each time, more social conservatives will conclude that preventing the aborting of the lives of those already born in acts of terrorism is at least as important as preventing the aborting of unborn babies.
“would cause our country to lose its great capacity to assimilate newcomers.”
We lost our ability to assimilate newcomers when we lost control over our border.
I fear that Peggy Noonan has better worry about her own soul.
Yes. But what the U.S. is undergoing is an illegal invasion, not "immigration".
Bush is lying through his teeth on this issue, and he knows it. More importantly, we know it as well.
well it looks my souls has to learn Spanish very well
El Presidente Bush waves GOODBYE to America's health and his base in the GOP.
We're not assimilating them. They are an alien presence.
Of the 19 declared presidential candidates as of this writing, Rudy Giuliani is the most logical choice to forge this new coalition of conservatives.
Let's see: pro-abortion, pro-deviancy, anti-rkba, ..., now there's someting we can all rally around.
Is she living in the future?
This was a great article. Till it turned into a rah-rah propaganda piece for Rootie.
Exactly right. We can see how well assimilation is going in southern California and Arizona. It is an invasion that is changing the face of the public school systems for the worse, taxes health care systems to the breaking point and forcing citizens to bear an increasing local tax burden. Those who can not see the problem aren’t fit to be leaders. I propose we deport the President and Kennedy to Mexico. Cheney running the show would have to be better.
It is highly troubling that G.W. Bush refuses to distinguish legal immigration from illegal immigration.
I won’t vote for someone who thinks it is okay to kill babies and I won’t vote for a homosexual marriage/union/partner supporter, an ENDA supporter, or Hate Crimes Bill supporter. I won’t vote for someone who won’t stand up and try to stop the gov’t from promoting deviancy and perversity to children, either.
Turning that into another "Rudy will save us" screed? No thanks
This article’s ending makes no sense. Conservatives need to take back the GOP...so we need to do it by voting for the LEAST conservative Republican presidential candidate?
And if he thinks Giuliani could make up for stripping the GOP’s right wing by appealing to the Blue Dogs, he’s crazy. Pelosi Galore has very firm control over the Rats despite her wackjob-left leanings. Look at Heath Shuler from NC for an example. He ran as a conservative, and beat a Republican incumbent in a largely conservative district (Asheville excepted), and he’s rarely broken with the Democratic leadership on even the most liberal bills. The Rats have ALWAYS been better at party discipline and keeping the Congresscritters in line than the GOP has been.
}:-)4
The problem as I see it is the decision makers at RNC headquarters spend way to much time thinking about Hillary Clinton.
She’s not electable nationwide.
He seems to think that America is a financial state of being.
Presidential Oath, Revised Version
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, but only insofar as the interests of my political friends and large campaign donors, foreign and domestic, are well-served.”
Beelzebubba Clinton, 1992, 1996
Jorge Bustamante Boosh, 2000, 2004
President Bush, if you feel for the soul of this nation...why not secure our borders, build a wall and PROTECT the very souls of this nation you feel for. This statement sounds to me like a defeatist attitude on the part of the President and certainly sounds like the rest of us should be MORE THAN WORRIED after hearing a statment like that come out of the mouth of our President while at the same time he is offering AMNESTY to millions of illegals.
This is mind boggling and not something I wanted to hear so early in the morning when I read this on FR.
Wars should be fought to win!
Illegals should be rounded up and sent back period.
They broke the law by coming here illegally
They are deficating on properites of ranchers and are dangerous.
Do we do anything? NO, we put border patrol agents in jail for doing their jobs.
The illegals are LAUGHING AT US and those who can do something about it don’t give a damn. America is in real trouble and I worry if she can ever recover. I thank God my parents are not alive to witness the damage our government has thrust on its own people. Shame, shame, shame!
FREE THE BORDER AGENTS NOW!
Maybe you misread - the way the post is formatted make it hard to see where Peggy's article stops.
You're giving him too much credit.
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